On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
I thought the format of the title would give it away, but this is from Liminal Owl. There will be one more seasonal/holiday OTR tomorrow.
Not labeled, but I think it’s Christmas 1964, when I was four. Possibly 1963.
My family was Jewish, but so far removed from religious identity that we always had a tree and sang carols—the very, very traditional and religious English ones: Silent Night, and O Come All Ye Faithful, and (my favorite) We Three Kings. My parents played a record, The First Christmas in Carols, and some of those I’ve never heard elsewhere.
Amir Khalid
Technically, Silent Night is an Austrian Christmas carol — Stille Nacht. And the national origin of Adeste Fideles is a subject of much speculation.
There. I have pedanted today, and I am now content.
ETA: Frohes Weihnachten, alle!
HinTN
And to you, @Amir Khalid:
Jeffg166
I ran into my first Hanukkah bush when I was a teenager.
The Christians borrowed the idea from the pagans. It does bring some cheer to a gloomy dark period of the year.
kindness
Boomer here. I grew up in the northern suburbs of NYC. Probably 1/3 of my friends were Jewish. Many of their families had menorahs and trees. The trees weren’t symbolic of Christianity, rather a nice seasonal decoration inside the house when it was cold and snow covered outside. WaterGirl, your family wasn’t alone in that practice.
Barbara
@kindness: WG is just posting here. The pictures were provided by Liminal Owl.
sab
One of my Jewish high school friends had a Christmas tree on casters so they could roll it into hiding if the rabbi visited.
raven
This is an hour-long interview of Jeff Goldblum by Ari Melber. I covers many topics but his description of his only Jewish family in the neighborhood and Christmas is really fun.
Anyway
Nice photo, @LiminalOwl. Did your family go out for Chinese dinner on Christmas Day?
Scout211
@Amir Khalid: Yes, and when I was in 6th grade, our teacher taught us Stille Nacht in German and we sang it in German for our school’s Christmas program. None of us knew any German words but we memorized the whole thing. It was kind of fun.
I still can recall some of the words in the German version but I don’t remember much of what those words actually mean.
Jinchi
Cute.
You look too tiny to be 4. I’d have guessed 2.
Hope you have a wonderful holiday season.
WaterGirl
@Jinchi: I agree, definitely not 4. My guess is 3.
Ohio Mom
Hanukkah bushes were definitely a thing in the 1950s but that fad is over. Recently I see Hanukkah yard decorations — a neighbor has a bright blue and white inflatable/blowup Menorah.
I think the 1950s bushes were a combo about appeasing envious children and I don’t know if assimilation is quite the right word. People thought of traditional Judaism as a relic of the old country, without meaning for them in their contemporary lives, and Christmas was obviously to them mainly a secular celebration. So why not? Some families split the difference and decorated their trees in blue and white.
I think today’s inflatables — I’ve also seen dreidels and a teddy bear holding a dreidel — are more about “Hey, we live here too!” With a splash of diverting children from Christmas envy.
stinger
Great photo and story! Is that a pocket outlined in piping, way up under the armpit? LOL
eclare
So cute!
LiminalOwl
@Amir Khalid: Yes, very true. And at least one of the others on that album—one of those I haven’t heard anywhere else, but found a few years ago in The Oxford Book of Carols, IIRC—was some variety of German: “Josef liebes, Josef mein.”
I was thinking of the Oxford Book and trying to find a short way of describing those carols. And thinking of someone to whom I said “old traditional carols” and she said “oh, you mean like Rudolph?” I know folks here know better.
LiminalOwl
@Anyway: Thank you. I don’t remember any Chinese dinners on Christmas, no. But that’s certainly traditional among our friends.
@Jinchi: Thanks! I think two is impossible—we were away from the city for the holidays that year. Three, maybe. Anyway, I was a very small child, according to my mother. (eta: WaterGirl is probably right.)
I have one other picture that might be from the same Christmas, but now I think that’s when I was four. All I can say for certain is that both are in the apartment we lived in until just after my fifth birthday.
Jamey
As a fellow Christmas, Jew, I feel very seen.
WaterGirl
@Jamey: Maybe next year we can get pics for Christmas, New York Jewish Christmas, Hanukkah, and all the other holidays that fall this time of year.