So true...
But watching the Steve&Kathy version, I have to ask myself again: Demi traded in all that for, um, well, he does wear those jeans nicely.
When I was a kid, Hanukkah and Christmas fell pretty close together and one of my school friends very much used that to his advantage. The more his ultra-orthodox dad tried to keep their faith from being protestant-ized, the more Daniel's grandparents re-interpreted the Festival of Lights into Eight Nights of Presents. Followed on by Christmas presents to and from him, (as adults, Daniel's holiday season happily begins with Thanksgiving and follows through to Kwanzaa which, conveniently ends just in time for New Years Eve! Now that's what I call rebellion).
I made what I thought was a rather clever plea to my own parents that, in the spirit of Ecumenicalism, we should celebrate both fests, too. That one got answered with a rather sour "sure, but we think you can start with Aseret Yemei Teshuva". My mom may have been a Methodist, but I think she viewed the crass commercialization of Christmas with the same alarm as Daniel's dad...I didn't need to look that one up, the look on Daniel's face was enough...he always managed to be off skiing with his grandparents for that one.
Funny. I often wonder if my brother didn't go so ultra-fundamentalist Christian for similar reasons as Daniel's dad. My parents focus was always on the joyful and charitable aspect of Christianity, thin gruel for the Bible-Thumper, indeed.
