How Do I Decorate for Hanukkah Without Copying Christmas?

Years ago in a restaurant in Brooklyn, I liked the way they took down existing pictures from the wall, wrapped them in Christmas wrap and hung them back up during them holiday season. Once I had my own home, I started wrapping our living room pictures in Hanukkah wrap in preparation for the Hanukkah party we had with cousins each year. It was a great way to use the wrapping paper my kids sold through their school each year!

Keep the decorations inside the house. You can't compete and should not. After resisting because I thought it looked like a knock off of Christmas decorations, I bought a 3-foot high lighted spinning dreidel. My sister bought one first and said how beautiful it was. Although it claims to be an outside decoration I kept it inside to enjoy. It came from BB&B. They sold out fast. It goes with my several menorahs and my wall hanging menorah with its flames to add daily. Dress up the inside of the house for the family, not the outside for the neighborhood.

Have neighbors who are Jehovah Witnesses, Buddhists or elderly and none do Christmas. Thing is, being autistic the sensory overload can be hard for me, so we don't do Christmas decorations. So on Christmas we do experiences like a movie, or we go cross country skiing or for a hike where we make a meal over our backpacking stove and enjoy the stillness and time together. And take the time to think back to how it must have been decades and decades ago when there wasn't all the hype and bling of Christmas. Or credit card bills come January!

I've been told that Christmas is very popular in Japan even though most people there are not Christian. The people just like the festive aspects of the holiday. That leads me to the idea of focusing on festive. There is nothing religious about that silver rope that is used as a garland on trees. It can be used to frame doorways, windows, etc. Especially if someone lives in a colder climate, snowflake decorations on windows are definitely a choice and are not religious in nature, but, again, are what I think of as festive. Of course, get a nice menorah and place it in a prominent location in the home and if you have other smaller ones, display them in other areas. A lot can be done to decorate for Chanukah and none of it has to be expensive or, in any way, make one's home appear as if it's been decorated with a different holiday in mind. Chag Sameach!

For so many people Christmas is solely a secular holiday. Hasn't been about Jesus in a long time. If bling is what one longs for, indulge--just not red & green.

Winter celebrations! How do you celebrate and have some fun without converting your kids to Christianity? Use some judgement. Use some non-religious imagery in your decorations instead of baby Jesus. Moving on...

Decorate your sukkah during the holiday of Sukkot!

When the Soviet Union banned religion, the authorities were unable to stop people from celebrating Christmas. Eventually the Communist leadership gave in (sort of) and let people keep their Christmas traditions -- except they transferred them to New Year's. Thus, both Christians and Jews had New Year's trees, and gifts were provided by Grandfather Frost. Visit a Russian neighborhood in the US and you'll see that the New Year's celebration tradition is alive and well! My (Jewish) husband emigrated here as a child from the Soviet Union, and he has fond memories of the New Year's tree. Once we had kids, he managed to convince me -- a die-hard Hanukkah only Jewish gal -- to let him share the tradition with our sons. We've had a New Year's tree for several years now, and I must confess: dear reader, I love it. And our Hanukkah-celebrating children understand its significance in their family's history.

I am not Jewish I am African American and quite frankly, I love to see the menorah in the windows. It's beautiful and peaceful. I am Catholic (non-practicing) and I used to love the Mass in Latin, but he Catholic Church, unlike the Jewish religion, changes with the times. I guess I am old fashion. I like the old ways and truly missed my mass in Latin (hated someone with a folk guitar on the alter) I used to compare our religion to the Jewish religion in that sometimes change is not always good. some things carry more meaning if they stay true to their originality. Mazel Tov!

A suggestion: learn about the meaning and beauty of Chanukah. This holiday celebrates the spiritual and miraculous survival of the Jewish people. Contact Chabad or AishHaTorah and learn with your children!

I can't be the only person who smiled when they read about the Modern Orthodox lady with the last name of 'Frum'. How incredibly appropriate!

It's impossible to ignore Christmas (believe me I have tried), so I suggest going with the flow. There are a ton of non-religious decorations you can install to celebrate the season. We are swamped with Christmas decorations, and not much of it relates to Christianity, especially here in the NYC area. I think as long as you stay away from nativity and Santa displays, you can still be true to yourselves. If the kids are REALLY dying for a tree, you can even do that. Most ornaments are not religious.

I always did a Hanukkah Bush for my ex partner to place among the Christmas decorations, plus one of his menorahs. It didn't matter. He rarely lit a candle and was more interested in getting presents no matter the occasion.

I myself very much enjoy celebrating secular Christmas. At the end of the day, santa, the North Pole, reindeer, elves, snow all have nothing to do with Jesus Christ being born in the desert of Jerusalem. Our modern holiday is the result of Christian cultural appropriation of Northern European pagan winter celebrations, winter celebrations I would like to participate in regardless of religion!

Having a tree this time of year is a pagan ritual. Get over it and get a tree-they are awesome. Love, a non-Christian that understands not everything has to be difficult.

Lights are non-denominational -- it's a festive season, what can be wrong with a few lights at the darkest time of year. You don't need a Xmas tree or crosses or anything like that. I can understand the fear of being assimilated or overtaken by another religion but I don't relate to it.

When it is Chanukah, I bring up my Chanukah box from the basement and take out the Chanukah tablecloth, several boxes of different candles for the menorah and the collection of dreidels and the less-favorite menorahs (some that were made by the kids years ago). (The favorite menorahs are on display year-round in my breakfast room.) I also take out the electric menorah, with its nine bulbs, and light them each night of the holiday - where it is placed in the dining room window at the front of the house. When the grandkids are visiting, they stick lots of Chanukah symbols all over the windows. I also have a few "Happy Hanukkah" paper chains that get hung. In short, the house looks festive and appropriate for the season, without trying to compete.

We have blue lights on the pillars on either side of our driveway. Traditional candle lights in each window ( we are in New England) and a lighted menorah in the center window. Also a 4ft high teddy bear with a yarmulke. I'm not trying to compete with anyone. It makes my daughter happy and we have a wonderful afternoon together setting it all up.

Oy vey, assimilation!

Hanukkah is a lovely holiday but the idea of dressing it up with irrelevant fluff to compete with the neighbors is silly and counterproductive. How about creating some nice family traditions. Buy gifts for needy children, bring latkes to the elderly, sign up to help a local food kitchen on Christmas, but forget about turning Hanukkah into something it is not.

It might be amusing to imagine a Jewish Dyker Heights with over the top Hanukkah decorations. There might be large inflatable statues of Judas Maccabeus and half deflated ones of the pagans. Recreations of the Jerusalem Temple facade would be imposing and of intellectual interest. Perhaps the menorah might be seen glowing from within. Artificial palms and olive trees might be displayed with appropriate lighting. Judean animals could be represented, though camels would be problematic being non kosher. Dreidels were originally part of a gambling game and are the equivalent of attaching religious significance to a pair of dice. This will likely take the wind out of the eight foot model.

Be true to yourself. This question is sad.

Since the tale told of the baby Jesus is that of the birth of a Jew -perhaps conjure up something that recognizes the Christmas story from the Jewish historical perspective and not from the Christian POV. In lights!

An interesting question about the ecumenical commingling of different religious traditions. Perhaps one of better advices that can be given to the Judaic family is to decorate their home in the style of the Temple of Jerusalem, with the Menorah on the altar burning the seven (or was it eight?) days and nights.

How is this a real estate question? Seems to me it belongs I the Style section. In any case I sometimes string lights on my very large dracena to make it my solstice bush.

You can celebrate the season, not a holiday. Just like Thanksgiving is basically a harvest festival, celebrate the solstice. Lights, evergreens like holly, snow and icicles are about the cycle of the seasons, life and nature, not religion. It's less about the decorations, and more about how you think of them.

My father was an electrician. When I was little he built a five to six foot tall menorah out of steel pipes that he had spray painted blue. We put it in our front hard and twisted bulbs in place each night to light the candles. My brother used it with his kids too. I think it had only six candle holders (along with the shemash in the middle) but it worked for us.

Parents and religious schools should continue to teach their children that in spite of the miracle in the Hanukkah story, it is essentially not a major Jewish holiday, and that just because it comes in December does not make it akin to Christmas. That being said. there are many festive secular things that can be done to combat the early winter doldrums. One could look to pagan traditions for these.

You could just like, put nice white (and blue) festive lights on your house/bushes/trees considering that they're just pretty lights and have nothing to do with any particular holiday. There's one house in my parents' neighborhood that does that and it's really nice. If anything, considering your holiday is frequently referred to as a "Festival of Lights" I'm surprised more people don't do that? And for the record, I grew up celebrating Christmas and my parents have always put up lights outside, and we have nothing to do with Christianity...we just think the holiday is fun.