For families or nannies with mixed religious backgrounds, the festive season offers a unique opportunity to embrace diversity and create meaningful traditions that celebrate various holidays. This year, Christmas and Hanukkah coincide, providing a beautiful opportunity for blended families and nannies to observe traditions and teach children about both occasions.
Whether you're a parent or a nanny, navigating these dual celebrations can be a beautiful way to teach children about inclusion, the richness of cultural heritage and the value of shared experiences. By blending elements of both holidays, families can honour their respective traditions while creating new memories together.
Educating Children on Christmas and Hanukkah
Understanding the origins and meanings behind Christmas and Hanukkah can help children appreciate the importance of both celebrations. Parents and nannies can use storytelling, books or child-friendly videos to explain the story of Hanukkah, including the miracle of the oil and the significance of the menorah. Similarly, the nativity story, festive music and a visit to a local Christmas service like Christingle can help children learn about Christmas.
Tips for Blending Traditions
Blending traditions doesn’t mean compromising—it’s about celebrating the best of both worlds and encouraging questions to foster a sense of curiosity, promote empathy and understanding. Here are some ideas but of course these can be adapted to suit your family’s traditions and how you observe occasions.
Celebrate Food
Food is at the centre of both religious holidays - for Christmas, it’s all about the Christmas Day dinner and Hanukkah focuses on delicious fried dishes in reference to the oil used to keep the lamp lit for eight days.
To celebrate both holidays, why not prepare traditional foods like latkes and sufganiyot (doughnuts) alongside Christmas treats such as mince pies or gingerbread and involve children in the kitchen to make these moments both educational and fun.
Decorate Together
Combine elements from both holidays in your decorations. For example, you might choose to hang baubles and tinsel alongside paper dreidels and Stars of David or create a shared space where a Christmas tree and a menorah can sit side by side.
Shared Values
Highlight common themes from both holidays such as family, gratitude and generosity. Consider organising a charity drive or volunteering at a local soup kitchen together, emphasising the spirit of giving presents in both holidays.
Suggested Activities Between Christmas and New Year
With Hanukkah starting on the evening of 25th December this year, the time between Christmas and New Year offers plenty of opportunities for shared family fun. Here are some suggestions:
Local Events & Craft Activities
Local venues and stores in North West London often host family-friendly activities during the holiday period like this series of Hanukkah craft events or festive fun and wreath making at Kenwood which will keep children entertained and offer them opportunities to soak up parts of Hanukkah and Christmas traditions.
If you prefer the comfort of your own home, getting creative with DIYs and homemade is also a wonderful idea to teach children about some of the festive highlights and traditions connected to each holiday. crafts at painted Hanukkah candles, clay Christmas ornaments or festive Christmas ornaments.
If you’re in need of inspiration for a homemade DIY, you could also explore cookie decoration for both holidays, using shapes like reindeer or Santa hats for Christmas and cutouts of a menorah or dreidel for Hanukkah. As captured in this post, you can either buy pre-baked cookies and simply decorate or you can encourage children to get involved in baking from scratch too.
North West London Outings
Panto is synonymous with the festive season and this year JW3 is hosting a pantomime of ‘Goldilocks and the Bear Mitzvah’ which brings to life some of the traditions of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs in a playful and engaging way. While this isn’t necessarily specific to Hanukkah or Christmas, it’s a great way to introduce wider traditions from Judaism.
This year the giant menorah is also expected to return in Trafalgar Square to mark Hanukkah in addition to large menorahs across North West London so venturing into the city or even your local neighbourhood to observe these beautifully lit up monuments as well as Christmas lights in the vicinity could be a lovely way to blend traditions.
Game Nights
Teach children to play dreidel and pair it with popular Christmas games like charades or trivia or perhaps blend charades with Hanukkah - we’d love to see families act out Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights film!
Join together in Song
Both Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrated with songs and prayers which can be an engaging and memorable way to get children involved and teach them about the traditions involved.
During Christmas celebrations, put on some festive tunes or go out carolling with nearest and dearest and then enjoy a sing-along while playing dreidel during Hanukkah.
Make the most of Bedtime Reading
Bedtime stories are a fantastic way for children to develop language, literacy and understand the values woven into the narratives so integrating Hanukkah and Christmas stories at bedtime can be a great way to build on their knowledge and appreciation of one or both holidays.
Some of our favourite books include Sammy Spider’s First Hanukkah and Eight Nights, Eight Lights for Hanukkah or ‘Twas the Night before Christmas and The Christmas Promise for Christmas.
Supporting Parents as a Nanny
For nannies, this time of year can be especially meaningful in helping families navigate their dual celebrations. During the Christmas and Hanukkah period nannies can alleviate stress for parents navigating end of year responsibilities and hosting for multiple holidays by offering to organise craft activities, plan menus or set up decorations. By being adaptable and culturally aware, nannies can play a key role in ensuring that both holidays are recognised and celebrated joyfully.
Equally, if nannies and families have differing religions there may be opportunities to bring in wider traditions as well and educate children from a young age, fostering a sense of inclusion, understanding and acceptance for all people as they grow up.
A blended holiday is a chance to model inclusion and celebrate the beauty of diversity. With thoughtful planning, families can enjoy a festive season that honours existing traditions while embracing and learning about new ones.