Portia

Heard from the SIL that the kiddos were feeling much better the next day. 🙂

And as a Jew (on the agnostic side) who married a Catholic, I think it doesn’t need to be a dealbreaker. But, in my experience it seems to work better if the two people are generally open to learning about what the other thinks/believes and doesn’t want to change them, values are otherwise pretty aligned, and can come to an agreement on how kids (if any) are to be raised. I’m personally not sure on having kids, but long ago we talked about how we would raise potential children and we were both in agreement that we’d expose them to both and let them come to their own decision on religion and what they believed. I also knew a bunch of interfaith families growing up and saw firsthand that it could work.

I also think it helps if both are at the same level of religiousness/observance. Like my husband and I go to church/temple maybe a few times a year and religion isn’t a part of our everyday life. I also knew a couple where one was an Orthodox Jew and the other a religious Catholic, and they both became part of a Quaker community (and had a Quaker wedding, which was interesting).

K, you’re not alone – my husband isn’t a big fan of Christmas, or most holidays really. I think I’ve brought him around on some traditions over the years… But if given the option, he’d be on a beach somewhere far away and forget Christmas is anything more than an extra day off of work.

lucia_la – a Hanukkah chicken is hilarious! I kind of want to do that now…

That’s good to know about cost plus, there’s a combo store with a bed bath and beyond near me…

But I’m not imagining the crown wearing thing, right? That’s not an American tradition as far as I can tell…

Thanks RedRover! Maybe I’ll get them and make sure to supervise the littlest one (2 years) a little more. The others are a little older, so they’d probably be fine…

I’m Jewish and my husband is Catholic, but neither of us is super religious. I grew up with traditions around Jewish and Christian holidays (our family friends were interfaith), but my husband didn’t really do anything other than going to church. So I’ve been the one working on incorporating traditions, some stick and some don’t.

We travel a bit, so we pick up an ornament wherever we go and use them to decorate a tree every year. Sometimes we invite other people over to decorate with us and play the holiday yule log on Netflix.

This is kind of a Hanukkah tradition I had as a kid, and it sounds like presents might be a little emotionally complicated for you… But my family used to take one night of Hanukkah to decide as a family on a charity to give to. If this is something you’re wanting to instill in your kids anyway, it could be a good opportunity.

And we don’t really give physical gifts to each other, but I also like wrapping things we already have, or dollar store finds (playing cards, funny hats) to put under the tree and open those together. Basically stocking stuffers, but you get to unwrap them and play with them, put them on, etc., and I think it’s fun.

One thing I’ve been thinking of doing, because I’ve been watching British tv shows, is wearing paper crowns. I guess it was kind of a Roman tradition to wear hats for Saturnalia? Not sure, but they look fun and don’t seem to be that religiously affiliated…

Yeah, we have some weird property inheritance stuff in my family and my understanding is something like yours, Skyblossom. Though the inheritance rules in my family are different and not based on last name…