December is my favorite month. Besides the holidays, it’s my birthday month. As a kid (and even as an adult), it seemed to take forever for my big day to roll around. My sisters’ birthdays were earlier in the year, so they got to celebrate long before me.
Even though I was a December baby, I always got a separate celebration and gifts for my birthday and Christmas. My mom and grandma loved to party and always made my birthday a fun day. Mom would often make a “Barbie doll” birthday cake. That’s me on the left with my older sisters.
We would make a piñata out of paper grocery bags decorated with loops of tissue paper, then hang it outside and smash it with a stick until all the candy fell out. So much fun.
Christmas was another high point in December. My grandma would put up a tree. For years, we had one of those odd aluminum ones with a color-changing light that shined on the metal tree from below. Also, my papa a fake fireplace for Santa that my papa made. What can I say? Not too many fireplaces in Los Angeles.
My sisters and I couldn’t wait until Santa came. We’d go to church on Christmas Eve and wake on Christmas to piles of gifts filling the living room floor.
My dad was Jewish, but he went along with the Christmas joy. Later, when I married my Jewish husband, we started celebrating Hanukkah. I learned to love latkes (yummy) and lighting the Hanukkah lights.
It was a different kind of joy when my boys were old enough to memorize the Hanukkah prayer in Hebrew before lighting the candles. They took turns on the eight days of Hanukkah, and they loved it when they were the one to light them on the eighth day when all of the candles were blazing.
I do love decorating my Christmas tree every year. I particularly like unusual ornaments, and always look for new ones. In addition to the owl, fairy, and octopus shown in the picture above, I have a porcupine, a Chinese dragon, a narwhal, and a gecko licking a candy cane, among others.
Do you have any favorite traditions from the holidays? Feel free to share in the comments.
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