In a recent blog I explained why "Chanukah is not "Christmas with aTwist". I didn’t come up with the idea for that blog because I had nothing better to blog about. The fact is that many people don’t know differently and it is personally important for me to explain the differences between the two holidays.

Moving right along on this subject, I stayed at my daughter’s preschool this morning to talk to the children about Chanukah. I read to them from an excellent and beautifully illustrated book. Then my daughter Ella passed out dreidels and chocolate gelt (Yiddish word for money) to each of the children. Kids are so smart and their brains aren’t cluttered with garbage like us adults. They followed the story, asked intelligent questions, and were good listeners.

These 16 three and four year olds understood what I had told them. They know the Christmas story and I don' t believe for one minute that they saw any correlation between the two holidays. Nothing was mentioned about Christmas; I was not giving a lecture on comparing and contrasting Christmas and Chanukah. By the time I got up to leave, their eyes sparkled with excitement.I stood up and thanked the teacher for letting Ella and I share. She thanked me as well, and then turned to the children and said:

You see, Chanukah is just like Christmas.

I almost fainted. But instead of walking away I stopped and said, “No, not really, it’s about …..." and did a super speed review of what I’d all I'd shared with them. No confrontation - the teacher and I are on excellent terms, just clarification. 

Now you be the judge and jury - should I have taken a sledge hammer along with me?