Neither apologizing nor converting to Christianity: the Jews who celebrate Christmas are no longer hiding - voila! Home and design

Christmas party and Christmas decorations at Maayan Friedman's house (Maayan Friedman, courtesy of those photographed)

Every year, around the time we celebrate Hanukkah, the Western Christian world is covered in twinkling colored lights, green fir trees, and figures of reindeer, and Santa Clauses.

It's hard to resist the fine branding of Christmas - the colors, the snow, the blushing, bearded face of the lovable Santa and the uniformly wrapped presents under the decorated and lighted tree.

In recent years, alongside the influx of Israeli visitors to experience Christmases in Europe, or KLB - in one of the mixed cities or Christian villages in the north, another trend has been gaining strength, of Israeli-Jewish homes where at the beginning of December a fir tree and glittering decorations are placed in honor, and this without having " An excuse". That is, they are not Christians, not from a mixed family, not even descendants of the nouveau-good heritage of ex-BRI veterans.

It's *simply beautiful* in their eyes.

It's all.

And they really don't feel like they need an excuse or permission from anyone.

And even if there are those among them who in the past were ashamed or afraid of unpleasant reactions to the fact that they adopt customs "not ours", today they really don't try to hide anymore.

And the general feeling is that this is a trend that is expanding and normalizing.

"Only this year, after we put up the tree and I was sitting in the living room in the evening, when the lights are shining, I realized that this is what I was missing."

Gabriela Keppel Shalu's children decorate their tree (photo: Courtesy of those photographed, Gabriela Keppel Shalu)

"For so many years I would decorate the house with Hanukkah lights and decorations, but this was not it. And this year I realize how much I missed it, so for me I started a new tradition."

At his Keppel family home in Herzliya, a fir tree was placed for the first time this week, and the children Andy (8) and Alex (5) decorated it with pleasure.

When they finished with the tree, they sat down to decorate and paint menorahs.

"This year I decided that I want to make a tree at my house. I'm tired of the hypocrisy of not celebrating Christmas. After all, everyone wants to fly abroad to breathe the Christmas atmosphere and visit places in Israel that are decorated and beautiful.

So why can't I just have this atmosphere at home?

Why should I be ashamed or feel like I'm doing something wrong?" says their mother, Gabriela Kepel Shalu.

She was born in Romania and grew up in a Jewish-secular home, where, she says, the month of December was the most festive month of the year and we celebrated both the Jewish holidays and the Christian holidays that everyone celebrated around.

In her parents' house every year there was a decorated fir tree and menorahs side by side.

"Only this year, after we put up the tree and I was sitting in the living room in the evening, when the lights are shining and the atmosphere is so pleasant, I realized that this is what I was missing," she says.

"For so many years I would decorate the house with Hanukkah lights and decorations, but this was not it. And this year I realize how much I missed it, so for me I started a new tradition."

For several years she has wanted to put a fir tree in the house, but only this year she had the courage.

"The branding of Hanukkah is simply not good enough compared to Christmas," she says with a smile, "Every year I decorate the house like crazy for Hanukkah. But there is a limit to how many Hanukkahs you can stick anywhere. A few years ago I even printed a large sign of 'Happy Orim "Let us hang it at home and decorate, but that's not it. It's just not that. So I decided that this year I won't care what others say and what's customary or not customary. Whoever doesn't like it, shouldn't come visit us."

"I was afraid of 'what they would say'. For example, if the children's friends would come home and say something. I didn't want my children to feel abnormal or not know how to explain why we have a tree. Now I feel they are old enough to understand and also explain to others. And the most important thing for me is to teach them to do What is best for us and makes us happy and to stop acting on what others think - this is the token that fell to me this year. And this is a message that is very important to me to convey to the children as well. There are enough terrible things in this world. Every day I open the news and am shocked. So I don't think that we should avoid things that make us happy us, on the contrary."

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It all started with Masha and the bear and the enthusiasm of a 5-year-old girl. The Christmas tree at the home of the Levy family in Kibbutz Sha'ar Golan (photo: courtesy of those photographed, Mittal Levy)

"We started with a small tree and little by little it rolled out. Today is really a celebration" (photo: courtesy of those photographed, Mittal Levy)

Every year it develops into more areas.

Gingerbread cookies baked by the members of the Levy family from the Golan Gate (photo: courtesy of those photographed, Mittal Levy)

At the Levy family home in Kibbutz Shaar Golan, this week they took out the big tree - 160 cm tall - from the warehouse and placed it in the living room. The person in charge of Christmas in this house is her 10-year-old mother. "It started when she was little, about 5 years old.

She liked to watch the animated series Masha and the Bear and that's where her interest in Christmas began," recalls her mother Mital Levy. Christmas entered their home using the salami method. "It went on and gained momentum over time.

She asked for a tree, and we started with a small tree like the one you buy at Maxstock and some decorations.

Little by little it unfolded and became a real celebration.

Today we already have a big tree that we keep in the warehouse and take out every year and crazy boxes of Christmas decorations.

Everyone who flies abroad brings us decorations," she says.

This year they also developed into other holiday areas "We baked gingerbread cookies. And her mother plans to have a party on the eve of the holiday, invite friends and there will be refreshments".

"I have always had an open and flowing attitude with what the girls want. I think it only opens things up, getting to know more things and seeing and doing and experimenting, and certainly also from a design point of view, which is very beautiful, to me as well. In our environment we all know that she celebrates every year and it is received with great love. In the first years There were factors within the family that had a hard time with it, but now they're okay with it and they even bring her holiday things and decorations from abroad."

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We light the Hanukkah candles together with the Christmas tree and everything is fine." Shefi Zilberstein and the giant tree (photo: courtesy of those photographed, Shefi Zilberstein)

"The hardest response I received was when someone told me: 'You converted to Christianity, you became a Christian.' So no, I'm not a Christian. I just like decorations, I like the atmosphere it gives."

Also in the Zilberstein family of Mahod Hasharon the one who opened the door for Santa was one of the children.

"My son decided years ago that 'we should celebrate all the happy holidays of all religions' - and that's exactly what we're doing," says Shafi Zilberstein.

Her son, now 21 years old, was then 15 years old. They also started with a "small" tree (one and a half meters in total) and today they already have one that is more than two meters tall.

"I took the small tree to my office, to have it there as well," says Shafi.

"My son discovered the Christmas celebrations while participating in an international musical that premiered in Israel, and he told me let's celebrate at home too. I said: 'Come on! Come!' .

Every year a festive Christmas dinner is held at the Zilberstein family home to which 10 people are invited.

"People are always very happy to come to the meal. We also do according to tradition: stuffed turkey and bread pudding and ginger cookies. Because there are no more than ten places around the table, we do rounds - sometimes a round of friends and sometimes a round of family. And people really ask to get in line ".

"Why would it seem strange to me? It's cool. What's wrong? It's a very nice holiday. As far as we're concerned, in our celebration we don't associate it with any religion. We light the Hanukkah candles together with the Christmas tree and everything is fine."

For Merav, 28 years old from Rehovot, the attraction to Christmas decorations was not a simple matter.

"I come from a religious home, and I'm an atheist myself. So only when I left my parents' house could I even begin to be exposed to Christmas and take an interest in it. It's a very fun holiday."

"You see it in full in the movies, and I got to visit London during Christmas and it also creeped me out terribly. I don't really celebrate it, I just like decorating, and this year I also baked gingerbread cookies. It's not religious."

As a craft lover, she made her first tree by herself.

"When I moved into my own house, outside of my parents' house, I started making all kinds of decorations. Two years ago I saw a video on YouTube that explained how to make a tree by myself. I bought a chain of decorations like the one for the sukkah, and I made a small Christmas tree from it and I also made the decorations myself."

But she, like other interviewees in the article, admits that preoccupation with Christmas has a tendency to escalate over time.

"Every year it gets a little bigger, more decorations. This year I already have a tree bought and the decorations are also bought."

She made the first tree by herself, according to a YouTube video.

Merav's first tree (photo: courtesy of those photographed)

Due to her family background, she asked to be interviewed for the article under her first name only.

And even among her friends and acquaintances there are those who do not look favorably on the fact that she hangs decorations in her house that are associated with a Christian holiday.

"There are those who raise an eyebrow at this, but I don't care. The hardest reaction I received was when someone said to me: 'You converted to Christianity, you became a Christian.' I don't celebrate and I don't believe in the holiday, but I like that everything is lit up and there is a festive and fun atmosphere."

For Maayan Friedman, 37, of Menas Ziona, Christmas celebrations have become a real thing.

"I decorate the whole house. I have a tree that I decorate every year and it sits here in the living room for at least a month and a half. I usually put it up at the end of November and it sits in the living room until the middle of January."

This is the fifth year that she will celebrate Christmas at her home together with family and friends.

Every year she holds not one, but two Christmas parties at her home - one for friends and one for family.

"Last year was the most excessive," she recalls.

"Two years ago my father passed away the day before Christmas Eve, it was a serious market and of course I didn't celebrate that year. But the year after that, I did a piece of production to compensate. I decorated my mother's whole house. Everything is decorated right from the path that leads to the house to the walls and the TV Even. At my parties there is also a dress code and everyone knows that they have to come dressed in Christmas colors, which is green-red-white, and there are all kinds of accessories that I bring and you can equip yourself with them."

One for friends, one for family - Ma'ayan Friedman holds two Christmas parties every year (photo: courtesy of those photographed, Ma'ayan Friedman)

"You enter and for a moment you disconnect from reality, you are wrapped in Christmas from all directions" (photo: courtesy of those photographed, Maayan Friedman)

Christmas parties at Ma'ayan Friedman's house in Nes Ziona (photo: courtesy of those photographed, Ma'ayan Friedman)

"I just returned from a week in the Alsace region, Strasbourg is considered the Christmas capital of Europe, and they do what I do - they exaggerate. Everything is decorated with exaggeration and Christmas music everywhere and holiday foods... and you're just wrapped in it from all directions. This is what happens to me at parties too . You enter and for a moment you disconnect from reality, everything speaks the language of Christmas: the desserts and the food, the music and the decorations. And it just makes you feel good, an atmosphere of fun."

She also makes sure to emphasize that her interest in the holiday is not religious in any way.

"It has nothing to do with religion or anything. My family and friends poured in from the very beginning and any reason is a reason for a party. But there were people who responded to me with things like 'It's a Christian holiday, why are you celebrating it?' He has no interest in coming to my parties because 'it has nothing to do with him'. For me it's nonsense. I really like traditions and holidays of all kinds. I also like Mimona, and I'm not Moroccan. I'm completely Ashkenazi but I celebrate Mimona happily. It's the same thing. I really am I feel that in recent years this trend is increasing, people really like it and the drama surrounding it is decreasing."

She turned her love for parties and reasons for parties into a livelihood at some point, and today she has a business that markets kits for concept events.

Among the kits she sells there is also one (of course not) for a Christmas/Novi Good party.

"At my parties there is a code. Everyone knows they have to come in the colors of the holiday."

Maayan Friedman's Christmas party (Photo: Courtesy of those photographed, Maayan Friedman)

The Christmas trees (made of plastic, not real) and the shiny decorations hanging on them are not difficult to find in Israel today.

The various stock chains have all the necessary equipment for celebrating Christmas as usual and also in food chains such as Tiv Taam and Keshet Taamim you can find decorations and foods associated with the holiday.

"In recent years, we have noticed an increase in the demand for Christmas items among our customers," confirms Moran Eroni, Max Stock's marketing director.

She added that the network makes sure to cater to the entire population of Israeli citizens, and sells symbols and decorations for the holidays of the three religions.

When we asked Rami Fatimer, manager of Baroria Tafshuot, the legendary store in Dizengoff Center that also sells Christmas equipment both in the physical branch and on the online site, about the Israeli audience's romance with the imported holiday, he said that the watershed for his impression was two years ago, in Corona.

"When people were locked up at home, they looked for a reason to celebrate. It was impossible to go out, so the part of decorating the house suddenly became strong."

"What to do when Christmas is much more colorful and branded?" (Photo: Broria costumes)

Display of Christmas decorations at the Broria costume store in Chinter (photo: Broria costume)

According to him, the fact that the Novy God celebrations of the former Soviet Union veterans have become a more familiar matter among the Israeli public has increased the exposure of the general public to the customs and decorations. At Christmas, it has been 25-30 percent for the past two years.

Not everyone likes it, and according to Fatimer, they also encounter harassment and harsh reactions. "We have both Hanukkah and Hanukkah decorations in the store, but what can we do when Christmas is much more colorful and branded and inflated and it automatically looks like we are neglecting Hanukkah and "Mathivun".

So here and there there are reactions of 'be ashamed and forget where you came from', and there were even people who reached the level of spitting.

Most of the time we are late.

We didn't come to hurt anyone and I think there is room for everyone.

I hope people will understand that there are other opinions besides their own."

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