News analysis and views -- economist.com
I'll get used to Christmas, if only in my dreams I MARRIED Christmas. No, that isn't my wife's first name, nor did I marry for the holiday the way some people marry for money. Like so many assimilated American Jews, I grew up admiring the lights and the trees and the shopping-mall Santas, but not celebrating the holiday itself. Non-observance of Christmas was a bedrock principle of my equally assimilated parents' religious self-definition. We may have eaten bacon freely and never set foot in a synagogue, but when one of us children whistled "Jingle Bells" or asked to string lights on a tree, we once again were slaves in Egypt. My wife's family, by contrast, celebrates Christmas with a fervour and intensity (and joy, of course) that still amazes me. Over the top of my computer I see a dozen different creches arrayed atop a cabinet. Eight miniature golden reindeer lead a well-stuffed sleigh across the mantle; red bows are tied around everything upright that will hold them; holly branches garland pictures; and red-and-white striped candles are ready to be lit. There is no tree yet; we'll select and cut our own tomorrow from an orchard located in the nearby town of, believe it or not, Bethlehem, Connecticut. ...