{"id":77584,"date":"2022-12-18T18:45:32","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T00:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.familytreedna.com\/?p=77584"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:57:25","slug":"hanukkah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.familytreedna.com\/es\/hanukkah\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanukkah, O Hanukkah"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cYou cannot tell anyone that Santa isn\u2019t real,\u201d<\/h2>\n

was the only sentence I remember hearing as my parents drove me to a Christmas party. This is because it was the only sentence they said to me on repeat for the entire 30 minute drive. I\u2019d like to stop here to give some advice. If you need a child to keep a secret, it will not happen. Ever. My parents were probably better off telling me to recite the Constitution, do long division, short division, or any division. I was maybe six, and my brother was three. I had to spend the entire party among other young kids, holding my tongue. Does anyone know what it\u2019s like to hold the biggest secret that could unlock the fabric of space and time itself? No? I don\u2019t either, because I am absolutely sure I immediately told those kids that Santa isn\u2019t real. The real kicker? As we all know now, he is absolutely real.<\/p>\n

When thinking about what to write for this, I fought with myself over whether to start with that anecdote. In our culture, Hanukkah is frequently introduced or discussed as the stepchild of Christmas. Playing second fiddle, so to speak, is something that Jewish people have long had to endure. And while Hanukkah is great, and I have extremely fond memories of it growing up, Christmas is just so darn fun. Accentuated even more by my own child, who is half Christian, and my significant other, who is Christian, the winter holidays, including Kwanzaa, New Year\u2019s, etc., are all on the same footing to me. They are not clashing ceremonies based on competing ideologies and traditions but are celebrations. Whether it\u2019s a miracle of lights, a celebration of African-American culture, the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, or simply the hope that the new year won\u2019t be the absolute dumpster fire that it absolutely will be, as a secular Jew, the end of December just means happiness.
\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”77587″ media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”69″ uncode_shortcode_id=”130219″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”188450″]Once all of the kids at that party were wailing in tears, as they\u2019d just realized the only thing they held to be true was a lie, I hadn\u2019t yet reached full enlightenment on the meaning of the season. This was not happiness. This was chaos, punctuated by frosted cookies and gift opening under the tree.<\/p>\n

These days, I usually don\u2019t go around telling children that Santa isn\u2019t real. Of course, the main reason is that he is absolutely real.<\/p>\n

Ten plus years ago,<\/h2>\n

as I started my onboarding process on my first day on the job here, I was given a Family Finder test. I was excited to learn about my ancestral makeup and to find relatives I never knew existed. I was curious to know if I have Jewish ancestry as a percentage of my genetic makeup. My results, much to my surprise, revealed that they were mostly Jewish. Though that is a joke and I wasn\u2019t shocked at all, I also got to discover other, smaller percentages that made me, well, me.<\/p>\n

As you may know, Jewish people historically have been very insulated and intermarried a lot in the past. As a result, people with Jewish ancestry will frequently match with others with Jewish ancestry on Family Finder who are a little closer than the actual relationship is. We have implemented tools to help mitigate this, but since a large percentage of us all have a lot of similar DNA, we typically have more matches. As soon as my results were posted, I noticed I was a distant match to our then company COO. I ran to his office and kindly asked him, since we are now family, if I could have some of his inheritance. He kindly told me to get out of his office.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”77588″ media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”69″ uncode_shortcode_id=”293243″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”242331″]While a lot of Jewish traditions and holidays stem from hardship and struggle, I like how Hanukkah has evolved into a festive celebration. After all, it is based on a miracle. My son, who is both Christian and Jewish, had a great idea this year to put up a Christmas tree with a menorah on top instead of a star. I don\u2019t mean to diminish anyone who celebrates one winter holiday, as that\u2019s generally almost everyone reading this, but I have been afforded the opportunity to enjoy everything I can.<\/p>\n

Last weekend was our company\u2019s holiday party.<\/h2>\n

This time, my parents weren\u2019t there to tell me to keep secrets from other partygoers. But even if they did, they didn\u2019t have to. It was wonderful, and the presence of Santa was felt, as was the understanding of the resilience of my own ancestors. Hanukkah is a relatively minor holiday in religious terms. However, the stories of the rededication of the Second Temple and the miracle of light weren\u2019t lost on me as I sat there. I may not be here if not for the people who came before me. Also, the chicken skewers were really good.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_separator sep_color=”,Default”][uncode_author_profile user_id=”9″ avatar=”custom” custom_avatar=”78549″ avatar_size=”250″ heading_semantic=”h3″ text_size=”h3″ social=”” display_button=”yes” button_content=”Read More From Jeremy” hover_fx=”full-colored” uncode_shortcode_id=”119117″ button_color_type=”uncode-solid” button_color_solid=”#ff6900″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get ready for Hanukkah with Jeremy Balkin, our Customer Service Manager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":77585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHanukkah, O Hanukkah - FamilyTreeDNA Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Get ready for Hanukkah with Jeremy Balkin, our Customer Service Manager.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.familytreedna.com\/hanukkah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hanukkah, O Hanukkah - FamilyTreeDNA Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Get ready for Hanukkah with Jeremy Balkin, our Customer Service Manager.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.familytreedna.com\/hanukkah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FamilyTreeDNA Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FamilyTreeDNA\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-19T00:45:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-13T20:57:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.familytreedna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Hanukkah-Blog-Cover-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Balkin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Hanukkah, O Hanukkah - 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