Michael Shine – From Israel – Memories of Christmas
I grew up, 70 plus years ago, in a very culturally Christian country, England.
When the Christmas season came around, although we, that is my family and our community, knew that we were Jewish, and it wasn’t ‘our’ holiday, but we could not and did not, try to ignore it.
Those of us that went to regular English schools spent the time leading up to Christmas enjoying much of the excitement that went on around us. In nursery school we made paper chains and other paper decorations, we learnt Christmas carols (and frequently enjoyed singing them) and we went to the high streets to see the magic Christmas lights and decorations that the councils had put up. We ‘Ooed’ and ‘Aahed’ at the window displays of the major toy shops. The annual special window displays in London of the best toy shop in the world, Hamleys’, and the beautiful displays in Selfridges shop windows stand out in memory.
Even then, 70 odd years ago, Christmas seemed to have changed for the majority of those that we lived amongst. It had transformed (not for all, but for many), from a predominantly religious event, into a cultural opportunity for friends and family to get together and eat and drink more than was suitable for most. In fact it had become very similar to many Jewish festivals which revolved more around food and drink than praying. In fact although not a Jewish festival the kosher delicatessens would supply kosher mincemeat for tarts and take orders for kosher turkeys for the celebratory meal.
Many of the things that we then (and now) associated with Christmas were adopted from pagan festivals. Even the traditional Christmas tree wasn’t introduced in the U.K. until the middle 1800s when Queen Victoria’s husband, the consort, Prince Albert, brought it in! I do not know how they knew it, but many learned historians definitely state that December 25th was not the birth date of Jesus.
What I do remember from that early period was how the best entertainment possible, from the top entertainers, was saved for that time of the year. As a child I was regularly taken to see a Pantomime – what joy. And, as television developed the Christmas specials were something worth seeing. The world’s top entertainers would produce Christmas specials – I remember those from the U.S. such as Sinatra, Crosby and Hope, Dean Martin, Judy Garland and George Burns, and in the U.K. Morecombe and Wise, Norman Wisdom, the ‘Carry on Team’, and later, the two Ronnies and ‘Only Fools and Horses’ – to name just a few.
So although I now live in Israel, currently listening to BBC radio 2 Christmas programmes, where December 25th is just a normal working day, with no particular significance to the majority of the population, it still holds a special place for me and I am reminded of this quote from Bart Simson –
“Aren’t we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know. The birth of Santa”?
