Inspiration, Thoughts, Ideas, and Discussions: December 2022

Whatever your event, there is no better way to Celebrate then with food, family, and friends!

‘OUR HOLIDAY’

It’s a reminder of our heritage and our place of origin.

Holiday Memories

Creating Memories for the Holidays

Ornament Decorating Night

Get into the DIY spirit with family, children, or friends by throwing an ornament decorating party. The family or friends who don't consider themselves artistically gifted will be motivated to create something adorable for their tree!

For materials, purchase plain ornaments to be painted or embellished with sequins, pom-poms, and tassels, or use old magazines to cut out pictures and collage them.

Arts N Crafts

Craftmas Party

Why not have a Craftmas Party if you want to go beyond ornament crafting but still love the idea of hosting a holiday craft party! You might have family and friends make homemade holiday cards and wreaths, or you can bake cookies for them to decorate as a nice treat to take home or eat once out of the oven!

A Candyland Christmas

Lets choose a holiday color scheme to make everyone feel like they've stepped into Candyland rather than the traditional red and green. Step out of the box and add something different to the day or week.

Even add unique flavor to your regular celebration with simple yet distinctive accents like pastel-colored candy canes, a pink Christmas tree, hanging signage with candy themes, and attractive peppermint garlands.

Chanukah- The Festival of Lights

Making-a-Latkes Party

Perhaps, you're planning a Chanukah dinner party? Instead, host a latkes-making party!

Set up a latke platter bar and request each person bring a topping. Though, who needs more than a tasty potato pancake? Oh! It would help if you had some other appetizers on hand.

Something unusual - Pajama Party

“PJ’s” Have guests arrive in their jammies if you don’t want them to worry about getting all dressed up. In essence, holidays are all about comfort!

So, get yourself a nice set of holiday-themed pajamas for you and the family or significant other). The most important element - have fun!

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Last but not least - How about a -Junk Food White Elephant

The types of gifts can range from things everyone wants to those everyone seeks to get rid of; white elephant parties are always a delight. You can change things by asking everyone to bring a gift with a junk food theme. Imagine one of those enormous variety chips or chocolate bar packets. It will be entertaining to observe the arguments that arise. Although this is more of an in-person theme, you can always arrange to have food delivered in advance to virtual guests.

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Chanukah

December 18, 2022, to December 26, 2022

The eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of the 18^th in the Jewish calendar -month of Kislev – Kindling of the menorah is the focal point of the Chanukah holiday.

Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day, “festival of lights,” celebrated by:

· Lighting the menorah

· Special prayers

· Fried foods

In Hebrew, Chanukah means “dedication,” it celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple, with a variation of the spelling – Hanukkah.

Chanukah commemorates

The Maccabee defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G‑d.

The Temple's Menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), where they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah, and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

Because of these miracles, it was instituted that the festival of Chanukah has special blessings and songs.

Chanukah delicacies/Foods

The miracle of Chanukah involved oil. Therefore, it is customary to eat foods fried in oil.

Family holiday game - the dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with Hebrew letters, nun, gimmel, hei and shun, an acronym for nes gadol hayah sham, “a great miracle happened there”).

Fun for the whole family, the game is played for coins, nuts, or other play items.

Enjoy the season but remember to celebrate and rejoice as well!

What is the true meaning of Hanukkah/Chanukah?

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Winter Solstice 2022

Wednesday, December 21, 2022, is the First day of winter or Winter Solstice 2022.

Winter is here in some parts of the country!

meaning of - The winter solstice, as midwinter, is an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year.

It occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere.

Source: Wikipedia

Christmas

December 25, 2022

Christmas is a one-day event filled with many traditions celebrated on the 25^th of December, no matter what day the 25^th falls on.

Unlike Thanksgiving Day, that is always celebrated on the third Thursday in November.

Many celebrate the eve of Christmas by:

· Sharing and opening gifts

· Attending special services

· Prayers for the departed

· Charity and visiting hospitals

NATVITY SCENE - The holiday’s main central core, which many fail to recall - is the ‘Birth of Christ.’

Christmas is the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, held annually on December 25^th

A few notable events are celebrated:

· Christmas Eve

· 12 days of Christmas

· Gift giving

· Helping others more and charity giving

· Secret Santa

· Songs and musical programs

· The annual holiday parade in California

· Foods are vast in variety according to traditions and customs at family tables

Enjoy the season but remember to celebrate and rejoice as well!

Please chime in with this question - What is the true meaning of Christmas?

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Kwanzaa

A Family, Community and Culture Celebration-Kwanzaa

Celebrated from 26 December 2022, thru 1^st January 2023.

A weeklong celebration held in the United States that honors African heritage in African American culture. It culminates in gift giving and a big feast. Although Kwanzaa is primarily an African American holiday, it is also celebrated outside the United States, such as in Caribbean and other countries.

Its meaning

Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” which means “first fruits” in Swahili, a Pan-African language, which is the most widely spoken African language.

The first harvest is a celebration of the origin, and the name is derived from Africa.

The Origins of Kwanzaa, the First-Fruits Celebration

A time of ingathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between them.
A time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation.
A time for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence, our ancestors.
A time of recommitment to our highest cultural ideals in our ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice; and
A time for celebration of the good, the good of life and of existence itself, the good of family, community, and culture, the good of the awesome and the ordinary, in a word, the good of the divine, natural and social.