“It’s 7am! Let’s go wake up the family and find out,” Rusti confidently hugged me.
We giggled as we pulled on our robes. We looked down the hallway. All the bedroom doors remained closed. We tiptoed quietly into the hallway. The answer to my question lay behind the paneled door that closed off the living room from the hallway.
“Open the door,” I begged my older sister as I tugged on her robe.
“No way!” Rusti pushed me backwards. “Mom put a sign on the door. It says Do Not Open.”
“Let’s wake them up now.” I said as I ran down the hallway with Rusti chasing after me.
I bolted into Mom and Dad’s bedroom and jumped onto their bed.
“Wake up! Wake up!” I yelled at top volume. “I think Santa Claus came to our house!”
Mom and Dad rolled over and pulled up the sheets over their heads. They ignored my pleas for assistance. Then, Rusti entered the bedroom with our younger brother who jumped onto Mom and Dad’s bed. Then, Grandma came in with our younger sister in her arms.
“What’s going on?” said Grandma who stood respectfully at the door in her yellow terry cloth robe.
“We have celebrated Chanukkah, now it is time for Christmas,” Mom smiled as she peacefully surveyed her Jewish-Christian family.
Grandma smiled proudly, “Thank you, dear Doris, for finding a way to keep our Jewish traditions alive as we all learn to love God through a Christian perspective.”
As Grandma completed her final words, Rusti and I bolted from the bedroom. At Mom’s direction, we slid the paneled door into the wall and entered a fantasy-filled room of colorful packages. We surveyed the gifts which lay everywhere in the room as there was no tree and no stockings. Rusti and I hugged each other until we saw the red envelope that was lying next to a silver-rimmed plate with white meringue cookies.
“Open the envelope! Open the envelope! What does it say?” I begged Rusti who was already reading the special message.
“Merry Chrismakah! Love Santa” appeared in red script on soft linen paper. My sister and I squealed as we jumped up and down. My younger brother and sister laughed in unison with us even though they were too young to understand our excitement.
From this day forward, Santa Claus fulfilled an ecumenical routine in our house every year. We lit the Chanukkah candles to maintain our connection to our Jewish heritage. We attended church services in our community. We exchanged gifts with many family and friends. These activities energized our faith to respect a gracious God who provided such a peaceful solution for our family’s complex holiday celebrations.