Brief Interlude to Bitch About Christmas Being Shoved Down my Little Jewish Throat

Gorwing up as a Jew in the South, I am used to (though not at all okay with) the total ignorance as to any other holiday in the season thanChristmas. Every year I would get bitter and when wished a Merry Christmas for the gazillionth time I would invariably snap back a snotty retort like "Thanks, but its not my holiday!" or "And Happy Chanukah to you!". I understand its confusing - no one knows which of the 50,000 different spellings to use and it falls on a different date every year - but come on, people! I wear a gigantic fucking star of David locket around my neck - and no, its not a Satanic symbol, wrong star!

Since moving to New York, the virtual mecca of the Americas for Jews, my bitterness fell by the wayside with every passing Happy Chanukah greeting and every menorah I saw accompanying the Christmas trees in building lobbies. I was shocked at first, but since then have come to expect this sensitivity I am so proud of from my new home.

Which is why I was so shocked and offended when I came into the sdj today to find a magical winter wonderland had invaded - a Christian winter wonderland blanketing everything in red, green, and gold. Not only was Christmas shoved down my throat on all of the walls, but my own little cubicle space had been invaded as well, drowning me in red and gold tinsel. One of the doctors that I work with and whose sense of humor I adore came over to express her outrage at the state of things; I heartily agreed. I removed the tinsel from my cubicle, without ceremony or kicking up a fuss, to quietly shed light on the offensive error committed. One of my co-workers asked me why I did that, and I simply responded, "It's not my holiday."

There is this mistaken notion that Christmas is a secular holiday. In fact, I have been told countless times upon enlightening people that I do not indeed celebrate Christmas, that Christmas is an American holiday. Wow, I didn't realize that Christ had anything whatsoever to do with the establishment of this democracy! In fact, I thought this country came into being long after his time. How odd, then, that Christmas would be an American holiday. Because it is celebrating the birth of Christ, in addition to celebrating the great consumerist machine.

So the doctor, another co-worker, and myself are all going to retaliate with the largest and most garish Chanukah decorations that we can find. We're debating dressing up like dreidels, and the doctor and I danced the Hora back to our respective cubes.

My supervisor just called to apologize for having decorated my cubicle; she said she forgot I was Jewish (not so easy to do considering the gigantic glaring Jewish star taking up half of my chest, but okay). At least she's aware of her faux pas.

The funny thing is that I'm not even very religious or anything by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, my synongogue growing up was so liberal artsy fartsy we were practically pagan. But its my cultural identity, and as such should be respected. I respect other cultures and religions; I make an effort every year to find out when Winter Solstice, Ramadan, and Kwaanza fall and recognize the importance and validity of these other traditions as opposed to merely my own. I think its solipsistic not to.

And thus is my grand bitch du jour. I'm going to Duane Reade on my next smoke break to buy out anything blue and silver to inundate the office with.