Idoubt that my grandchildren would recognize the Chanukahs of my childhood. They took place amid the backdrop of my best friends’ and next-door neighbors’ Christmas extravaganzas. Their homes looked to me like fairy houses strung with colored lights on the outside and huge Christmas trees in the living room, with colored balls and delicate, shiny angels on top.

Underneath the tree were beautifully wrapped presents in all shapes and sizes. This was long before there were Chanukah decorations and lights in the stores or on people’s homes. In my family, we had a wind-up menorah that played Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” and I could never grasp the fun of playing dreidel. Even as a child, it felt so simplistic and boring to me.

Although half of the children in my elementary school wer

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