My Confession

I don't know why it is, that I can't limit my visits to my local supermarket to only once a week. And when my yo crunch yogurt supply is disappearing because my kids go through it like water, and I have no fresh bread in the house, this becomes an emergent situation. Because lacking these two staples in my house, means I have nothing to send to school with my kids for their lunch. And on top of this, today I sent So to school with no plastic spoon for her yogurt. She'll figure it out.

While taking my usual zombie walk around the store today, because once again I left my list at home, I noticed something unusual. It could be, this "occurrence" has happened years previous, but I only noticed it today. I heard a Chanukkah song playing over the loud speaker.

Now this is not terribly surprising in the particular supermarket I frequent, as it is located in a very Jewish populated neighborhood. However, in the past, I have not really experienced anything other than random music and Christmas music playing over loud speakers this time of year.

And then I thought about what I was hearing :

Chanukkah, Oh Chanukkah
Come light the menorah
Let's have a party
We'll all dance the hora
Gather round the table, we'll have a treat
Shiny tops to play with, latkes to eat

And while we are playing
The candles are burning low
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago...

And I thought to myself, self- I really rather be listening to Christmas carols.

I am not sure if I am supposed to be "ashamed" of these thoughts, because baby Jesus and Santa Clause are not really part of my fundamental upbringing. But the bottom line is, my Christian brethren have come up with WAY better songs.

And I know I am not the only one of my fellow Jews who feels this way, but I am admitting here today...

Christmas music is beautiful.

In over 2000 years since the Macabbe revolt and the miracle of one days worth of oil burning for eight days, we have not come up with a decent Chanukkah song.

We have plenty of songs about lights and dreidels, latkas and horas and not one of them is good. Not one of these songs makes me want to sing along or actually dance a Hora. But I can probably be found singing or humming songs and tunes the likes of,

"Sleigh Bells Ring, Are You Listening..."

"Oh Holy Night..."

"I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause..."

"I'm Dreaming Of a White Christmas..." (although this one sometimes finds me replacing the word "Christmas" with the word "Chanukkah")

"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer..."

And oh so many to choose from.

Someone HAS to come up with some better Chanukah songs. Where is the love for the Macabees?

So "fess" up my Jewish compadres, I am not the only one who feels this way. And if my blog has any lovely Christian followers, tell me, are there any Chanukkah songs that you like? I am curious to know.