Here are some resources for you to learn the origins and basis for Christmas, as well as guidelines for Chanukah, and some other thoughts I had.

Table of Contents for this post:

1. Can Noahides Celebrate Christmas?
2. Can Noahides Celebrate Chanukah?
3. Historical Background
4. How to Handle Family Conflict Over Christmas and Chanukah
5. There Are Worst Things Than Christmas Trees

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Can Noahides Celebrate Christmas?

From The Path of the Righteous Gentile:

… the Noahide is strictly forbidden to create a new holiday that has religious significance and claim that it is part of his own religion, even if the religion is the observance of the Seven Noahide Laws. For example, it would be forbidden to make a holiday celebrating the subsiding of the waters of the Flood of Noah or anything of the like. And, all the more so, it would be forbidden to institute holidays that ascribe religious significance to events [or myths] outside the purview of the Seven Noahide Commandments [for example, Easter or the popular holiday on Dec. 25].

Celebrating secular activities and commemorating historical events, even if they involve a festive meal, are permissible [for example, the Independence Day of your own country, such as July 4th in the U.S.]. [It is also permissible for Noahides to participate in days which are set aside by their nation for remembering to praise and give thanks to the One True G-d, such as Thanksgiving and the National Day of Prayer in the U.S.]

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Can a Noahide Celebrate Hanukkah?

Yes! (there may be Rabbinic approaches that disagree.  iHN follows those that do agree, namely Rav Yoel Schwartz.)

…as long as Noahides don’t turn their celebration into a new religion or incorporate idolatrous practices into their celebration. Doing so is forbidden.  If they light candles, they should not say the blessings over them since they were not commanded to do these things, whereas the Jews were commanded after G-d made the miracles for them. However, reading the story of Chanukah, singing songs of praise to G-d, and speaking about G-d’s greatness are appropriate for Noahides.  See Nancy’s guide below.

Nancy, of the Oklahoma B’nai Noach Society has put together a lovely Chanukah Guide based on her Bnei Noach family’s yearly celebration.

You can donwload the PDF of the guide at the following link:

http://www.okbns.org/Free.html

Chanukah begins at sundown on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev.
This year it is Sunday December 21st.
Each day of Chanukah begins at the evening.
So the first day is Sunday-night & Monday-day.

Here is the introduction to Nancy’s guide (with permission):

Every year as our family begins to prepare for Chanukah, we get a lot of questions from family and friends about why and how we celebrate this “Jewish” holiday.  This guide is written to answer the most common questions and provide a starting point for other Gentiles to begin a tradition of celebration in their own homes.

Unlike the Jews, Gentiles have no command to celebrate Chanukah.  But we may choose to do so as long as we don’t turn our celebration into a new religion or incorporate idolatrous practices into our celebration.

Our family likes to read part of the story each night and light the appropriate number of candles according to the Jewish tradition.  On the eight night, we invite everyone we have room for (always making sure to include someone new) and read the whole story from the beginning!

This book tells only of the way our family celebrates this holiday — which may be different from the way other families celebrate.  However, all celebrations include telling the Chanukah story, lighting candles, and having a lot of fun.

Here are the rules our family uses for gift-giving:

1. The gift must increase or reinforce the recipient’s knowledge or awareness of G-d.
2. The giver should be able to explain the relationship of the item to one of the lessons of Chanukah or how the gift will benefit the recipient to be more aware of G-d.

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Historical Background of Christmas

The Real Story of Christmas (download) (low bandwidth)
The Real Story of Christmas (download) (high bandwidth)

(To read answers to the following questions, go here:
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm -iHN)

1. When Was Jesus Born?
2. How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
3. The Origins of Christmas Customs
4. The Christmas Challenge

Excerpt:

The Christmas Challenge

• Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated carelessly.  For millennia, pagans, Christians, and even Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.
• Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to rescue mankind from the “curse of the Torah.”  It is a 24-hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid.
• Christmas is a lie.  There is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really born on December 25th.
• December 25 is a day on which Jews have been shamed, tortured, and murdered.
• Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents, and Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced on earth.

Many who are excitedly preparing for their Christmas celebrations would prefer not knowing about the holiday’s real significance.  If they do know the history, they often object that their celebration has nothing to do with the holiday’s monstrous history and meaning.  “We are just having fun.”

Imagine that between 1933-45, the Nazi regime celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday – April 20 – as a holiday.  Imagine that they named the day, “Hitlerday,” and observed the day with feasting, drunkenness, gift-giving, and various pagan practices.  Imagine that on that day, Jews were historically subject to perverse tortures and abuse, and that this continued for centuries.

Now, imagine that your great-great-great-grandchildren were about to celebrate Hitlerday.  April 20th arrived. They had long forgotten about Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen.  They had never heard of gas chambers or death marches.  They had purchased champagne and caviar, and were about to begin the party, when someone reminded them of the day’s real history and their ancestors’ agony.  Imagine that they initially objected, “We aren’t celebrating the Holocaust; we’re just having a little Hitlerday party.”  If you could travel forward in time and meet them; if you could say a few words to them, what would you advise them to do on Hitlerday?

On December 25, 1941, Julius Streicher, one of the most vicious of Hitler’s assistants, celebrated Christmas by penning the following editorial in his rabidly Antisemitic newspaper, Der Stuermer:

If one really wants to put an end to the continued prospering of this curse from heaven that is the Jewish blood, there is only one way to do it: to eradicate this people, this Satan’s son, root and branch.

It was an appropriate thought for the day.  This Christmas, how will we celebrate?

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How To Handle Family Conflict Over Christmas and Chanukah

(NOTE: this is a Jewish woman speaking with a Rabbi, not a Noahide woman.  However, I think the Rabbi’s advice is applicable to anyone really. -iHN)

family_trouble: what is the proper way to handle family who celebrates Christmas and we wish to bring our son up in a strictly Jewish environment?

family_trouble: I should explain–it is my mother who was born Jewish, and raised us Jewishly. My sister married a gentile and thus my mother is trying to please us all-celebrating X-Mas and Chanukah. My son was born naturally Jewish.

Rabbi Gurkow: and you are your son’s mother or father?

family_trouble: I am my sons mother.

Rabbi Gurkow: I see

Rabbi Gurkow: in answer to your question, since you tell me that you and your son are Jewish the correct thing for you to tell your mother is: “thank you very much for thinking of us during this family time, we will gladly participate in the Chanukah celebration, but please understand that we will not be coming to the christmas celebration

Rabbi Gurkow: “that would be contrary to the values and religion in which we are trying to conduct our lives and raise our daughter”

Rabbi Gurkow: then send your parents and your sister nice cards and gifts that have nothing to do with christmas and everything to do with family and love

family_trouble: We tried that for the first time this year and now my extended family is not speaking to us because of our decision. Should we make any attempts to heal the rift?

Rabbi Gurkow: yes
Rabbi Gurkow: but be sure to understand the dynamics first… the root of their irritation
Rabbi Gurkow: is it that your religion is different or that you sent anti family signals?

family_trouble: That we are “too Jewish” now and they cannot relate to us any longer.

Rabbi Gurkow: That itself can be seen in two ways described above. can you discern what the root is?

family_trouble: Yes, I was raised secular and my mother would prefer not to acknowledge her Jewish roots any longer.

Rabbi Gurkow: if the problem is indeed religious then you need to know first and foremost that the shoe is on the other foot… your family is being incosiderate here not yoruself

Rabbi Gurkow: you are not required to participate when the values at an event are contrary to the choices you made in life… you need not be brought to another’s life preferences… you have the right to make your own choices

Rabbi Gurkow: and if they cannot see that, then it is indicative that they do not respect your maturity, independance and inherent right to make your life’s choices
Rabbi Gurkow: you are howevr required to be civil, polite and nice
Rabbi Gurkow: if you have done that then you have fulfilled your requirement
Rabbi Gurkow: so in answer to your question, you should make efforts to make ammends — but do so without guilt… know that you are the one reaching out across a divide that you did not create

family_trouble: Thank you Rabbi–this has been a very painful time for me and my own family. I will take your advise and hope that the rift can be healed. I also plan to discuss this with my own Rabbi for support.

Rabbi Gurkow: I can only imagine how painful a subject this is, I can only imagie the pain of being left alone and misunderstood, and I must tell you that this will not go away… it will be an issue every year… so you must face it head on

Rabbi Gurkow: it may still have after-effects but at least it will have been dealt with
Rabbi Gurkow: please do discuss this with your rabbi
Rabbi Gurkow: he may have an entirely differnt approach, but that will largely depend on your rabbi

family_trouble: I think he will agree with you, Rabbi. I just needed support from a Rabbinical source at this time. You have been so very kind to lend you time and wisdom. Many thanks.

Rabbi Gurkow: your welcome
Rabbi Gurkow: shabbat shalom

family_trouble: Shabbat Shalom and thank you for providing me with some peace.

(source: http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/703,136539/What-is-the-proper-way-to-handle-an-invitation-to-a-family-Christmas-party.html)

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There Are Worst Things Than Christmas Trees

(I feel very similar to Shira who authored the below statements on cross-currents -iHN)

The Torah instructs us to heed the words of the Levites, Priests, and Religious Courts of our day: “Do not stray to the right or left from the word that they declare to you.” (Duet. 17:8-13)

Yet we see so many people taking Judaism and twisting it to prove or support their own version of justice and righteousness. They take a verse of Torah out of context and enslave G-d’s word under their personal and political agenda.

Both Jews and Gentiles participate in this.

Here is an example of a person who went so far left politically, that he wound up on the same end as the terrorists. Hashem yerachem - G-d have mercy.

Post-Zionist Jewish Academic Converts to Islam

(source: IsraelNN.com)

Dr. Uri Davis, who has often termed Israel an “apartheid state” and refused to serve in the IDF, converted to Islam about a week ago and married a Fatah activist in Ramallah. The conversion ceremony involved two oaths in which Davis recognized Allah and the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Davis said he plans to follow the laws of Islam, but not devoutly.

The conversion took place in a Moslem religious court in Baka el-Garbiye, an Israeli-Arab town just outside northwestern Samaria (Shomron).

Davis’s lawyer explained that the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority know him for his great sacrifices on behalf of the “Palestinian problem” and the “realization of their rights.” He noted that the consent of the Arab woman and her family to the marriage to a Jewish activist is an “admirable social development.”

Just two months ago, David (more…)

However, I have heard of particular Christian groups that do honestly support Israel and the Jews without a hidden agenda to convert Jews.  Is it possible?

Any input on this from iHN readers is appreciated.

In my experience, the category of people discussed below (some of my closest friends) are those who want to “be spiritual” but still do whatever they feel like doing, whenever they feel like doing it, without being “hindered” by the Torah’s laws.

Yet 3,320 years of Torah Judaism teaches us that Halacha (Torah Law) is the body of the Torah, and Kaballah (Torah Mysticism) is the soul of the Torah. You simply cannot take one and deny the other! Taking Kaballah without Halachah is like flying a kite without a string…imagine where you’d end up, chas v’shalom!

The front-page headline in the New York Post was striking: “A-Rod brainwashed by Kabbala. Wife blames Madonna, sues for divorce.” I did a double take.

Who is A-Rod? He is Alex Rodriguez, the star third baseman of the New York Yankees, who commands a $300 million contract and is considered the best baseball player since Willie Mays.

Who is Madonna? She is the aging Hollywood pop star who has been dabbling in what she calls the secrets of the esoteric Kabbala and makes sure the world knows about her secrets.

What is Kabbala? The short answer is that it is the overall term for ancient Jewish mystical lore. The long answer is that it is the study of the cosmic ramifications of our behavior, of the hidden meanings behind the biblical text and of the almost inconceivable meticulousness with which human beings must align their actions with the demands of the Torah. That is to say, one cannot even begin the study of Kabbala unless one is thoroughly conversant with Torah, Talmud and the codes; is personally pious and dedicated to spirituality; and is deeply learned in the ways of God. Neither Madonna nor A-Rod seems quite to match these qualifications.

Were it not so sad, the image of the pop singer teaching Kabbala to the Yankee third baseman could be a comic invention - the once-impregnable fortress of Kabbala overrun by fools and miscreants.

This concealed and mystery-laden discipline, which represents hiddenness and quiet meditation, has reached the nadir of its millennia-long history by being dragged onto the headlines of a garish and sensationalist New York newspaper. The unkindest cut of all is that the headlines link Kabbala with two individuals who are not even Jewish and certainly have no Judaic learning whatsoever, who cannot read or understand a Hebrew word, who cannot even pronounce the word “Kabbala” correctly, who know nothing of its provenance, and whose closest encounter with things Jewish is the corner deli. This transcends ludicrous; it is absurd, grotesque and farcical. It is, in a word, unadulterated lunacy.

WHAT ATTRACTS the rich and famous to Kabbala? First and foremost are some very creative (more…)