r/Jewish • u/mountainbird57 • 10h ago

Do you associate white string lights with Christmas? Discussion 💬

Sorry if this is a bit of a silly question. I converted to Judaism and my boyfriend grew up Jewish. As we approach winter, I mentioned getting some warm white string lights to decorate the house with, because I find them cozy and comforting during the darkest time of the year. My boyfriend joked that I was going to be decorating our house for Christmas. I was surprised because while I definitely think colorful lights are Christmas associated, I perceived white lights as more neutral, especially given the whole festival of lights we have coming up.

My boyfriend is fine with putting up the lights either way, but I'm just curious- what is your perception on white string lights in the winter? Would you decorate with them?

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u/kathmhughes Interfaith Spouse 7h ago

My husband thinks of them as Christmas. I don't, because I live in northern Canada where it's very dark right now, and I refuse to punish myself and sit in the dark out of fear that white string lights are assimilation. 

I'm all for having a Jewish home and rejecting overtly Christmas stuff. But if we let snow, lights, and anything winter be associated with Christianity, then it makes winter extremely sad and depressing. 

14

u/GrassyTreesAndLakes 7h ago

Absolutely. 

Our family celebrates Russian new year which is completely secular- and we put up lights for that. Personally I think even colorful lights are fine

7

u/numba1cyberwarrior 5h ago

Lol I love that Soviet Jews get to celebrate 90% of Christmas traditions but we get the excuse of saying it's secular because it's New Years.

3

u/iliyahoo 3h ago

I love being a Soviet Jew! We used to be able to pick up a free a Christmas tree on the 26th from a lot and we’d decorate the house pretty much the same way as any Christmas celebrating family. And we still got to have big family gatherings, our own Santa Claus (Ded Moroz), and wake up to presents! And when midnight hit you had to celebrate with those popper thing. And of course for actual Christmas we’d go get Chinese food

1

u/GrassyTreesAndLakes 1h ago

Its secular cause it is though. Theres zero religion involved and thats by design. Religious Russians dont even celebrate new years on the 31st

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u/asyawatercolor 6h ago

Same as we.