The holidays are already a crazy time, and what about when you throw multiple faiths into the mix? Our guest blogger Lauren Bercovitch shares insights on creating an interfaith harmonious holiday! - A&K

This holiday season I’m playing with fire. To celebrate the first two nights of Hanukkah and the second week of Advent, both Judaism and Christianity had me lighting a lot of candles this past weekend.

As previously mentioned here, I, Lauren Bercovitch, trusty story and web producer at Worldwide Bag Media, took the plunge and got married this summer.

This Jewish bride and her Catholic groom came together underneath a beautiful handmade chuppah in a Catholic Church, Priest and groom wore kippahs, glass was broken, and cheers of “MAZEL TOV!” filled the chapel.

And as an interfaith couple I thought the wedding would be difficult to navigate, but the holidays can also be an multi-faith balancing act!

So what do we do? It’s really quite simple actually. We fully partake in each other’s family traditions. We make latkes with my family, and go to church with his. We don’t have to choose. We get double the holiday cheer (however NOT double the presents just to be clear!). Plus, we have made our very own special Chrismukkah tradition. One night in December we order in Chinese food, play a heated match of dreidel, and watch Home Alone. It combines all our favourite childhood memories of the holidays into one glorious night.

But with our families in different cities, the age old question of “who to spend Christmas morning with?” is still a big deal. You may think with Hanukkah being nowhere near the 25th this year that it would be an easy choice, but let’s be serious, no one is taking December 8th to the 16th off work. Plus there is always the argument that Hanukkah is not a major holiday in the Jewish tradition (it’s true, it really isn’t), but that doesn’t mean I don’t want us to spend the precious few days off with my family when everyone else has time off (especially when there are nieces and nephews under the age of 5 to watch open presents).

And just like we don’t have to choose between Hanukkah or Christmas, we also don’t have to choose between our families. This year Christmas will be in Victoria on December 23, and Hanukkah will be re-lived in San Francisco from December 24 to 31. Because really, they are just days! We all know being together is what counts, and I’m happy to be lighting candles all month long.

What about you? Do you have any creative interfaith holiday ideas or Chrismukkah traditions? Share them below!