This teacher went on to explain that the holiday would be called "Winter Break," and not "Christmas vacation."Talk about living in a parallel universe."But," I sputtered, "historically, our Christmas celebration was intended to commemorate the birth of Christ!"
"Well," she soothed, smiling in condescending pity, "that's how you feel about it."
"No," I rejoined, "it is a simple matter of history. How I feel has nothing to do with it. I could be dead, or a Buddhist, and Christmas would still have been about Christ's birth!"
Btw, I recently discovered that Hanukkah is celebrated on the 25th of Kislev (Jewish calendar). Despite the difference in calendar, this date always falls on December, although the day of month might vary. Jesus as well as his early disciples celebrated Hanukkah, or the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22)
Since there are several Christian celebrations that have close parallels in the Jewish sacred calendar, such as Good Friday and Passover, could it be possible that Hanukkah and Christmas have been linked since the early days of Christianity?
I know that the current "expert" consensus is that the Christmas date was chosen to co-opt pagan festivals, while discounting the possibility that Hanukkah had anything to do with the Christmas date. Have you ever researched any possible link between Hanukkah and Christmas?