Celebrating Both Christmas and Hanukkah - How to Manage All the Gifts?

We do little gifts (stocking stuffer type) and work up to a nice gift at the end of Hannukah, and don't go crazy at Christmas. The Christmas side of the family sends a few gifts, and the Hannukah side sends a few. That way it doesn't get out of hand.

We also celebrate both holidays. And I agree that the gift giving does get excessive - and both of our kids birthdays are also around the holidays (Dec 21 and Jan 8) so this time of year is crazy with the gift giving. We will do the first night of Hanukkah at our house with just the 4 of us and we are doing the "big" presents (one for each person) that night. Then the second night we are going to my mom's house for to celebrate with the rest of the family and exchange gifts there. Then that is all for Hanukkah presents. We will continue to light the candles every night, but the rest of the presents will come on Christmas. And we don't go crazy - most of those gifts are clothes, some toys, but only 1 or 2 "big" gifts total for both holidays.

My husband and I are both Catholic, so we do not share your experience. However, can some of the gifts be practical? or small?

Our kids are 3 & 6 and starting to understand more and more and my MIL loves to spoil them. My husband and I don't want to be left out of the gift giving, but between presents from us and presents from Santa, it can get a little crazy. We know that we have to have some practical gifts as well.

We do both in our house. My kids get one present for each night of Hanukkah. Usually one night they will open gifts from my parents, and another night gifts from my sister. If any other relatives of mine send a gift (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't), that will count as another night. My husband and I give them the gifts for the remaining nights. Usually, I give them one bigger gift and the rest are small. A small gift would be one book, or piece of clothing, art supplies, etc.

For Christmas, they get a big gift from Santa, a couple of small/medium gifts from me and my husband (board game, books, clothes, DVD, video game... not necessarily all of those, but that type of item), and a stocking filled with small stuff. They also get gifts from my husband's parents and brother for Christmas.

It is a lot of gifts, but I try to not make it a million toys. This year, lots of their gifts are clothes and books, because our house is overrun with toys! I want them to grow up with 8 nights of Hanukkah like I did, and my husband wants them to have Christmas, even though it wasn't that big of a thing in his house growing up.

My son is 5 and my daughter is 2, and this has always worked well for us.

We celebrate both as well!

Hanukkah doesn't have to be all about gifts. My kids favorite tradition is making latkes.

Many families I know who celebrate both holidays give practical gifts for Hanukkah. A pair of slippers or a pack of socks. A book, a deck of cards or flash cards...little things like that. If you don't have them, get a set of dreidels and play.

Rugrats on Nickelodeon had a special. We actually bought it and my kids loved it when they were little.

You can buy "Rugrats Chanukah" on Amazon.

Have fun!

I have to respond even though I don't personally know anyone that celebrates Hanukkah. Your question reminded me of the show "The OC" because the main family in the show had the same situation (one parent celebrated each holiday and they combined them). Their son called it "Christmakkah" and they honored traditions of each.

Just a random thought. Would it be appropiate and fun to separate your celebration in two different rooms ? Like Christmas in the Family room and Hanukkah in the Living room - all decorated out with two different themes ?

Yah keep the gifts for 8 days small and simple........ dollar store or something like a poem or magnent or just something to resemble the idea of your giving. ( I am sorry I just don't know enough about Hanukkah to truly understand the 8 day gift thing and how expensive the gifts should be .... But simple is good :0) )

Happy Holidays

We do both, and did so when I was a child, so we do mainly small gifts for Hanukkah and save the big stuff for Christmas. As I got older, my parents would call big gestures like redoing my bedroom in te fall an early Hanukkah gift and I would still get my normal Christmas gifts of clothes, etc. My oldest is only 3.5, but we just bought her bunk beds and new bedding, so we explained that she would still have something small to open on Hanukkah but that her real present was her new bed. She loved that idea and said she would just help her brother open his Hanukkah presents since she already has hers. :-)

Hello J.,

My DH is Jewish and my family has always celebrated Christmas so my only (11.5) DS has had both since he was born. I agree it can feel excessive, especially when the grandparents, aunties, cousins etc....are also participating.

The balance that works for us is that we do light the menorah each night but open a gift on Chanukah every other night. If he has more than four for Chanukah gifts then he can open the rest of them on the last night. We give him only 2-3 Christmas presents each year which has always worked for us. We have a small, tabletop, tree that we put up after Thanksgiving.

On the years when the two coincide, we tend to wing it. But in a case like this year when the two are separated by several days, we adhere to the plan above. Chanukah is early this year, starts on Sunday, so we will have some brunch in the AM with the grandparents and start the gift opening that night.

Happy Holidays!!! :-) S.