_When Benny Hill joked, "Roses are reddish, violets are bluish, if it weren't for Christmas, we'd all be Jewish," he may have had it backward. Growing up in a suburban New York neighborhood with a large Jewish population, I never envied my Christian friends their indoor pine tree or pudgy guy who slid down the chimney. My family had its own holiday, Chanukah -- eight magical nights of candles flickering, dreidels spinning, latkes sizzling, and parents bearing presents (good thing, because we didn't even have a chimney). What was there to envy?

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