Today is Christmas Eve. It’s also my youngest daughter’s birthday so what does a little Jewish girl do on Christmas Eve to celebrate her 9th birthday? We go to the mall and get her ears pierced … then my son got a single ear pierced … and then my eldest added another piercing to the single pair of lobe penetrations she now sports.

I’m thinking we just might have a new family tradition.

Another family tradition of many Jewish families in December is playing “Jew? Who Knew?”, a game where we guess the Jewish connection to music, television, movies. sports and other assorted entertainment channels. (There’s a reason why Adam Sandler’s, Hanukkah Song, is so popular. It names names!)

My co-religionists’ contribution to Christmas music is just as prolific and may surprise you. For example, you may know that Irving Berlin, a nice Jewish boy if there ever was one, wrote White Christmas. But did you know that The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …), was also written by two nice Jewish boys, Mel Torme and Robert “Bob” Wells?

Me either. If you’re interested in the Jewish Connection to Christmas Past and Present, crack open your favorite egg nog and check out Nate Bloom’s, The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs (2007)

But Roberta - what about the copywriter connection to Rudolph?

Actually, this one is a two-fer (sort of like me.) Here’s a snippet from Snopes.com:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began his showbiz career in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company asked one of their copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to come up with a Christmas story they could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. (Montgomery Ward stores had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year, and May’s department head saw creating a giveaway booklet of their own as a way to save money.) You can read the entire entry here.

What’s the Jewish connection? Johnny Marks was May’s brother-in-law and he turned the story into the classic song we all know. (Marks also wrote Rocking Around the Christmas Tree AND Holly Jolly Christmas.)

We’ll be celebrating Christmas the traditional way in my house tomorrow. A first-run movie and Chinese food. If I won’t see you in line at the dim sum buffet, I wish you and yours the merriest and most joyous Christmas ever.

(And if your children happen to see a faint red glow in the sky tonight, tell them that a copywriter and his Yiddischer reindeer helped Santa find his way home.)

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[tags] rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, christmas music, jewish songwriters, johnny marks [/tags]