I always tell people that I'm "Jewish by birth." In other words, my parents are members of "The Tribe," but I'm not a particularly close follower of the religious aspects of Judaism. But I do like to follow the cultural aspects, for various reasons that I won't go into here. One thing I've noticed is the growth in stature of Hanukkah, especially here in the United States, over the last ten years or so. My theory is that my fellow Jews have made the minor holiday into a substitute Christmas so they don't feel left out of the holiday festivities while not completely betraying their heritage.

Anyway, it seemed that the holiday's increased profile was also reflected on television. It was a small presence amongst the snowstorm of Christmas specials, with maybe one or two shows related to the Festival of Lights airing each year. Maybe it was a Rugrats cartoon (the Pickles family was half-Jewish) or Comedy Central showing Adam Sandler's movie Eight Crazy Nights. But it was a lot better than what we used to have, which was local news anchors mispronouncing the holiday's name in the throwaway segment between the sports and the weather report. This year, though? Nothing.