Merry Jewish Christmas: How Chinese food and the movies became a time-honored tradition for American Jews

"There is a meme that circulates every holiday season, an image of a sign in a restaurant window. "The Chinese Restaurant Association of the United States would like to extend our thanks to the Jewish people," it says. "We do not completely understand your dietary customs ... but we are proud and grateful that your GOD insists you eat our food on Christmas.""

"Long before Jews came to the United States, some of them celebrated Christmas - participating in many of the cultural traditions, even as they avoided the religious part of the holiday. According to Jordan Chad, author of " Christmas in Yiddish Tradition," Jewish folklore about the holiday appears as early as the late 1300s. Plenty of Jewish communities in Europe spent Christmas Eve dancing and drinking, feasting and gambling - as many of their Christian neighbors did, when those neighbors were not in church."

A holiday meme shows a restaurant sign thanking Jewish people for eating Chinese food on Christmas, but fact-checking found no evidence the purported association exists. Many American Jews favor Chinese restaurants on Christmas, a practice rooted in historical patterns of cultural adaptation. European Jewish communities historically participated in secular Christmas festivities while avoiding religious observance. Over time those customs emphasized seasonal revelry rather than Christian theology. The habit of choosing Chinese food on Christmas reflects neighborhood commerce, social customs, and intergroup boundaries shaped by immigration, class, and local availability.

Read at The Conversation