'Twas the Third Night of Hanukkah...

My husband is the sweetest man on the planet but he's not one for the pomp and circumstance of holiday celebrations. 

As adults, celebrating Hanukkah (the Jewish winter festival of lights) is pretty low-key and usually just means lighting the candles on the hannukiyah, the nine-armed candelabra, saying the appropriate blessings and prayers and singing a song or two. (If you want spectacular Jewish holidays, come back for Passover!)

For kids, however, Hanukkah a whole different affair with gifts!

My beloved wasn't keen on doing anything special for the festival but I decided to surprise him :) I met a Jewish friend in town today for an impromptu day out and we decided to get ourselves (and dear husband) Hanukkah gifts! We went home, lit the candles, said the blessings and strewed gifts all around! My husband got the camera at the ready and took these lovely shots of all our candles. 

Now we were getting in the holiday spirit!

After candle lighting, it was time for the real fun. Who says adults can't be kids, even when it comes to self-bought, self-wrapped presents? ;) And of course, none of this celebrating would be complete without tea...

Here's a confession: I secretly love all things Christmas. I love the brightness, cheer and warmth of the season. And even though I don't celebrate Christmas, I love seeing my Christian friends around me celebrate it. And nothing wrong with a nice Jewish girl enjoying some rather nice spiced Christmas tea from Bettys?

So there was candles, tea, chocolate and cheer as we unwrapped our gifts...

Note the Christmas wrapping the salesperson in the bookshop wrapped it in, tee-hee! 

It was my husband's birthday last week. For months, I'd harangued him about what he wanted and he didn't know. Then it came to him - he wanted a slow juicer! So I bought him the slower juicer but of course, he needed some books for juice and smoothie recipes. So that's what Hanukkah brought him this year.

As for me... I indulged. I got this lovely Afternoon Tea book in Dutch. It's a translation, of course, but I'd reckon it's one of the most complete Afternoon Tea books I've found in the Dutch language. How could I not get it?

Ah, my Hanukkah gifts! The Whittard's tea I got in England last week when I was there for work. The whisk for Japanese Matcha powdered green tea was something I meant to get for a while, ever since hubby got me a tin of Matcha. Now I can finally taste it!

And these lovely Japanese tea caddies were an impulse buy in a tea shop today. A bit indulgent but really lovely. And both are great functional and decorative pieces which will receive a place of honour in my home.

Ordinarily, when it involves children, Hanukkah gifts are given for eight days. We won't be doing that - this night of gifts was quite special enough. But it was really joyous and made me feel younger than I am. And a tea-themed Hanukkah is just... perfect isn't it?

Happy Hannukah, chag urim sameach (a joyful festival of lights) and Merry Christmas for all my Christian readers :)

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Linking up with:

Tea Time Tuesday @ Rose Chintz Cottage

Tea Cup Tuesday @ Artful Affirmations

Friends Sharing Tea @ Bernideen's Tea Time Blog

Tuesday Cuppa Tea @ Antiques and Tea Cups

Tea Cup Tuesday @ Martha's Favorites

A Return to Loveliness @ A Delightsome Life