Right now, families across the world are celebrating Hanukkah, so we thought it would be a good

time to represent our conversation all about the Jewish holiday.

We talk with our pals Barry Hardiman and Sarah Venturi about why Hanukkah is not Jewish

Christmas and how the minor holiday has an outsized place in pop culture.

I'm Stephen Thompson.

And I'm Linda Holmes on this encore episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour.

We're talking all about Hanukkah.

Now, neither Stephen nor myself is a celebrator of Hanukkah, but you are celebrators.

That's right.

We are celebrators in general.

I want to ask Sarah what your Hanukkah celebrations looked like when you were young?

Sure.

So, I grew up here in Arizona, which means that there was a Jewish community, but like

Jews were not ever the majority of the population anywhere, ever, or even the predominant minority

population.

So, when I was a kid, Hanukkah often involved, like my mom would come to school and like

help explain what Hanukkah was to kids because they were like only two Jewish kids or Jewish

families in my elementary school.

Right.

And for people who don't know a lot about Hanukkah, can we get the quick refresher on what Hanukkah

actually is?

Sure.

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