New York Jews prepare for a Chinese Christmas — possibly with a movie thrown in

“Some years, we’d have Chinese takeout. Others, we’d go to the restaurant.”

Jesse Cohen, a lawyer and comedian, says of the Chinese-Christmas combo: “100 per cent. It’s a tradition in my life.

“I do a standup bit about my mom being asked to speak to my elementary school about ‘Jewish Christmas’ and how she discussed Chinese takeout and Godfather marathons.”

These days, Chinese food is sought by American Jews far and wide.

“In Tuscaloosa [Alabama], the only restaurants open when I was a kid were Chinese,” says Adena Whitman, president of a credit union.

“So we’d load in the car and go eat Chinese for lunch and then go to the movies. I do it to this day.

“Some of my best memories with family were around that big round Chinese-restaurant table. My mother insisted we share entrées with one another.”

For some families, the custom comes attached to a story. Karen Weintraub, now retired, was a Christmas bride in her 20s and her anniversary dinners over the years have generally been in Chinese restaurants. Heather Nielsen, a stay-at-home mom, has sustained the childhood tradition of ordering in Chinese food on Christmas for her own children.

Although now a nationwide Jewish custom, it is of course most widely associated with New York, where city native Laurie Gwen Shapiro, an author, has garnered a lifetime of Chinese-Christmas memories.

“Growing up in New York City, this was what you did,” she recalls.

“First we would go to Broadway on Christmas Day. Broadway was much less expensive then. It was easy to get tickets on Christmas because only non-Christians were buying them.

“All the shows had a Jewish inside joke or two added as a wink, and it would bring down the house. And they’d put in jokes about going to Chinese food afterward.”

Chinatown, once a small neighbourhood, has grown with its popularity on Christmas.

“Now, I try to take my family with other friends and it is hard to get served,” Ms Shapiro says.

“It’s a mob, and they don’t take reservations around there. Better to go to a place away from Chinatown for Christmas at this point.”

The industry has flourished to the extent that, for many, Chinese food is not an exclusively Jewish pursuit at Christmas.

“I was raised in a strict atheist family — well, as strict as an atheist family can be,” remembers Eddie Bricker, a musician, “and we went to Chinese restaurants on Christmas as well. I married into a Jewish family, so it was something I was already accustomed to.”

Journalist Lynne Peskoe-Wang, whose parents always took part in the movie-and-Chinese routine, approaches the tradition from the opposition direction these days.

“I grew up and married a Chinese-American guy, whose parents ignore Christmas except for the lights. They’re amazing cooks and always have a Christmas feast ready for us.

“Every year I marvel that once again, without meaning to, I’m having Chinese food on Christmas.”

Of course, there are always outliers. Journalist Nora Mandel has a decades-long tradition of going to Indian restaurants with friends on Christmas.

“My Chinese restaurant family experience is more embarrassing,” she admits.

“My very secular parents insisted on going out for Chinese — on Yom Kippur. I was mortified. Dad liked that the restaurant would be empty.”

And yet for most US Jews, this is a holiday combination elicits a huge amount of warmth.

Your reporter spent last Christmas watching I, Tonya at the cinema, followed by Chinese food with 12 friends and singing Christmas carols at the door of a dear friend who was not feeling well that day. It is a sequence that is likely to be repeated this year.

“I love this tradition so much,” says journalist Lisa Selin-Davis, who will opt for a screening of the new Mary Poppins this year. “It’s the only Jewish thing I do at all!”