Many families have secular cultural celebrations at Christmas and Hanukkah, full of love and generosity but minus any theological undertones. That doesn't work for families where the parents take religion seriously—but don't share the same one. As Karen McGraw, senior acquisitions editor for Tyndale Kids, an evangelical Christian publishing house, has observed, "The holidays can be a tricky time for interfaith families—both joyful and challenging. Instead of avoiding the challenges, gathering as a family to read holiday books about different religious practices can encourage discussion, build mutual respect, and help family members discover shared values and beliefs.”

Susan Katz Miller agrees. Her parents—one Jewish, one Episcopalian—raised her to be Jewish. She married an Episcopalian and together they decided they wanted their children to feel fully connected to both faiths. But she couldn't find books that supported this choice, so in 2013 she wrote her own, Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family (Beacon Press). The book is still in print, likely because there are more such families than ever.

PW called on Katz Miller, who continues to write and blog on the topic, to advise how book-loving families now might deal with "being both" in a season of celebrations.

How great is the need for holiday books that work for interfaith families?

More than 20% of adults today had interfaith parents, and, according to Pew Research, among recent marriages, almost 40% now are interfaith. That includes Christians married to atheists or "religious nones"—people who claim no religious identity but still believe in God—which is the fastest-growing component of that interfaith spectrum.

What do you tell grandparents eager to focus on Christmas as celebrating the birth of a savior not just a family gathering with cookies and presents?

It's really important for grandparents or friends who want to share books with the kids to talk to the parents and, ideally, to let the parents read the book first. You might think, "Oh, this is just a cute little book about Christmas." But you're not seeing it the way the parents are seeing it. Something that strikes one person as secular or cultural is going to strike somebody else as more religiously coded.

For example?

Santa. For a lot of people, Santa is cultural. He has nothing to do with Jesus and the religious message of Christmas. But there are Jewish children, Muslim children, Hindu children who don't have Santa visit their house. So, you don't want to share a Christmas book with Santa in it with an interfaith kid who doesn't have Santa in their holiday celebration.

Several charming new books feature Wise Men, children, or talking critters all rushing to see the newborn king in a manger. But what happens in a family that honors two different religions, or both religion and atheism, where Jesus is a king to one parent and not the other?

Families that are doing both right want their children to have literacy about the meaning of both those ideas. It's not a question of telling them what they should believe. It's that these are the stories embedded in their heritage on one side or another, and it is good to understand why they're meaningful to some people.

You can read a story that includes the birth of a baby, and people gathering at the manger, and you can explain that this baby is Jewish, born to Jewish parents, because there was no religion called Christianity during his lifetime. It's not saying you must believe that this baby is the Son of God, or else. And Christian children who encounter Hanukkah books may learn that Hanukkah has several different meanings.

Some Jewish books present Hanukkah the story of the "miracle" of a few drops of oil lasting eight nights because God was rewarding the ancient Hebrews for fighting to keep their faith.

Yes, there is the dimension of freedom to practice your religion. But more children's books today downplay the military battle aspect of the holiday because some parents don't want that kind of militarism. Most books now focus on the miracle of light in the darkest days of the year.

In past years, you've recommended some children's holiday books for interfaith families, but they are still pretty scarce. What is the one still on sale that you recommend?

I like Gingerbread Dreidels, a 2024 book by Jane Breskin Zalben (Charlesbridge, with illustrations by Thai My Phuong). It shows a family who is celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah and giving each holiday its due, not mashing them up into some kind of meaningless "Chrismukkah." Both sets of grandparents are there, and each explains the origin of their own holiday. Grandparents are often fearful when there's an interfaith marriage that they won't be able to pass on their heritage, their stories, their songs, their traditions. This is a holiday book that shows a world where interfaith families are normal, warm, and happy.