Like any good lunar calendar religion, our holidays are based on lunar cycle and the major ones we celebrate are actually Fall with the Sukkot holiday and Spring with the Pesach/Passover holiday. Jewish New Year is mostly a solemn time and that's observed in mid-September typically, as lunar calendar varies from year to year.
Hanukkah, which happened during the 2nd week of December in 2023, is our festival for the "holiday season" but is not considered a "major holiday" on the Jewish calendar since it comes distinctly after the biblical era.
A tradition of the holiday is to eat fried foods since we are celebrating how the sacred oil found after liberating the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem for the first time was able to burn long enough to make a new batch! Potato pancakes and donuts are both staple treats for the holiday, as is "Gelt," the Yiddish word for those gold-wrapped chocolate coins that seem to have been around forever!
My tradition was to work on Christmas if I could, and I did that every year when I worked for the NBA. We used to have these crazy triple headers all day long and I didn't mind covering the time.
As a teacher, I'm always off for the holidays, so lately I've been trying to fly on Christmas since the flights were the cheapest. Lo and behold my flight was canceled this year and I'll end up rescheduled for the night I wanted to leave but didn't want to pay for when I booked 'em the first place. All's well that ends well. Boxing Day at Football Factory NYC. I can dig it!
Happy Christmas & Merry New year!
These I know!
Judaism seems like a relatively pragmatic religion from what I have seen of it. Relatively down to earth, but I am guessing that it varies widely in practice.
Hopefully, your end of year (my end of year calendar) is great!