(Gary Malerba/Detroit Free Press/MCT)
The exterior of the D'Amore-Braver home glows with sparkling Christmas lights, adding a festive flair to their street in a Troy, Mich., subdivision. Inside, a new blue-and-white tablecloth imprinted with menorahs, stars of David and dreidels - symbols of Hanukkah - covers the circular coffee table in the living room.
Atop the coffee table sits a display of five menorahs - most of them made by Arnie and Andrea's two sons, Alex and Andrew, over the years.
Inside on a recent Monday evening, the family string lights and place bows and ornaments to adorn the Christmas tree between their living and dining rooms.
While they decorate, the family listens to a CD that - like their decorations - celebrates both Christianity and Judaism.
While many families are getting ready for the busy holiday season, the challenges multiply for those in which the spouses are of different faiths, like the D'Amore-Bravers.
Arnie D'Amore-Braver, 55, is Jewish. His wife, Andrea D'Amore-Braver, 48, was raised Catholic.
The family attends the Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills, Mich., but celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday.
Like other interfaith couples, they have found that sharing in and respecting each other's faiths and traditions keeps the spirit of the season alive in their households. Rather than diminishing one religion or the other, observing both holidays allows them to learn about and experience other cultures. Plus, it doubles the fun.
More than 28 million adults - 22 percent of all couples married or living together - were in mixed-religion unions in 2001, according to, "Religion in A Free Market" ( Paramount Market Publishing, $49.95) by professors Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
The percentage of Jews married outside their faith rose from only 13 percent before 1970 to approximately 47 percent in 2001, based on data from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, sponsored by the United Jewish Communities, the organization representing North American Jewish federations and communities.
"The reasons relate to the greater assimilation of Jews in the general culture," says Micah Sachs, managing editor of InterfaithFamily.com. "There has been a decline in anti-Semitism. And in the last 10 to 15 years, at least, the general culture has promoted more multi culturalism, and there's been greater geographic mobility of people of all faiths."
Different families have different approaches to the December holidays.
The D'Amore- Braver family celebrates both.
The Chandra family of Farmington Hills celebrates Christmas because that's the tradition for Sherri Chandra, who was raised a Methodist. Her husband, Jim Chandra, is Hindu. The two biggest religious holidays, called pujas, among Hindu people of Bengali descent like Jim are Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja. The Chandras and their three children - Anjali, 9; Kayley, 7, and Dustin, 1 - celebrate them with as much enthusiasm as they celebrate Christmas.
"My mom used to say, `It's just different paths to the same person,'" says Jim Chandra, who attended Catholic schools while growing up in India. "There's no conflict. Christmas is a national holiday in India."
The Karim family of Detroit does things a little differently. Isaac Karim, 68, a Muslim, does not celebrate Christmas, but he buys gifts during the Christmas season for his wife of 26 years, Barbara, 64, who is Baptist.
"As a matter of fact, she often times insists on it. You know how you women are; you run the world," he says.
Karim joins his wife's family for Christmas dinner, but leaves decorating their home to Barbara Karim. She goes to the Muslim Center of Detroit, where he worships, for special events.
He feels no qualms or conflicts about living in a home decked in Christmas finery.
"A few of my buddies were just discussing this," he says recently. "In Islam, we believe that God is in control of everything. So that means he controls all religions. So I don't have a conflict with any other religions. Christmas comes and goes. The key thing in any relationship is communication and keeping an open mind."
Not everyone agrees that a person committed to one faith should celebrate the holidays of another faith.
The D'Amore-Bravers recalled that one year one of Arnie's Jewish friends was appalled to learn that Arnie was decorating a Christmas tree with his family.
"He asked, `How could you have that Teutonic symbol in your house?'" Arnie recalls.
"My response was, A: I enjoy it; and B: it's Andrea's tradition," says Arnie. "We need to be egalitarian in our relationship."
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© 2006, Detroit Free Press.
Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Atop the coffee table sits a display of five menorahs - most of them made by Arnie and Andrea's two sons, Alex and Andrew, over the years.
Inside on a recent Monday evening, the family string lights and place bows and ornaments to adorn the Christmas tree between their living and dining rooms.
While they decorate, the family listens to a CD that - like their decorations - celebrates both Christianity and Judaism.
While many families are getting ready for the busy holiday season, the challenges multiply for those in which the spouses are of different faiths, like the D'Amore-Bravers.
Arnie D'Amore-Braver, 55, is Jewish. His wife, Andrea D'Amore-Braver, 48, was raised Catholic.
The family attends the Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills, Mich., but celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday.
Like other interfaith couples, they have found that sharing in and respecting each other's faiths and traditions keeps the spirit of the season alive in their households. Rather than diminishing one religion or the other, observing both holidays allows them to learn about and experience other cultures. Plus, it doubles the fun.
More than 28 million adults - 22 percent of all couples married or living together - were in mixed-religion unions in 2001, according to, "Religion in A Free Market" ( Paramount Market Publishing, $49.95) by professors Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
The percentage of Jews married outside their faith rose from only 13 percent before 1970 to approximately 47 percent in 2001, based on data from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, sponsored by the United Jewish Communities, the organization representing North American Jewish federations and communities.
"The reasons relate to the greater assimilation of Jews in the general culture," says Micah Sachs, managing editor of InterfaithFamily.com. "There has been a decline in anti-Semitism. And in the last 10 to 15 years, at least, the general culture has promoted more multi culturalism, and there's been greater geographic mobility of people of all faiths."
Different families have different approaches to the December holidays.
The D'Amore- Braver family celebrates both.
The Chandra family of Farmington Hills celebrates Christmas because that's the tradition for Sherri Chandra, who was raised a Methodist. Her husband, Jim Chandra, is Hindu. The two biggest religious holidays, called pujas, among Hindu people of Bengali descent like Jim are Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja. The Chandras and their three children - Anjali, 9; Kayley, 7, and Dustin, 1 - celebrate them with as much enthusiasm as they celebrate Christmas.
"My mom used to say, `It's just different paths to the same person,'" says Jim Chandra, who attended Catholic schools while growing up in India. "There's no conflict. Christmas is a national holiday in India."
The Karim family of Detroit does things a little differently. Isaac Karim, 68, a Muslim, does not celebrate Christmas, but he buys gifts during the Christmas season for his wife of 26 years, Barbara, 64, who is Baptist.
"As a matter of fact, she often times insists on it. You know how you women are; you run the world," he says.
Karim joins his wife's family for Christmas dinner, but leaves decorating their home to Barbara Karim. She goes to the Muslim Center of Detroit, where he worships, for special events.
He feels no qualms or conflicts about living in a home decked in Christmas finery.
"A few of my buddies were just discussing this," he says recently. "In Islam, we believe that God is in control of everything. So that means he controls all religions. So I don't have a conflict with any other religions. Christmas comes and goes. The key thing in any relationship is communication and keeping an open mind."
Not everyone agrees that a person committed to one faith should celebrate the holidays of another faith.
The D'Amore-Bravers recalled that one year one of Arnie's Jewish friends was appalled to learn that Arnie was decorating a Christmas tree with his family.
"He asked, `How could you have that Teutonic symbol in your house?'" Arnie recalls.
"My response was, A: I enjoy it; and B: it's Andrea's tradition," says Arnie. "We need to be egalitarian in our relationship."
------------
© 2006, Detroit Free Press.
Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
