{"id":90914,"date":"2025-12-24T15:08:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=90914"},"modified":"2025-12-24T15:08:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:08:22","slug":"the-data-is-in-for-many-in-the-northeast-christmas-isnt-christmas-without-chinese-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/the-data-is-in-for-many-in-the-northeast-christmas-isnt-christmas-without-chinese-food\/","title":{"rendered":"The data is in: For many in the Northeast, Christmas isn\u2019t Christmas without Chinese food"},"content":{"rendered":"

By GRACE GILSON<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 It\u2019s not just a myth that Jews head to Chinese restaurants on Christmas. It\u2019s science!<\/p>\n

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Table with dishes served family style on a rotating centerpiece at SparX Fine Chinese Cuisine on July 8, 2019 in Halfmoon, New York. (Lori Van Buren\/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sort of. A new report from the financial services company Coventry Direct claims to have quantified the trend. The report analyzed search data for \u201cChinese food near me\u201d during the week of Christmas from 2020 to 2024, and found that the Northeast dominated the results.<\/p>\n

The top five states included Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and New Hampshire, while New York, which is home to the largest Jewish population in the country, came in seventh place. Under the assumption that Jews are overrepresented in the Northeast, the study confirms that Coventry Direct is not peer-reviewed.<\/p>\n

The study also analyzed Google search trends over the past year to find the top-searched Chinese food dish in each state. While Szechuan chicken was the most popular dish, taking first place in eight states, New York\u2019s most searched item was Buddha\u2019s Delight, a \u2014 IYKYK \u2014 vegetarian stew.<\/p>\n

The Jewish Christmas tradition was famously referenced during Elena Kagan\u2019s United States Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2010 when she was asked where she was on Christmas day:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant,\u201d replied Kagan.<\/p>\n

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Two men enjoy Chinese cuisine prepared by Chinese chefs within the guidelines of kosher food preparation at a restaurant. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In recent years around Christmas, social media has also been flooded with images of a sign where the seemingly fictional \u201cChinese Restaurant Association\u201d of America thanks its Jewish diners for their patronage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chinese Restaurant Association of the United States would like to extend our thanks to the Jewish people,\u201d the sign reads. \u201cWe do not completely understand your dietary customs \u2026 but we are proud and grateful that your GOD insist you eat our food on Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the now-ubiquitous tradition of Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas traces back to the early 20th century, when Jewish immigrants began carving out distinctly American rituals of their own. If for no other reasons, Chinese restaurants were more likely to be open on Christmas.<\/p>\n

A classic 1993 study on the tradition, \u201cNew York Jews and Chinese Food: The Social Construction of an Ethnic Pattern,\u201d by Gaye Tuchman and Harry Levine, traced the Jewish affinity for Chinese food to a few factors: Chinese restaurants at the time \u201cwelcomed everyone,\u201d offered flavors familiar to an Eastern European Jewish palate and were considered a \u201csophisticated\u201d dining experience for new-ish, Jewish Americans stepping outside their comfort zones.<\/p>\n

While Chinese restaurants do not typically offer kosher fare, Tuchman and Levine also argued that Chinese restaurants were viewed as \u201csafe treyf\u201d because Chinese cuisine rarely mixes milk and meat and ingredients like pork and shrimp are chopped into hard-to-identify pieces.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the longstanding tradition, a comedy club in New York\u2019s East Village is set to host \u201cKosher Chinese: The Comedy Show,\u201d with patrons enjoying kosher dumplings and an \u201cunapologetically alternative holiday spirit we all secretly love.\u201d In San Francisco, the 33rd Annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy show kicks off tonight, and runs through Friday, Dec. 26.<\/p>\n

From Massachusetts to Ohio, Jewish delis have also planned their own Chinese-inspired menus to mark the tradition.<\/p>\n

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