Today is the First Day of Hannukah!
Without Hannukah, there is no Christmas! Well, sort of. The coming of the Messiah is a promise from God, so Christmas would have happened some other way if Hannukah had not been a reality. Why is Christmas owing to Hannukah? Well, Hannukah, the Miracle of the Lights, is the celebration of not only the recovery of Jerusalem by the Maccabees from the Greco-Syrian oppressors, but also the re-dedication of the Second Temple. The miracle was that the invaders had destroyed all the sacred oil, except for enough to last one day for the sanctuary lamps, and the process to bless new oil took 8 days. They started with the blessing of the oil - and the one lamp which should have only lasted the one day - remained lit for all eight days!
The victory over the Greco-Syrian oppressors was significant too because their aim was to totally annihilate the Jewish people from the earth - had they succeeded, there would have been no generation from David for the Messiah to come to us, as prophesied. Again, God would have found another way - but this is the way He used.
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