So much to celebrate

LEXINGTON -- Luckily for the Balsoms, the holiday calendars collide in this way only every few decades. Otherwise, the Lexington family of four might have to move.

This year the Hanukkah menorah competes for mantel space with a pair of Christmas stockings and swag. Overhanging the Christmas tree in the crowded living room is a metallic ribbon of glittery dreidels and Jewish stars. A Kwanzaa kinara, a candelabra, is wedged into the front window.

''Welcome to Chrismahanukwanzakah," said David Balsom, whose blended family has celebrated Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa since he and his wife, Tasha, adopted their two children, both black, who are now teenagers.

Hanukkah and Christmas are usually far enough apart to give interfaith families time to recover from high-calorie meals and long visits from guests. But this year, even before the glow of new Christmas gifts faded, yesterday it was time to light the candles for the first night of Hanukkah. Kwanzaa, the celebration of African culture, always begins the day after Christmas.

''Baruch atah adonai. . ." intoned the Balsoms in unison, as Christmas Day dimmed into Hanukkah.

David, 52, producer of a classical music radio program, ''From the Top," was raised as a Reform Jew. Tasha, 51, who runs a family day care, grew up as a Unitarian. Even though neither was particularly religious, they decided early in their relationship that they wanted to celebrate both of their heritages. When they adopted Leo and Mia, now 14 and 17, they added Kwanzaa to the mix.

''We're a very diverse family and it's important to us that we celebrate all the different elements that make us a family," David said. ''In our transracial family, we felt an obligation to be as expansive in what we exposed our family to as we could be."

To the Balsoms, the holidays are more about culture than religion. To make their Christmas tree a more secular symbol, for example, a monkey sits at the top instead of a star.

''I don't celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus," David said. ''I celebrate it as 'Peace on Earth, good will toward men."

He also considers Hanukkah more political than religious. His Christmas stocking yesterday was filled with Hanukkah gelt, the traditional chocolate coins, a mixed message that might be considered sinful by more conservative believers of either religion. ''It never occurred to me that I might have to atone for it later, on Yom Kippur," he said, referring to the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Despite their mixed upbringing, the children identify mostly with Unitarianism, they said, attending a local church regularly and a special Christmas Eve candlelighting service in Cambridge. The story of Hanukkah? ''All I know is the lights stayed lit for eight nights and it was ca-razy," joked Mia, who will attend Trinity College in Connecticut next fall.

Celebrating two holidays, they said, is ho-ho-hum. But marking Kwanzaa, they said, sets them apart. ''I don't know anyone else who celebrates Kwanzaa," Leo said.

''I bring it up as a punchline," said Mia. ''I tell my friends, 'Happy Kwanzaa,' as a joke."

The December three-fer requires a lot of time, and a refined sense of humor.

Yesterday was mostly about Christmas. The Balsoms followed their usual Christmas routine: They dug into their stockings, opened presents under the tree, and ate their traditional pomegranates. (Mia got pearls, and Leo got video games. Their 4-year-old black lab, Casey, got a fresh can of tennis balls.)

Then the family packed up the car and headed to Gloucester for a Christmas brunch with Tasha's mother and stepfather.

By midafternoon they were back home, preparing to light the menorah. Then came the traditional Christmas ham dinner, prepared by David, followed by a family viewing of ''Elf," the 2003 Christmas movie in which Will Ferrell plays a human raised as an elf in the North Pole.

But the festivities won't end there.

For the Balsoms, this week will be crammed with other holiday rites -- lighting the Kwanzaa candles, preparing their traditional Hanukkah meal of brisket and latkes, a special Kwanzaa meal (barbecue) on New Year's night, the eighth night of Hanukkah. And during the week, family members will trade Hanukkah and Kwanzaa gifts. For Kwanzaa, which lasts seven days, the gifts are usually homemade, like pieces of pottery or picture frames.

Two years ago, Leo's Kwanzaa gift to his father was a collection of haikus he'd written to persuade his father to buy him a PlayStation 2 video game system. It worked.

By the end of December, the family may be drained, physically and financially, but the living room will be awash in candlelight.

''I figure by New Year's Day, we'll have 15 candles going," said David. ''We'll celebrate Hanukkah, and the solstice, and then Christmas and Kwanzaa. We'll just light stuff continually . . ."

''And then there'll be an intense explosion," interrupted Tasha, with a laugh.