Oh, I really like that framing. I am two things at once: I LOVE Chanukah and associate it with such warm, homey, family memories, and continuing to share that tradition with people I love is really important to me; also, I'm highly aware that religiously speaking Chanukah is a minor holiday, and has taken on this outsized importance in the US because of its proximity to Christmas, so when people go too far in the direction of treating it like the Jewish equivalent to Christmas it starts to make me wary, because that just feels like yet another form of assimilation. (Which, the whole point of Chanukah is celebrating resistance to that!) But framing Chanukah as a "disapora holiday" clicks and makes sense to me – thank you!

(ps I would love to read that Chanukah/Christmas dinner!)