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Entertainment November 30, 2016
Jewish actress Natalie Portman has been waiting 35 years to have a Christmas tree, and this holiday season she’ll be getting her wish.
“I’m so excited. My whole life [there’s been] no Christmas tree,” Portman told Jimmy Fallon. “And then all of a sudden I have this great excuse because it’s kind of every Jew’s secret wish to have a Christmas tree.”
Portman explained on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” that she typically celebrates Hanukkah with her family and Christmas with her husband Benjamin Millepied’s family. However, because Hanukkah begins on Christmas Eve this year, Portman said that the two families will be joining celebrations – Christmas tree and all.
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The Oscar winning actress, who is drawing awards buzz again for playing Jackie Kennedy in latest movie “Jackie,” was born in Israel and has been a proud supporter of her heritage and of Jewish causes. She has been outspoken against anti-Semitism and has talked about how supporting Israel is an issue of survival.
According to Portman, she’s very comfortable with using her celebrity status on behalf of Israeli causes. “I’m currently exploring ways to help because I love my country,” she said in a 2006 interview with Hillel International. “[Defending Israel] has become a much bigger part of my identity in recent years because it’s become an issue of survival.”
Since then, she’s continued to speak about the importance of educating people about Jews and anti-Semitism. “I think a really big question the Jewish community needs to ask itself is how much at the forefront we put Holocaust education,” the actress said in 2015. “I don’t mean to make false equivalences. We need it to serve as something that makes us empathetic to people rather than paranoid.”
Every year, Portman celebrates Hanukkah as a part of celebrating her culture and beliefs. But this year, she’ll also be gushing over her first “Christmas-Hanukkah tree,” as Jimmy Fallon calls it.
Watch the video above to see her holiday excitement. Natalie has something else to be excited about – she and her husband are expecting their second child in the spring.
READ MORE: Natalie Portman Stars as Jackie O. in New Movie (VIDEO)
