Tag: Business

• Jimmy Carter was the first president to recognize Hanukkah with a menorah lighting in 1979.
• The first official White House Hanukkah party took place in 2001, hosted by George W. Bush.
• Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump have continued to host Hanukkah receptions.

The White House hasn't always marked the Festival of Lights with menorah lightings and musical performances.

Official Christmas celebrations date back to the 1800s, but celebrating Hanukkah at the White House is a fairly recent development in US history.

President John Adams hosted the first White House Christmas party in 1800, and President Calvin Coolidge held the first National Christmas Tree lighting in 1923. Jacqueline Kennedy began the tradition of choosing a theme for the White House Christmas decorations in 1961.

Still, the first official White House Hanukkah reception wasn't held until 2001.

Take a look at the fascinating history of how the White House Hanukkah party came to be.

President Jimmy Carter was the first president to recognize Hanukkah by lighting a menorah in 1979.

The menorah lighting was held on the Ellipse, a lawn south of the White House.

The secretary of the interior under Carter initially refused to issue a permit for a menorah on the White House lawn, citing the First Amendment, The Washington Post reported. But Stu Eizenstat, one of Carter's advisors, argued that the National Christmas Tree's permit should also be denied on the same grounds, and the event was allowed to proceed.

Since then, every US president has marked Hanukkah in one way or another.

A delegation of rabbis brought President Ronald Reagan a menorah during a Hanukkah visit in 1984.

Reagan maintained contact with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement, throughout his presidency, even declaring his 80th birthday a National Day of Reflection, according to Chabad.org.

President George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush learned to play dreidel, a traditional Hanukkah game, in 1990.

Bush invited children to light Hanukkah candles and play dreidel at the Old Executive Building, which sits adjacent to the White House.

President Bill Clinton also celebrated Hanukkah by hosting groups of children in the Oval Office.

Children from local schools and synagogues were welcomed into the Oval Office to light the menorah and play dreidel with Clinton.

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush hosted the first White House Hanukkah party in 2001. It was the first time a menorah lighting ceremony had been held in the White House residence.

The Bushes invited members of their staff and their children to participate in the ceremony, according to the archived Bush White House's website. The menorah was lit in the Booksellers' room on the ground floor, and a kosher buffet was served upstairs, The New York Times reported.

"Tonight, for the first time in American history, the Hanukkah menorah will be lit at the White House residence," Bush said at the ceremony. "It's a symbol that this house may be a temporary home for Laura and me, but it's the people's house, and it belongs to people of all faiths."

The White House kitchen was made kosher for Hanukkah celebrations starting in 2005.

Making the White House kitchen kosher involves Saran Wrap, tin foil, and vats of boiling water to cover and purify non-kosher surfaces. The chefs use only certified kosher ingredients.

Matt Nosanchuk served as the White House's associate director of public engagement and liaison to the American Jewish community during Obama's second term. He told Business Insider that there used to be separate tables for kosher and non-kosher food at Bush's Hanukkah parties, but one year, the labels were accidentally switched.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, a Chabad rabbi in Washington, DC, who worked closely with the White House staff to prepare kosher food, suggested making the entire reception kosher to avoid confusion in the future, Nosanchuk said.

"Apparently, President Bush said, 'Do whatever you need to do, it's fine,' and Rabbi Shemtov was like, 'Well, you're going to have to stay out of the kitchen for 24 hours before the party,'" Nosanchuk said.

Bush also began inviting different Jewish choirs and a cappella groups to perform at the event.

The Kol Zimra a cappella choir performed at a menorah lighting ceremony before the White House Hanukkah reception in 2004.

President Barack Obama continued hosting the White House Hanukkah party every year. In 2013, the party was split into two receptions: one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

The two identical receptions were hosted on the same day, so that the White House kitchen only has to be made kosher once.

"Given how crowded the previous parties had become, they decided to have two," Nosanchuk said.

That was also the year Thanksgiving coincided with Hanukkah. Obama was presented with a turkey-shaped menorah known as a "menurkey."

In 2013, then-10-year-old Asher Weintraub invented a "menurkey," a menorah shaped like a turkey. He raised over $48,000 on Kickstarter to produce and sell them.

"Of course, I said we gotta invite this kid to the White House Hanukkah party," Nosanchuk said. "We didn't use the menurkey onstage, but we made sure the kid was up front on the rope line so that he could say hello to President Obama and present him with a menurkey. And President Obama loved the menurkey."

Obama continued the tradition of inviting college and professional a cappella groups to sing at the event.

Mike Boxer performed with the Jewish a cappella group Six13 at the White House Hanukkah reception in 2016. He told Business Insider the performers usually sing in the foyer outside the party for about an hour, welcoming guests as they enter, and then have a private audience with the president and first lady.

Before meeting the Obamas, Boxer and his group were told to prepare 45 seconds of a song to perform for them. They chose a snippet from "A Hamilton Chanukah," a medley of songs from the Broadway musical "Hamilton" rewritten with Hanukkah-themed lyrics.

Boxer said that their private concert featured some unexpected guests.

"We look over, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor are peering through the door," he said. "Barack Obama goes, 'Come in, come in.' One of them said, 'I love this stuff.'"

Notable American Jewish leaders and rabbis were also invited to deliver remarks at the two ceremonies.

In his public engagement role at the White House, Nosanchuk was responsible for the guest list of the Hanukkah reception. Every year, the list was built from scratch to include as many new people as possible.

"I went out of my way to invite people who had never been before, who had done interesting and important and valuable work in the Jewish community or in their broader community," he said. "There were a wide array of constituencies and groups and individuals who we wanted to engage with and touch during these holiday receptions. The Hanukkah receptions were a subset of that larger group."

Mordechai Levovitz attended the White House Hanukkah party twice during Obama's presidency and was impressed with the event's broad representation of the Jewish community.

Levovitz is the founder of Jewish Queer Youth, a nonprofit serving LGBTQ+ youth from Orthodox, Hasidic, and Sephardic homes. He was invited as a representative of the Jewish LGBTQ+ community, along with other leaders of Jewish LGBTQ+ organizations.

"It was really nice to see great LGBTQ representation there," he said of the Hanukkah parties he attended. "I felt seen. I saw leaders of every Jewish LGBTQ organization there, and they saw me."

He told Business Insider that the White House knows how to throw a good Hanukkah party.

"Any Orthodox Jew knows that kosher food can really go either way, especially kosher catering. This caterer does an amazing job," he said. "There's a room with a huge smorgasbord of food, and then there's a cutting board on the side giving out the lamb chops, and that's where the line is. They are delicious."

President Donald Trump continued hosting Hanukkah receptions at the White House during his first term, but didn't invite Democratic lawmakers.

Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, is Jewish. She converted before marrying her husband, Jared Kushner.

The New York Times reported in 2017 that Trump broke with tradition by excluding Democratic lawmakers from the guest list of what had previously been a bipartisan event. 

In 2020, the Trump White House held indoor Hanukkah parties despite CDC warnings against large gatherings. Trump only attended the evening reception.

Then-chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump, Stephanie Grisham, told Business Insider in a statement that masks would be required and provided at the events, hand-sanitizing stations would be set up, chefs would serve food from behind plexiglass barriers, and that the guest lists were "smaller." She did not respond to Business Insider's questions about the exact number of invited guests. 

The Times of Israel reported that Trump attended only the evening Hanukkah reception, where he falsely claimed that with the help of "certain very important people, if they have wisdom and if they have courage, we are going to win this election." Joe Biden had already been declared the winner the previous month.

Three days after the party, vice chairman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee Tom Mountain was hospitalized with COVID-19, which he attributed to his attendance at the event.

"Let's put it this way: When I went down to Washington, DC, for the White House Hanukkah event, I was perfectly fine," Mountain told NBC affiliate WJAR. "And three days later after that event, I was in the hospital … ready to be put on a lifesaving ventilator."

In 2021, second gentleman Doug Emhoff led the menorah lighting at the White House Hanukkah party and spoke about his Jewish heritage.

"To think that today, I'm here before you as the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president celebrating Hanukkah, in the people's house, it's humbling, and it's not lost on me that I stand before you all on behalf of all the Jewish families and communities out there across our country," Emhoff said. "I understand that, and I really appreciate it."

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency's Ron Kampeas reported that invitations to the in-person White House Hanukkah party on December 1 were sent out a week before the event, and that holiday plans took shape relatively last-minute due to COVID-19 concerns surrounding in-person events.

In 2022, the Bidens added a Hanukkah menorah to the White House Christmas decorations for the first time.

Located in the Cross Hall, the menorah was built by White House carpenters using leftover wood from a Truman-era White House renovation.

In addition to the regular White House Hanukkah gathering on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff hosted the first-ever Hanukkah party at the vice president's residence.

Trump once again hosted the White House Hanukkah reception in 2025 when he returned for his second non-consecutive term.

"As president of the United States, I will always support Jewish Americans," Trump said during the celebration, "and I will always be a friend and a champion of the Jewish people."

Outside the White House, menorah lightings are still held on the Ellipse, and the event has continued to grow in scale.

The National Menorah is now a 30-foot-tall structure that requires a lift from a cherry picker to light.

This year's National Menorah Lighting, broadcast on C-SPAN, took place on December 14.

• Rohit Prasad launched Amazon's AGI team two years ago.
• Prasad led Amazon efforts to develop leading AI models.
• Amazon will reorganize its AGI and AI model work under AWS executive Peter DeSantis.

The executive who led Amazon's efforts to build top AI models is out.

Rohit Prasad, SVP and head scientist, is leaving two years after launching a new Artificial General Intelligence group.

CEO Andy Jassy said Prasad plans to depart at the end of the year. Prasad was elevated to report directly to Jassy in 2023 to lead the AGI team, which was tasked with developing Amazon's "most ambitious" AI models, Business Insider reported at the time.

Since then, Prasad helped launch Amazon's Nova family of AI models. Although Nova models earned some praise for their efficiency, they still trail frontier models such as OpenAI's GPT offerings, Anthropic's Claude Opus, and Google's Gemini.

As part of the shake-up, Amazon is creating a new organization under Peter DeSantis, AWS's SVP of Utility Computing, Jassy said. The group will oversee Amazon's AGI and AI model initiatives as well as its silicon chip and quantum computing efforts.

Jassy also said that Pieter Abbeel, the co-founder of robotics startup Covariant, who joined Amazon last year, will now lead the company's frontier AI model research team.

Prasad's departure is the latest in a series of leadership changes at AWS. Over the past year, the company has seen several executives depart, including VP of AI Matt Wood and VP of generative AI Vasi Philomin, while bringing in new talent such as former Microsoft executive Julia White as chief marketing officer.

AWS also recently hired David Richardson as VP of AgentCore and Joe Hellerstein as Vice President and Distinguished Scientist, and added Chet Kapoor as VP of security services and observability.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ekim@businessinsider.com or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Netflix and Paramount are battling over Warner Bros. Discovery.
• Both say they're the best owner for some of Hollywood's crown jewels.
• Scroll down to see BI's team unpack what the fight means for viewers and media at large, live Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Hollywood's latest clash of the titans: Netflix versus Paramount.

The two companies are battling to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (or, in Netflix's case, just its streaming and studios assets).

The fight pits Paramount's David Ellison, backed by his father Larry's billions, against entertainment's reigning champion of paid streaming.

WBD accepted Netflix's bid, but it's far from over, as Paramount went hostile last week with its own $108 billion offer. The WBD board on Wednesday recommended that shareholders reject that hostile offer. Now, it's Ellison's move. Will he sweeten his bid?

There are many facets to this story — and why it's happening now — ranging from politics and antitrust to the rise of the creator economy.

Business Insider's chief media and tech correspondent, Peter Kafka, and deputy media editor Nathan McAlone will answer the key questions about the deal and its implications, live on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Email your questions to Nathan McAlone.

• YouTube announced that it will hold the global rights to the Oscars starting in 2029.
• It's a major victory as streamers compete over the finite number of marquee live events.
• Historically, the Oscars are one of the most-watched telecasts of the entire year.

Hollywood's biggest night is going to a streamer.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday that YouTube will hold the global rights to the Oscars from 2029 through 2033.

The news comes as streamers like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, and others, increasingly compete over live events to host on their respective platforms. Historically, the Oscars are one of the most-watched nights of TV, and in non-presidential election years, it is often the only non-sporting event to chart within the top 100 most-watched telecasts of the year.

"The Oscars are one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry," YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, said in a statement. "Partnering with the Academy to bring this celebration of art and entertainment to viewers all over the world will inspire a new generation of creativity and film lovers while staying true to the Oscars' storied legacy."

Disney and ABC will continue to hold the rights to the Oscars through 2028.

This post is developing…

• Ray Dalio and his wife are joining the list of billionaires backing the president's Trump Accounts.
• Through Dalio Philanthropies, the couple will donate $250 to 300,000 Connecticut children.
• BlackRock also announced it would provide a $1,000 match for all eligible US employees.

Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has joined the list of billionaires backing President Donald Trump's new plan to give $1,000 to every child born in the next three years.

Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, and his wife, Barbara, will donate $250 to about 300,000 children in Connecticut who live in zip codes where the median family income is $150,000 or less, Dalio Philanthropies said in a press release.

"Barbara and I believe strongly in the importance of equal opportunity and believe this initiative is an important step in that direction," Ray Dalio said in the release. "I have lived the American dream. At an early age, I was exposed to the stock market, and it changed my life. By providing children with savings accounts that compound over time, we are providing them with early insights into financial literacy and a path towards financial independence."

BlackRock, too, announced on Wednesday that it would "offer an employee match to the US government contribution of $1,000 for all eligible US employees to Trump Accounts."

Several other business leaders, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, have also committed to contributing funds to the accounts of their employees' children, according to Invest America, the federal program spearheaded by Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner that is now commonly known as "Trump Accounts." BNY, a financial services company, also announced last week that it would match Trump Account funds for its employees.

Since June, some of the country's wealthiest individuals have been lining up behind Trump's plan to provide a one-time, tax-free federal grant of $1,000 to every American child born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028. The accounts will be in the child's name, but their parent will remain the sole custodian until the child turns 18. Others can contribute up to an additional $5,000 tax-free to those accounts every year.

The program will officially launch on July 4, 2026.

The Dalios' donation follows a substantial commitment from Michael and Susan Dell, who pledged to deposit $250 into the accounts of 25 million American kids — about $6.25 billion — earlier this month. The payments will be automatically deposited into the account of any child who fits the criteria and opens a Trump Account.

Dalio Philanthropies and BlackRock did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• The Marine Corps' new mobile air defense solution is in full-rate production.
• MADIS converts a pair of light vehicles into a counter-drone and anti-aircraft weapon.
• The system is a key part of the Marines' plans for the next decade.

The Marine Corps has a new air defense system built to transform light vehicles into mobile weapons for shooting down drones and other aircraft.

The technology is intended to equip Marines with a new way to deal with drones and other aerial threats, the service announced this week. As the war in Ukraine has shown, the ability to counter these types of threats is critical in modern conflict.

The new Marine Air Defense Integration System, or MADIS, entered full-rate production earlier this fall after training and live-fire exercises. Placed on top of a pair of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, MADIS converts the vehicles into a single short-ranged ground-based air defense system.

The vehicles work together, with one focused on countering drones and the other geared toward helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. MADIS uses Stinger missiles and a 30mm cannon for those targets, and it also comes with radars and electronic warfare systems. Marines can also use MADIS while on the move, giving the service a mobile air defense option.

It's a capability boost over the service's Man-Portable Air Defense System, or MANPAD, which Marines would've had to equip themselves and leave vehicles to use. MADIS is also capable of being upgraded over time, depending on what types of threats Marines are facing and what weapons they need for specific missions.

MADIS, developed by the Norwegian firm Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace, has undergone several iterations since its initial prototype. The Marine Corps said its full-rate production version has sensors, algorithms, and mobility that allow Marines to locate, target, and destroy threats faster and better than before. Its first live-fire exercise took place during joint US-Philippine military training earlier this year.

Marine Corps officials have said MADIS fills a gap in their air defense arsenal and is unique because it can complete the entire kill chain. Marines can use it to find and identify targets and then take them out rather than relying on several systems to do the same.

MADIS also addresses Marine Corps concerns around how to defeat small uncrewed aerial systems in a potential future war.

Since MADIS is mobile, it gives Marines a new way to defend forward-deployed forces — especially in a potential future fight against a sophisticated adversary like China.

As the Marine Corps reshapes its force for operations across the first island chain, from Japan to Taiwan to the Philippines, it needs systems that can move quickly and deliver more firepower against a wide range of aerial threats.

• On Wednesday, Manhattan federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against two Tricolor executives.
• Founder Daniel Chu and COO David Goodgame were charged with "systematically defrauding" lenders.
• Tricolor's collapse left banks exposed to hundreds of millions in loan losses.

By August 2025, top executives of auto lender Tricolor knew they were in trouble: The company had pledged approximately $2.2 billion of collateral to lenders and investors, but only had approximately $1.4 billion of real collateral, Manhattan federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Founder Daniel Chu and the company's Chief Operating Officer David Goodgame, who were arrested and charged with bank fraud and wire fraud on Wednesday, planned to frighten at least one lender into a favorable deal, prosecutors allege. According to the indictment, the executives discussed telling a lender that the company might otherwise implode, much like the energy trading firm Enron in 2001, if a deal wasn't reached. This would be bad for the lender because it would put them at risk of losing everything.

"Enron obviously has a nice ring to it, right?" Chu said when discussing with other Tricolor executives how to deal with one particular lender who had figured out the double-pledging issue.

"I mean, Enron, Enron raises the blood pressure of the lender when they see that. It, it has to, right?" Chu said while laughing, documents show.

It's just one of several recorded conversations that emerged as part of a newly unsealed indictment against Chu and Goodgame. The indictment accused the men of orchestrating a years-long scheme to defraud banks and other private credit providers.

Chu is expected to be presented in a Florida court on Wednesday. Goodgame should be presented in a Texas court on Thursday. The men could not be immediately reached for comment.

Tricolor rocked the banking industry when it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in September, leaving lenders like JPMorgan, Fifth Third Bank, and Jefferies exposed.

At the time of the company's September 10 bankruptcy, its largest lenders were owed more than $900 million "as a result of the fraudulent double-pledging and collateral manipulation schemes" orchestrated by Chu and supported by Goodgame, the feds said.

But that didn't stop Chu from using company money to enrich himself, according to prosecutors. They said Chu directed another executive to pay him the final installments of a $15 million bonus as the company approached bankruptcy, resulting in two payments from Tricolor totaling $6.25 million. Chu then used some of this money to purchase a multimillion-dollar property in Beverly Hills, California — weeks before Tricolor filed for Chapter 7, the feds said.

The back-to-back bankruptcies of Tricolor and auto parts company First Brands have raised questions about the health of the credit market, prompting JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon to tell investors that he has his "antenna" up.

"When you see one cockroach, there's probably more," Dimon said on the bank's third-quarter earnings call with analysts.

• High mortgage rates have revived interest in creative financing options, including seller financing.
• Home sellers offering loans to their buyers is increasingly common in higher-end transactions.
• It appeals to self-employed or cash-rich buyers, as well as sellers looking for an edge in the market.

Carson Austin began to worry after his home had been sitting on the market for a couple of months with barely any interest from potential buyers.

It was early 2025, and he had listed the 4,600-square-foot Georgetown, Texas, property for $1.6 million, which he thought was a competitive price, comparable to other large homes in the area. But mortgage rates were hovering around 7%, keeping buyers out of the market and sales stagnant.

So Austin decided to try something a bit unconventional. He offered seller financing — an agreement in which the seller acts as the lender, typically providing the buyer with a short-term home loan. In Austin's case, he held firm on the home's sale price, but offered a below-market interest rate to entice buyers.

As soon as he offered the creative financing option, interest picked up. Within two days, the house was under contract with a buyer who agreed to a 35% down payment and a six-year seller-financed loan with a 4% interest rate. The sale closed just days later. Austin worked with a firm, MORE Seller Financing, to facilitate the deal, vetting and approving the buyer, and structuring the transaction with the help of lawyers and other specialists.

Austin said his buyer only came to see his house because of the below-market interest rate.

"I 100% know that the only reason that house sold, especially in that timeframe, was the owner financing — they told us that," he said.

Seller or owner financing gained popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when interest rates were sky-high, but it developed a bad reputation for lacking sufficient protections, particularly for buyers. Federal regulators have criticized the model for exploiting low-income buyers with high interest rates on low-quality homes in poor neighborhoods.

However, as mortgage rates have soared since 2022, the creative financing strategy has regained popularity, despite remaining a niche offering. The practice is increasingly common in higher-end home sales, according to Realtor.com. Sales involving seller financing grew by 8% in dollar volume to more than $30 billion between 2023 and 2024, according to Note Investor.

"This used to be kind of a sketchy thing that happened with really cheap properties and really under-qualified buyers, and now the median price is on par with what's on the market as a whole," said Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com. "So it's moving upmarket, becoming more widespread, happening on higher dollar properties."

The upsides and risks of seller financing

Seller financing often appeals to buyers who want a below-market interest rate or who are struggling to qualify for a traditional mortgage. The so-called bridge loan from the seller, typically lasting about three years, provides the buyer with time to wait for rates to come down and find a traditional mortgage. Meanwhile, sellers can get an edge in the market and benefit from earning interest on the loan.

Sellers often use the financing strategy to market a home that isn't selling. Both buyers and sellers can benefit from a quicker timeline and can avoid fees, including mortgage origination and appraisal costs.

"At its best, seller financing creates genuine win-wins," said Ryan Leahy, who founded MORE Seller Financing. "Sellers often preserve more equity and earn predictable income, while qualified buyers benefit from payments that can be meaningfully below market rates."

But the practice can be financially and legally risky without the right protections. Leahy said that seller financing can have "lots of pitfalls and risk if it's not done right." He said that his firm helps protect both parties by educating them about the process, ensuring the agreement is in compliance with the law, and connecting them with all the specialists they need, including residential mortgage loan originators, lawyers, title companies, and other servicers.

It's more popular with wealthier people in part because the transaction "requires financial stability and liquidity of the seller," Berner said, while the buyer needs "to be able to either change what's keeping them from getting a mortgage in three to five years, or rates to come down considerably in three to five years."

But while the financing type has gained popularity, it remains a niche practice. Less than 1% of home listings mention private financing, Berner said.

MORE deals with higher-end homes — typically valued between $800,000 and $3 million, Leahy said. Sellers typically have a fair amount of cash and equity in their property, allowing them to wait several years before receiving the full cash from their home sale. MORE's approved buyers are often self-employed with income that can be challenging to account for, making it more difficult to qualify for a mortgage.

"There's so many people out there self-employed or have income that doesn't qualify for a traditional mortgage, meaning you have influencer income, crypto income, side hustle income," Leahy said. "Seller financing isn't going away."

When another of MORE's clients turned to seller financing to sell his multi-million dollar Austin, Texas, home, he realized that his potential buyers faced a different conundrum. They could afford to buy a home all-cash, but preferred to invest their money elsewhere, avoiding high interest rates.

James S., who requested partial anonymity to protect his privacy, eventually sold his 5,200-square-foot house for $2.9 million in January 2025, providing the buyer with a three-year loan at a 5.5% interest rate.

"It's always that question: pay cash for a house or use that money for other things," he said. "People could take the money, and they could go invest in the stock market, they could do other business ventures."

James and his wife also didn't need all the cash from their home sale immediately. They haven't bought a new home yet and are instead living in furnished short-term rentals in California as they figure out their next steps.

"My mortgage is being paid down," James said. "And we make some money per month as well, so that's also good."

• I don't feel the need to go all out and exhaust myself so my family can have a magical Christmas.
• My kids enjoy abundant lives, thanks to travel and a variety of activities. They don't need more.
• I'm focusing on meaningful holiday experiences and teaching my kids that more isn't better.

Here's what you won't find in my house at Christmastime: Elf on the Shelf. December goody and craft boxes for the kids. Brand new matching Christmas pajamas. Holiday photo shoots. Forced Christmas card writing. Expensive tickets to line up at a crowded shopping center to see an overrated Santa.

Before you write me off as a Christmas Grinch who needs a visit from three ghosts in the middle of the night to reinvigorate my festive mojo, hear me out.

I don't want to be over-committed

Not going all out at Christmas is intentional for two reasons. Firstly, I don't want to be that frazzled mom who stretches herself in 20 different directions trying to create a magical Christmas for everyone, decorating the perfect house, and buying every gift on everyone's wish list.

I already have a full-time job, and I have no intention of taking on the unpaid role of Christmas Fairy.

My kids already have really nice lives

Secondly, my kids already lead highly privileged lives. The only time they have known hunger is when there's a long line at McDonald's. My 6-year-old son's extracurricular activities include French and fencing lessons — and no, he doesn't attend a fancy private school; they are just some of the many before- and after-school activity options we're lucky to have at our school.

Meanwhile, his 3-year-old brother's daycare has a chef who cooks him a hot, gourmet lunch every day. That certainly beats my microwaved canned soup.

Rather than spending excessive money on material things, we prefer to enrich our lives through travel. This year alone, we've taken family trips to the Seychelles, Finland, Australia, and Tenerife.

It's safe to say, then, that my kids live with abundance. We don't need the extra pressure to push that even further this month, just because we're told we're bad parents if we don't.

Other moms I know are following suit

I don't want December to be something that we dread and feel we have to get through, because we have created so many tasks that end up draining our energy, rather than use this period to reset before the New Year hits.

I know my fellow moms are experiencing this because I hear about it all the time. Recent stats show that here in the UK, where we live, 62 percent of moms say they find Christmas "fairly stressful," compared with 44 percent of dads, and 45 percent of women without children. I don't want to be one of those.

The other day, I overheard some moms at school pickup complaining about how much they had to do before Christmas, and how they were worried about running out of time. I felt like interrupting them to say, "But do you really need to do all of it? Who said you had to do it all?"

But before I could do that, they both came to the very wise conclusion that their New Year's resolution would be to commit to doing less. Instead of feeling guilty for my Grinch-like mindset, I felt like clapping out loud at their realization that many of our supposed Christmas commitments are self-imposed, and the world won't end if we say "no" to more things.

I have also spoken to other moms who are planning to prioritize what they find meaningful over what the typical Christmas movie might portray.

One friend is even doing away with the traditional roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings and instead putting together a grazing table of everyone's favorite foods.

As for us, we're also skipping the British tradition of the Christmas pantomime show this year. Many families look forward to a TV celebrity taking on the main part of a fairy godmother or an ugly sister in a campy fairy tale performed onstage. But with tickets for a family of four coming to several hundred dollars, it's hard to justify the expense each year.

We celebrate the season in meaningful ways

I want my kids to grow up feeling that their lives are already full, and that they don't need certain things just because other people have them, or social media and TV said they should have them.

That doesn't mean we're not embracing Christmas in our own way, focusing on people rather than following trends and holiday traditions that we didn't ask to inherit.

My oldest recently went with his class to a local nursing home to sing Christmas carols to the residents. I can only imagine how happy they must have felt to see 30 6- and 7-year-olds belting out "Jingle Bell Rock." My son was proud of his efforts, as was I, knowing that he had secretly learned the lesson of purpose over presents.

We create our own magic

So, no, I don't feel the need to manufacture what others may define as a magical Christmas.

This is what would be magical for me: Taking a break from relentless work deadlines, calls, and emails. Not having to leave the house at 8:30 a.m. to get to school. Having movie days in our pajamas. Taking walks in the windswept woods. Eating party food for lunch just because we can. Doing what we want, not what society tells us we should do.

It seems that our boys are already getting the message. For example, we asked them if they wanted to visit a shopping center in Santa, which can cost between $10 and $50, where we live. I was prepared to suck up for the sake of Christmas if they really needed the experience. They both shook their heads and said they'd already seen Santa drive down our actual street. What could top that?

This lesson seems to be translating into real life outside of Christmas as well. My oldest will turn 7 at the end of January, which is always a challenge to find the enthusiasm for after the holiday season. We offered to throw him a mini golf and pizza party just like the one he recently attended. His answer was that he'd prefer to just go out for a burger with a few of his best friends.

When kids realize that more isn't necessarily better, it's a life lesson that's hard to believe they've learned — and I'm convinced that keeping it real at Christmas is the key to that.

• Dennis Maguire worked on "Misery" and "Stand By Me" with director Rob Reiner, who was found dead Sunday.
• He remembers him as a caring, gregarious person who kept a reasonable schedule for the cast and crew.
• Both of their fathers also worked in film, and the two discussed father-son relationships on set.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dennis Maguire, who worked as Rob Reiner's first assistant director on "Misery" and the reshoots for "Stand By Me." On Sunday, Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

People liked Rob, and Rob liked people. He enjoyed life, and I know he gave back. Rob wasn't really flashy. Yes, he was born into royalty in Hollywood, but he wasn't pretentious at all, at least not in my experience with him. He was the real deal.

He was a big, gregarious guy with a big personality. And he was funny, of course. He was a huge baseball fanatic and a very intelligent guy who could talk about anything.

I first worked alongside Rob as his first assistant director for one week on "Stand by Me" reshoots, and later for another seven or eight months in 1990 on "Misery." Before his passing, I hadn't seen him in a number of years. He and Michele had a house in Malibu Colony, and sometimes I'd see them out and we'd chat for a while.

Some friends from "Misery" and I have been texting, calling, and emailing back and forth since we found out. We all want to commiserate. I couldn't sleep the first night because my mind was racing — I'm heartbroken. It's just a terrible, tragic thing.

Rob was an excellent director, but also took suggestions

Rob was a real director. A lot of directors are quiet and internal, but Rob was able to tell everybody — both cast and crew — what he wanted.

But he was also open to suggestions, which the crew appreciated.

Most of my career has been as an assistant director, and there are times when I'll say something to a director on the side, and they may or may not take it. There were a couple of times throughout the course of the movie when I offered suggestions to Rob, and he took them to heart, and they ended up in the movie. He was always grateful and generous about acknowledging things.

Rob worked quickly. He wasn't like other directors, doing 84 takes. As a director, he was very secure about whether he had a scene or not. And if he got it, he moved on.

He was well-respected on set

Rob was respected by both the people behind the camera and the actors. Actors wanted to work for him because he could speak their language, as a very talented actor himself.

He had a great relationship with the movie leads [on "Misery"], Kathy Bates and Jimmy Caan, because he knew what they were trying to do and how to get what he wanted for the performance.

Kathy was basically unknown at the time, and the studio didn't really want her because of that, but Rob fought for her. She ended up getting nominated for and winning an Academy Award for her role.

He kept our working hours more reasonable

The film industry has miserable, awful hours. In my career, I've worked 16-, 18-, and even 22-hour days. I've fallen asleep driving home from work twice.

Rob made a point of shooting what we consider short days — 10- or 11-hour days — so he wouldn't burn out the actors and so people could go home to their families. It was civilized.

Working in the film industry is taxing on relationships. But Rob was married to Michele for over 35 years —which is rare in Hollywood. It's almost unheard of.

Both of our fathers worked in the industry

Rob and I had good talks about father-son relationships.

We both had rockstar fathers in the industry who we idolized. His father (actor, director, and screenwriter Carl Reiner) had a massive career, and my father (film executive, producer, and assistant director Charles H. Maguire) worked on films like "On the Waterfront" and "Patriot Games," the latter of which I worked on with him.

Rob was a lover of film and Hollywood history, and as a third-generation industry guy myself, I also loved hearing old Hollywood stories, so I would get Lauren Bacall to tell stories when she sat on the set.

One time, she was in the middle of a story, and Rob looked around and realized the lighting was done. He asked me, "Well, should we interrupt her?" I was like, "If you want to, I kind of want to hear the rest of the story, Rob." He goes, "Do we have time?" And I said, "Rob, you own it. It's your company. You call the shots."

I learned an important lesson from Rob

Once, when we were filming up in Tahoe, we encountered some issues with the weather — I think the snow machines may not have been working properly — so we didn't fully finish the day's work. We were walking back to the car together, and he asked if I was OK. I said, "I'm just upset that I didn't make the day for you."

He looked at me, stopped, and said, "Dennis, I know you care. Don't worry about that. It's out of your control and out of my control. We do the best we can, and when weather and other factors beat us, it's not on us."

Thirty-five years later, I still remember that day, trudging back in the snow to go back to the hotel.

Rob, as a human being, did everything he could. I'm happy I had the opportunity to work for somebody like him.