Hanukkah or Chanukah is the Jewish festival of light. It starts early to mid December and lasts for eight days, it is similar to Christmas and New Year in the Christian religion. Presents are given to the children in the evening for each of the eight days, the presents very often include money. Specific food is prepared by all Jewish families and candles are lit, always in the same sequence, at the same time with the same prayers. Again it is the similarity of the whole Jewish community doing the same thing at the same time with the same prayers that is important, unifying everybody in the large family celebrating the Jewish religion.
A special candle stick is used, it has eight candle holders, all level. These are one for each day of the festival and are all level to show that each day is as important as the others. There is always a ninth candle holder, this is often raised, or forward. This candle is the server, the candle used to light the others. It always has a bigger candle in which usually stands proud. The server is lit to special blessings, then one candle is lit for each day into the festival. The candles are burned in the window for a set time each day, then blown out.
After a period in history that the Greeks were in Jerusalem and defiled the Temple with pork products and images of Greek gods, the Jews fought a battle and won Jerusalem back. They set about cleansing the temple and came to the end when they were ready to re-light the special candle in the tabernacle to show that G*d is always present. There was only enough oil to burn for one day. They lit it and a miracle happened. It burned for eight days. This is why the Hannukah festival lasts for eight days and why light is the main item in the celebration.
The main difference between Hannukah and Christmas is that Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth and the start of Christianity. Hannukah is the celebration of the start of the new Jewish Kingdom.