Anthony Fields, center, is a Wiccan, and his wife, Teena Blackburn, is an Orthodox Christian. They are just one example of how it is often a shared level of faith rather than difference in religious practices that determine how successful an interfaith couple might be. At left is their son, Hunter Fields, 7.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Christmas tree hadn't been put up yet, but it was coming.

It would find a place in the Blackburn/Fields household between the Wiccan altar in the front room and the orthodox Christian icon display in the eastern section of the house.

It is with the tree, a commercialized symbol of the holiday with roots in long-ago pagan rituals, that orthodox Christian Teena Blackburn and her husband Anthony Fields, a Wiccan, find common cultural ground.

But Blackburn and Fields, married six years, also find a meeting of the minds through their similar approaches to very different religious practices.

They have made thoughtful decisions about their respective faiths and believe deeply.

It doesn't hurt that they are, as she puts it, "bookish, academic types" or, as he puts it, "nerds." With her master's degree in theology and his master's degree in English and applied linguistics, they are the kind of people who delight in parsing the linguistic roots of the word "liturgy."

She's not "into poppy love songs to Jesus" and appreciates the strength of the orthodox traditions and the work required to execute her faith. He is comfortable with a polytheistic religion and practicing as a solitary Wiccan. And, in this season when faith for many comes to the fore, they are just one example of how it is often a shared level of faith rather than difference in religious practices that determine how successful an interfaith couple might be.

"Being strongly attached to your religion doesn't make it more difficult," said Ned Rosenbaum, who operates the Dovetail Institute for Interfaith Family Resources in Boston, Ky.

Rosenbaum, who teaches Jewish studies at the University of Kentucky, and his wife, Mary Helene Rosenbaum, who is Catholic, run the nonprofit institute. "A better predictor of success is putting equal weight on the importance of religion."

"Faith is the part of the iceberg that sticks above the water," he said. All the cultural nuances that married couples share, everything to what is served for a holiday meal to a similar sense of humor, are equally as important.

That's proved true for Eden Myers, who attends Temple Adath Israel in Lexington, Ky. Her husband, Mark Joseph Myers, is the lay minister at Bethlehem Christian Church in Clark County, Ky.Eden Myers said her biggest stumbling block during the holidays is the different feel of the celebrations. For her family, the holidays were formal affairs with dress-up clothes and the good china. His family tends more toward folding chairs and paper plates.The Myers family, which lives in Mount Sterling, often finds timing and distance is the biggest challenge in practicing both faiths. But there have been few disagreements, she said, and her husband has enjoyed studying the Jewish religion.Over four decades of marriage, Lou and Beverly Jaquith have found more similarities than differences in their Christian denominations. He attends Christ the King Catholic Church. She is a member at Southern Hills Methodist. Both are active in their congregations and in Stephen Ministries, a non-denominational group that trains church members to help those in crisis situations.Every Sunday, they are home by 11 a.m. to discuss what each has heard. Often, they said, the message is the same.When their grown children were at home, they often got a "double dose" of religion, said Beverly Jaquith. "Mass in the morning and youth group at night."

Interfaith marriage has become more accepted, said Rabbi Marc Kline, who leads Lexington's Temple Adath Israel. He contends that couples can "love someone enough to help them celebrate their faith."There can be roadblocks. For example, Kline welcomes interfaith couples to the temple but declines to participate in a wedding ceremony in which both a rabbi and minister would preside. He's happy to bless the couple outside of a formal ceremony but thinks interfaith couples might be better off with a judge administering "vows they both can believe in."But Ned Rosenbaum said while acceptance is on the rise, "let's not be too rosy" in describing the current state of interfaith marriages.The majority of people who describe themselves as of a particular religion still seek spouses of the same faith. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, 82 percent of protestants marry other protestants; 77 percent of Catholics marry within their faith as do 77 percent of practicing Jews.