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The Next Person Who Sends Me a “Chrismukkah” Pitch Gets Punched in the Face
By Lilit Marcus / December 9, 2009
It’s that time of year again. Stores are playing Christmas music on a nonstop loop, there are tree-sellers on every corner, and the Jews are grumpy about only getting a tiny amount of Hanukkah stuff in the holiday aisle at the local craft shop. I’m no Grinch, but there’s one thing about the holiday season that really makes me crazy. It’s not the 17,000 different versions of "Jingle Bells" or the TV networks being hijacked by shmaltzy feel-good movies. No, it’s one word: Chrismukkah.
Here’s the thing. I grew up in an interfaith home. We celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas every year. There was a menorah and a Christmas tree, stockings and gelt. However, we did not make any attempt to shove the two holidays into one easily digestible, meaningless lump. Sometimes they were three entire weeks apart and didn’t overlap at all, thus highlighting the fact that they were distinguishable from each other. I liked learning about both sides of my heritage. Besides – why combine the two holidays into one if it means you get fewer presents?
The reason Chrismukkah bothers me is that it wasn’t something interfaith families came up with on their own, it was something created by TV executives and marketers in an attempt not to fill a genuine societal need but to sell products to an emerging percentage of the population. Most people who have heard of Chrismukkah know it from the (now-cancelled) TV show The OC, where Adam Brody played Seth Cohen, the son of a Jewish father and Christian mother. Chrismukkah was, like many things on that show (I mean you, "Califoooooooornia" theme song), cute for about five minutes. But after a few too many Santa hat kippot and Star-of-David-printed stockings, it got annoying. Rather than combining two things into something even better – chocolate and peanut butter, for example, or The Real World/Road Rules Challenge – Chrismukkah makes both holidays worse. It waters down both holidays into mindless kitsch and accessories. It takes the Christ out of Christmas and the Maccabees out of Hanukkah, to the benefit of neither holiday.
Chrismukkah is something that had potential to be funny or clever but instead got beaten into the ground by people eager to make it "trendy," and, more specifically, make money off of it. After all, if Christmas is the biggest shopping season of the year, imagine what would happen if you combined Christmas with another holiday? Talk about a publicist’s wet dream. Not only can they send their "please include us in your gift guide!!1!" emails to all the Christians, now they can send their Chrismukkah pitches to Christians and Jews.
Well, here’s an unsolicited piece of advice: stop sending me any email that contains the word "Chrismukkah" in the title. Currently, I delete all of them without opening them, although I occasionally open one just to make fun of it. Between Administrative Professionals’ Day and Valentine’s Day, I have enough manufactured holidays to observe. My calendar – and my inbox – are full. At least until PurEasterOver.
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It takes the Christ out of Christmas and the Maccabees out of Hanukkah, to the benefit of neither holiday.Â
Great point. But more than that. If the Maccabees were fighting for the preservation of Shabbat and kashrut, it’s a little bit ridiculous to pair it up with a non-Jewish holiday, don’t you think?
The Maccabees could be classified either as patriotic Jewish freedom fighters, or as anti-Greek terrorists. Viewed that way, Hanuka does have something to offer everyone – - – on either side of the Arab-Israeli conflict!
But to take a holiday that symbolizes principled rejection of syncretism and assimilation and defection from strict religiosity, and pair it with another religion’s holiday, this is the peak of absurdity.Â
Dear Lilit:
I’ve had very little commercial exposure to "Chrismukkah," but, like you, wearied of the Seth Cohen joke a long time ago.
I have been approached only by a sweet, earnest interfaith couple who created one of the first "Chrismukkah" franchises — as the leader of the Half-Jewish Network, they thought I would like the cards.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I am uncomfortable with mixing the two holidays for the same reasons that you are — I’m the adult child of an intermarriage — so I accepted a packet of the cards.
They were funny cards — along the lines of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer pulling a menorah, etc.
Then I sent them to the Christian side of my family. To my astonishment, they really, really, really liked them. I gathered that my embrace of Judaism as adult made them feel like I was throwing out that "half" — they liked the cards with Santa delivering dreidels. The cards were funny and made them laugh.
But I have never bought any cards like that subsequently. It’s too — too — much!
Cordially,
Robin Margolis
http://www.half-jewish.net
http://www.inclusivistjudaism.wordpress.com
That holiday is SO much more legit than Chrismukkah. Obviously.
It takes the Christ out of Christmas and the Maccabees out of Hanukkah, to the benefit of neither holiday.
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