OK – as far as I know, it started as a humorous side story on the television show The O.C. Seth has a father who is Jewish and a mother who is Christian, so he came up with the perfect blend, best of both worlds…Christmukkah: eight days of presents and then another day of lots of presents. They put up decorations from both holidays and he has started to invite friends and family to their annual Chrismukkah celebration.
The weird thing is, I know of three families (they don’t know each other) who are also mixed Jewish/Christian, and in recent conversations with them, all three families have latched onto this “holiday” like ducks to water. Granted, none of the three families are overly- religious, although they keep the basic traditions. Yet “Christmukkah” has somehow tapped into their lifestyle – and for the most part, simply gives a name to something they have been doing for years now; celebrating both holidays in the same house with their kids. In one house, the very religious Jewish grandparents are quite thrilled to be invited to the December 25th Christmukkah celebration their granddaughter is having with her family.
So do I just happen to know three strange families, or is this seriously going to be a new tradition in mixed-religion families?
My non-Jewish (non-anything, actually) son has been repeatedly demanding me to draw menorahs for him to color and cut out all week long, does that count?
We’re a mixed family and we mix celebrations but we don’t have a name for it.
My wife’s a Jew, and I’m gentile. We’re both atheists.
We do Hannukkah from an ethnic heritage perspective. We light the candles and talk about what it means to be Jewish.
We do Christmas without all that pesky Christian stuff. So trees, Santa Claus, fruitcake, Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men are go. But no creches or baby Jesus stories.
The kids get one present each at the start of Hannkkah and the rest at Christmas. We tried doing 8 little presents throughout Hannukkah, but its hard to find 8 little things that are fun to get.
When I was a kid (Jewish) we were not extremely observant (not kosher) but we did go to synagogue fairly regularly and did not celebrate Christmas in any way in our own home. However, since I was 5 and my brother was 8 we had been friends with a sister/brother pair of the same ages whose family was Christian. Our moms were also fairly good friends so when Christmas rolled around we would go to their tree trimming and they, likewise, would come over to our place for latkes and dreidel at Channukah. We always signed all our cards, gifts, etc “Mappy Chrismukah.” (Mappy = Merry + happy. Don’t ask me why it wasn’t “meppy.” It just wasn’t.)
We thought we were so clever for thinking that up!
Yeah! We’ve always done both, but never called it anything. They’re two separate holidays, even when they overlap. This year, they don’t, but I really like lighting the candles and putting out cookies for Santa on the same night. I think they will next year, so that’s something to look forward to.
We were a Jewish family that celebrated both. We were not particularly religious when I was growing up and rarely went to synogogue (though we started doing it more in my late high school years).
Chanukah was a family holiday. We’d get together twice – once for each side – and would exchange small gifts. The gifts tended toward the practical or the useless (pretty items), but no toys. Nothing to or from our parents, either – just grandparent and aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Christmas was Santa Claus and a tree. And toys and presents – usually a lot of them. It was a secular holiday for gift giving.
The tradition has continued to adulthood. Neither of my marriages were to Jewish women, but we always celebrated Chanukah at my aunt’s or my parent’s, and then had a secular Christmas at home.
“Chanukah” is also a flexible term in my family – we don’t necessarily celebrate it on the holiday, but whenever it’s convenient for everyone to come. We also give fewer gifts – one per family. About the only tradition that seems to be emerging it that I make my famous latkes*.
*Recipe:
Some potatoes
An onion
Some eggs
Some flour or matzoh meal
Some salt
Some pepper
Oil
Throw half the potatoes into a food processor set to shred. Do the same with the onion. Do the same with the rest of the potatoes. Break the eggs into the shredded mixture to coat (and prevent browing). Add the flour/matzoh meal. Salt (not too much) and pepper to taste. Drop (tablespoon size is good) in a pan of hot oil (keep the oil hot – there should always be bubbles around the latkes as they cook). Press them into pancakes. Keep an eye on them while cooking. When the first side is brown, flip over. When the other side is brown, remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. Serve with applesauce.
The amounts aren’t exact because you need to eyeball it.
We don’t. I don’t live near enough to anyone I feel close to, to make a Hanukkah celebration meaningful, so I’ll be celebrating that with my family next week.
Airman’s family is fairly Catholic, and Christmas is Christmas. And, to be honest, I’m a bit uncomfortable going and accepting Christmas presents. But family is family, so I guess I gotta deal.
I’d love to blend the two and have our own family tradition, but I don’t see it happening.
Eric and I celebrate both, but as seperate holidays.
I am Jewish and he isn’t, but we light the menorah and exchange a few gifts during Hanukkah (I am over needing 8 gifts), have latkas and such at our house.
We do Christmas at his parents house, just basically as a secular gift giving extravaganza with a big tree and lots of food.
We decorate or house with holiday/seasonal stuff, nothing too “Christmassy”, just lights (inside- HOA says no outside), seasonal things, candles and some holiday ornaments hung about the house. No tree for us. The cats would have it wrecked before we could get one up and just to messy for me.
“We’re Catholic, and my sister is married to a Jewish man. They practise both holiday traditions: they put out a nativity scene, but all the figures look skeptical.” - Bob Smith
I am an unconverted gentile who married a not-very-religious Reform Jewish guy, we did raise our kids in his faith. I am not a Christian but love the yuletide traditions.
We’ve faced the Hanukkah/Christmas dilemma for years, long before the OC.
We light the candles for Hanukkah, when the kids were little we did 8 gifts but now it is down to one. I always make latkes.
Most (but not all) years we have a tree for Christmas, and open presents on the 25th. I always make trifle. This year we had 19 for Christmas Eve dinner.
I actually don’t like to mix the two holidays up too much, however I am not all that worried about either Judaism or Christianity being diluted by our traditions.
As Tjdude825 mentioned, some years they overlap, some years they don’t.
Hanukkah and Christmas are going to happen with or without us, but I feel good about the way we observe these holidays.
