Thread: Do You think this is a *good idea* ? "Chrismukkah" cards ??

]Merry Chrismukkah: Cards Combine Holidays
By MATT SEDENSKY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Every December, Zack Rudman and his wife send out cards with winterscapes and generic holiday greetings.

Finally, though, the Kansas City lawyer found a variety that seemed to better suit a Jewish man and an Episcopal woman with two young children as familiar with the menorah as mistletoe. It screams ``Merry Chrismukkah!''

Across the country, two holidays that once seemed to share little more than a calendar page are increasingly being melded on greeting cards aimed at the country's estimated 2.5 million families with both Jewish and Christian members. ``It's representative of the way people live and the way they spend the holidays,'' said Elise Okrend, an owner of Raleigh, N.C.-based MixedBlessing, a card company devoted to interfaith holiday greetings. ``And it's an expression of people understanding the people around them.''

MixedBlessing, like other companies, has found such interfaith greeting cards have a stable market niche and a slowly growing customer base.

The company was among the first to come out with holiday cards suitable for Jewish-Christian families about 15 years ago and is still perhaps the only company to focus entirely on that market segment.

In its first year, it sold about 3,000 cards from nine different offerings. This year, Okrend projects sales of 200,000 cards off its 55-card line.

Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards Inc. says among its most popular categories of Hanukkah cards is the one that combines Jewish and Christian themes.

The company tried the idea with just one card in the mid-90s; today they have four. ``The essence of these cards is not about interfaith households as much as it is about friends and family members of different faiths acknowledging the different holidays that they all celebrate,'' said Shalanda Stanley, a product manager at Hallmark.

American Greetings Corp. has also increased its Hanukkah-Christmas line offerings since its introduction eight years ago. There are around 10 this year.

Kathy Krassner, editor of Greetings Inc., a trade magazine, said mixed-faith holiday cards are one of countless niche categories introduced by greeting card companies. ``It's an interesting market,'' she said. ``But it's a limited market.''

The newest player is Chrismukkah.com, which helped put a name on what many interreligious families have been celebrating for years.

Ron Gompertz founded the company this year with his wife, inspired by an episode of the popular Fox series ``The O.C.'' in which Seth Cohen, a character whose mother is Protestant and father is Jewish, coins the term. ``It's a little bit of both,'' Gompertz explains. ``Spin the dreidel under the mistletoe.''

As with anything addressing religion, though, cardmakers are careful not to offend. The Chrismukkah site even offers a disclaimer: ``We respect people's different faiths and do not suggest combining the religious observance of Christmas and Hanukkah.''

``Our intention wasn't to merge the religious aspects,'' Gompertz said, ``but rather the secular aspects of the holidays.''

Gompertz's explanation hasn't gone over well with everyone. He says the site has angered some conservative Jews who believe it promotes intermarriage. Cards from the Livingston, Mont.-based Chrismukkah.com use humor to create a hybrid holiday. Gompertz is Jewish and from New York City. He married the daughter of a Protestant minister from the Midwest. His company offers greetings including images of a Christmas tree decorated with dreidels, a menorah filled with candy canes and simpler varieties featuring messages including ``Merry Mazeltov'' and ``Oy Joy.''

``It's whimsical. It's humorous,'' said Gompertz. ``This is a way of diffusing the seriousness of it.''

Most of American Greetings' Hanukkah-Christmas cards are humorous, too. One shows three snowmen - two dressed in traditional winter hats and scarves, the third wearing a yarmulke and prayer shawl. Another features a list of Hanukkah songs that never caught on, including ``Shlepping Through a Winter Wonderland,'' ``Bubbie Got Run Over by a Reindeer'' and ``Come On, Baby, Light My Menorah.''

``We don't go over the line,'' said Pam Fink, who works on Jewish-themed cards for American Greetings. ``We're careful to make sure it's lighthearted funny, but not too far.''

More serious messages are offered, too. One Hallmark card begins ``Hanukkah and Christmas - two different holidays, but each a celebration of peace and joy, of love and family and friends.''


Cardmakers say similarities between the two holidays, and the strong secular side of each is what makes combining them possible, something not necessarily true of any other season.

That hasn't stopped Gompertz from floating around an ``Easterover'' idea, featuring a ``Rabbi Rabbit.''

Still, Gompertz thinks he'll probably pass on that idea. ``That threatens to push the levels of what's acceptable,'' he said.


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...01&related=off


On the Net:

Only 10 shopping days left until Chrismukkah!
Dec 8 thru Dec 25.

Celebrating the Holidays together. As Christmas and Hanukkah draw near once again, many of us are wrestling with an annual dilemma: "So, what's it going to be? You want your matzoh balls or a candy cane? Spin the Dreidel or get kissed under the mistletoe?"
Well, you've found the one place where you don't have to choose.
Here you can have it all!
Here we celebrate Chrismukkah !

Chrismukkah: www.chrismukkah.com







MixedBlessing: www.mixedblessing.com






11/27/04 18:45


{{note : took out Hallmarks and American Greeting links as they have NO Chrismukkah cards to view ... }}

Not sold on this idea I can see some peeps I know taking offense at these

I sorta think they are different/funny/neat but you really need to know your audience or could cause an unintended stir

As a Jew I'm not impressed. Hanukka is very different from Christmas although a close reading of the New Testament will show you that Yeshuah celebrated Hanukka. I don't mind the cards that mention both but the combination one I find offensive. I feel it degrades both celebrations.

I have a couple friends that would smile at this card. But I agree with some of the others, this isn't a card for everyone on your list. Had it not been brought up, I wouldn't purposely looked for such a card.

I could be wrong, and sometimes I am , but it seems like a good idea, and the only ones who would be offened would be those who celebrate Hanukka. Christmas is a wonderful holiday that you have to make your own, it is too commercialized. So the religious symbolisim of Christmas is slowly fading away. Mixing it with a very religious holiday seems kind of....wishy washy.

Christmas vs Chanukah


Christmas is one day, same day every year. December 25.

Jews love Dec. 25th. It's another paid day off work. We go to movies and out for Chinese food, and Israeli dancing. Chanukah is eight days. It starts the evening of the 24th of Kislev, whenever that falls. No one is ever sure. Jews never know until a non-Jewish friend asks when Chanukah starts, forcing us to consult a calendar so we don't look like idiots. We all have the same calendar, provided free with a donation from either the World Jewish
Congress, the kosher butcher, or the local Sinai Memorial Chapel (especially in Florida).



Christmas is a major holiday.

Chanukah is a minor holiday with the same theme as most Jewish holidays. They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat!!



Christians get wonderful presents such as jewelry, perfume, stereos...

Jews get practical presents such as underwear, socks, or a the collected works of the Rambam which looks impressive on the bookshelf.



There is only one way to spell Christmas.

No one can decide how to spell Chanuka, Chanukah, Chanukka, Channukah, Hanukah, Hannuka.



Christmas is a time of great pressure for husbands and boy friends.
Their partners expect special gifts.

Jewish men are relieved of that burden. No one expects a diamond ring on Chanukah.



Christmas brings enormous electric bills.

Candles are used for Chanukah. Not only are we spared enormous electric bills, but we get to feel good about not contributing to the energy crisis.



Christmas carols are beautiful. Silent Night, Come o Ye Faithful.

Chanukah songs are about dreidels made from clay or about having a party and dancing the horah. Of course, we are secretly pleased that many of the beautiful carols were composed and written by our tribal brethren. And don't Barbara Streisand and Neil Diamond sing them beautifully?



A home preparing for Christmas smells wonderful. The sweet smell of cookies and cakes baking. Happy people are gathered around in festive moods.

A home preparing for Chanukah smells of oil, potatoes and onions. The home, as always, is full of loud people all talking at once.



Christian women have fun baking Christmas cookies.

Jewish women burn their eyes and cut their hands grating potatoes and onions for latkes on Chanukah. Another reminder of our suffering through the ages.



Parents deliver gifts to their children during Christmas.

Jewish parents have no qualms about withholding a gift any of the eight
nights.



The players in the Christmas story have easy to pronounce names such as Mary, Joseph and Jesus.

The players in the Chanukah story are Antiochus, Judah, Maccabee, and Matta whatever. No one can spell it or pronounce it. On the plus side, we can tell our friends anything and they believe we are wonderfully versed in our history.



Many Christians believe in the virgin birth.

Jews think, "Joseph, bubela. Snap out of it. Your woman is pregnant, you didn't sleep with her, and now you want to blame God. Here's the number of my shrink."



In recent years, Christmas has become more and more commercialized.

The same holds true for Chanukah, even though it is a minor holiday. It makes sense. How could we market a major holiday such as Yom Kippur? Forget about celebrating. Think observing. Come to synagogue, starve yourself for 27 hours, become one with your dehydrated soul, beat your chest, confess your sins, a guaranteed good time for you and your family. Tickets a mere $200 per person.
OY!!

An Unorthodox Chanukah Quiz
(Okay, it's not Christmas, but it is the right season


1. Chanukah is known as
a. The Festival of Lights
b. The Holiday of Rededication
c. The Jewish Christmas
d. The Yiddish Ramadan


2. The heroes of the holiday of Chanukah lived in
a. Ancient Palestine
b. Ancient Israel
c. The Occupied Territories
d. The Liberated Territories
e. A three floor walk-up in Jerusalem


3. The Jews of the time of the first Chanukah worshipped
a. At the Holy Temple in Jerusalem
b. At a less holy temple about ten miles west of Jerusalem
c. Wherever they could get High Holiday tickets
d. All of the above


4. Suddenly, a new, cruel leader (what else is new?) came to power in Syria, whose name was
a. Hafiz al-Assad
b. Yassir Arafat
c. Antiochus
d. Antisemite
e. Antibody


5. This evil leader abruptly commanded the Jews of his kingdom to
a. Eat pig
b. Eat at McDonald's
c. Eat everything on their plates
d. Become idol worshippers
e. Become idle


6. There arose a brave elder among the Jewish people who helped to lead a
revolt against the Syrians, whose name was
a. Mattathias
b. Mattityahu
c. Matthew
d. Matt
e. Merwin
f. Mud
g. His name would have been Mud had he lost


7. Mattityahu (what a relief-that's the answer to #6) had sons by the names of
a. Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo and Gummo
b. Huey, Dewey and Louis
c. Jacob, Joey, Jeremy and Christopher (his wife became less traditional as she grew older)
d. dah, and I'm not sure of the others


8. The last name of this glorious family was
a. Marx (see #7a)
b. Duck (see #7b)
c. Abu ben Amir (it wasn't easy to be a Jew in those days)
d. Callaghan (it's not easy today)
e. Maccabee


9. The town in which the heroic family lived was
a. Modin
b. Mahwah
c. Crown Heights
d. Farfallen Heights
e. Wayne
f. Passaic Park


10. The name "Maccabee" (you wait long enough, you get most of the answers) translates to mean
a. "May the Lord be with us, 'caus, if He's not, we're in big trouble"
b. "Son of a Star"
c. "Son of a Gun"
d. "Nails," because the Maccabees nailed the Syrian army


11. Where did the Jews fight the Syrians?
a. At Entebbe
b. At Natanya
c. Through thick and thin
d. With blood, sweat and tears
e. On the streets
f. On the beaches


12. After many long and agonizing battles, the Jews defeated their oppressors.
The final score of the war was
a. Maccabees 9, Syrians 2
b. Maccabees 613, Syrians 0
c. Maccabees 11, Maccabees 1


13. In order to purify the Holy Temple, the Jews had to
a. Get a good cleaning person who would do floors
b. Get a good cleaning person who would do walls and windows too
(now that's a miracle!)
c. Get rid of the chazar-fleisch
d. Get some oil


14. The oil the Maccabees found was sufficient for only
a. One day
b. Seven days
c. Seven days in Israel, eight in the Diaspora (go figure)


15 But there was a great miracle, as the oil used for resanctifying the Temple ended up lasting
a. Until it needed an oil change
b. Twelve days
c. Twelve days, but for you, eight days


16. Hannah was a heroine of the first Chanukah, who had
a. Five daughters
b. No, it was Tevye the Dairyman who had five daughters
c. Seven sons
d. Six sons
e. Five sons
f. Four sons


17. One of the great coincidences of history is that
a. Chanukah begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev
b. Christmas takes place on the 25th day of the Julian month of December
c. Chanukah and charoset (from Passover) both start with "ch"


18. Among the Talmudic rulings on this holiday is that
a. The lamp must be lit at sunset
b. The lamp should be placed outside the entrance of one's house
c. The lamp should be set on a window nearest the street
d. Your fire insurance should be paid up every year by the beginning of Kislev
e. Chanukah used to be the day before Tu B'Shvat but the rabbis moved it to avoid forest fires


19. Jewish women are obligated to also kindle the Chanukah lamp because
a. They were included in the miracle, according to Tractate Shabbat, 21b
b. They were threatening to picket the Holy Temple according to the to feminist magazine Lilith, page 21


20. One of the major debates in the Talmud involves
a. The House of Shammai suggesting that we light eight lights on the first night of Chanukah, and then one less each following night
b. The House of Hillel suggesting that we light one light on the first night, and then one more each following night
c. The House of Eisenstat suggesting that we swallow some bicarbonate of soda after devouring too many greasy latkes
d. The House of Weinrib suggesting that we swallow some Alka Seltzer after devouring too many greasy latkes (The latter was disallowed when it was discovered that the House of Weinrib owned 51 percent of Alka Seltzer shares)


21. Because Chanukah is considered such a joyous holiday, Jews are
a. Forbidden to eulogize the dead
b. Forbidden to fast
c. Forbidden to cover their neighbor's Christmas lights, especially since the concept was stolen from the holiday of Chanukah, anyway


22. The special Al-Hanissim prayer is added to religious services and the Grace After Meals during the eight days of Chanukah. It translates as
a. "Thanks for the Miracles."
b. "Thanks for the Memories"
c. Yes, Bob Hope actually entertained the Maccabean troops


23. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, there were many communities in the Middle Ages where Jewish women were forbidden to work while the Chanukah lights were burning. This reportedly led many rabbis of the era to
a. Move to another community that followed a different custom
b. Push for a one or two day Chanukah
c. Use far less oil in their lamps
d. Use much shorter candles


24. A long-accepted tradition of Jews around the world is for the parents to give their children
a. Chanukah gelt (money), over the eight days of the holiday
b. Jewish guilt (often over money), over the twelve months until the next Chanukah



25. On the holiday of Chanukah, millions of Jews all over the world
a. Spin the dreidel
b. Hang the mistletoe
c. Stuff the stocking
d. Decorate the tree
e. We really have to do something about assimilation (which was what the Maccabean revolt was all about)