Chrismukkah
The term was popularized beginning in December 2003 by the TV drama The O.C., wherein character Seth Cohen creates the holiday to signify his upbringing in an interfaith household with a Jewish father and Protestant mother.
The proximity of the beginning of the Hanukkah festival on the 25th of Kislev (end of November/December) to Christmas led to the so-called "December Dilemma" for Jewish families living in societies that were largely Christian.
[6] In the 19th century, Christmas had established itself in the German-speaking countries as a festival in which, in addition to the spiritual significance, values such as family and charity were in the foreground.
[7] Many families from the assimilated German-Jewish bourgeoisie celebrated Christmas directly as a purely secular winter festival.
The first historically documented Christmas tree was erected in Vienna in 1814 by the Jewish socialite Fanny von Arnstein, who had brought this custom from Berlin.
The so-called “December dilemma” arose in Jewish families, namely the desire to add something similar to the popular festival of Christmas with its traditions, celebrations and gifts.
The only references to how it was celebrated, other than the family displaying both a Christmas tree and a Hanukkah menorah, was that the Cohens spent Christmas Day itself at home eating Chinese takeout and watching movies like It's a Wonderful Life and Fiddler on the Roof on TV (as opposed to going out for Chinese food and seeing a movie, as many American Jews have done for years).
[17] Chrismukkah.com stirred up controversy in the Fall of 2004 when the New York Catholic League issued a national press release opposing Chrismukkah.
Further, The Catholic League and the New York Board of Rabbis, in a joint statement, condemned Chrismukkah as "insulting" to Jews and Christians.
Gompertz's follow-up book, entitled Chrismukkah – Everything You Need to Know to Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday (published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was released in October 2006.
A rival book by Gersh Kuntzman, Chrismukkah: The Official Guide to the World's Best-Loved Holiday (Sasquatch Press), came out at around the same time.
In "A Kosher Christmas: 'Tis the Season to Be Jewish,"(Rutgers University Press, 2013) author Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut, Ph.D discusses Chrismukkah and the creation of Festivus and other hybrid holidays among Jews in America during December.
