Christmukah, etcetera. How do you feel about these hybrid combo holidays?

No. They are completely separate occasions with separate meanings.

I think they’re awfulous.

I don’t see them as being hybridized at all except that some people say “Happy Holidays.”

I’m cool with it. They’re all just rip offs of the way our first common ancestors celebrated when the days went back to getting longer. I like the sentiment.

I think it’s a misguided stab at religious homogenization and just downright foolish.

Whatever floats their boat.

Although I personally think it sounds stupid, I also realize that people are trying to be inclusive of multicultural families.

Personally I would not be receptive to the example given – Christmukah – because it is a bastardization of “Christ” and should therefore be offensive to Christians.

“I won’t utter falsehoods, but I’ve no objection to uttering meaningless statements.”
—A.J. Ayer, on saying grace despite being an atheist

I’ve never heard of this, and Google isn’t revealing much about it. But I take it this is just a way of letting groups of people with different faiths celebrate together (or for people of mixed heritage to combine their celebrations)? If so, I don’t see what’s wrong with it. I don’t go in for the religious aspects of any of these holidays individually, so what gets lost by putting them together? What’s truly valuable about this time of year is the togetherness it inspires. That’s why I’ve never objected to celebrating Christmas with my family despite the fact that I am not a Christian. If hybrid holidays helps us promote that togetherness further, then so be it.

I’ve never heard of this. What exactly is it and who is saying it? To me each holiday is separate, but no problem
enjoying the festivities of all of them if your family, friends, and community, are a diverse group and you want to celebrate it all.

Whatever makes people feel comfortable with their families.

If I celebrate Xmas it’s to be with friends that invite me over, I don’t give a shit about any of the religions attributed to it.

I haven’t heard of this but I can’t see how it could work. What would be the point anyway? It’s a bit like Esperanto, all right in theory but no one ever speaks it.

I say Happy Holidays because several events happen around the same time, and I don’t know which of those the other person celebrates. I also know people in mixed-religion marriages, so they do incorporate bits of both traditions in their celebrations. “Christmukkah” came about a few years ago when the phase of the moon was such that the Jewish holiday actually coincided with the Christian holiday. I haven’t heard the phrase used widely since then.

I thought about this more, and my answer above still holds, but I don’t like blending the two words. I really am not keen on Chanukah getting sucked up into Christmas. It’s already bad enough it has become more commercialized like Christmas. I always took a little pride in the fact that for the Jewish holidays most are spent with some time remembering why the holiday exists without so much pomp and circumstance.

I enjoy the Christmas season, so I guess in some ways I am conflicted about that. The gift giving is the only turn off for me. I love the music, decorations, Nutcracker, and seeing friends and family.

@ibstubro “Although I personally think it sounds stupid, I also realize that people are trying to be inclusive of multicultural families.” Then they should acknowledge the other culture’s holiday specifically. That shows respect. The other is just laziness.

@Dutchess_III What about people of mixed heritage? One of my best friends growing up was the daughter of a Jewish father and a Christian mother. Which holiday—Christmas or Chanukah—best respects her?

First off, hopefully you know your friend well enough to know if they celebrate only one, or both of those holidays. If they celebrate both then say “Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!” Not “Happy Christunkah.” They are two distinct celebrations and I think it is disrespectful to throw them in the mixer like it doesn’t matter. Besides, you can’t even pronounce Christunkah.

The trouble is, she doesn’t identify as either Jewish or Christian. It’s a purely ethnic thing for her, and she has long combined the holidays. So I don’t see how you get to tell her it’s disrespectful when she’s the one who would supposedly be getting disrespected.

And I would pronounce it “cris-nuh-kuh.

@SavoirFaire I don’t see what mixed heritage has to do with anything. The person can celebrate whatever they want. Does your friend use the term Christmukah?

@JLeslie It was more relevant before @Dutchess_III edited her post to completely change the meaning of it. And no, my friend does not use the term (though it’s the kind of thing I could see her coming up with). As I said above, I had never heard of it before. The point was just this: whether or not its respectful surely is a matter of the people celebrating it. Combining them isn’t necessarily lazy (contra @Dutchess_III) and could represent a genuine attempt to recognize a complex background.

I didn’t completely edit the post and change its meaning. All I did was edit to suggest that hopefully you knew your friend well enough to know which she celebrated, one or both. The rest of the post remained the same.

So, why don’t we just come up with one, long ass word that encompasses Christmas, Chanukah, New Years Day, Easter, Labor Day, MLK Day, President’s Day, 4th of July, My Birthday, Guy Falkes Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and all of the celebrations that every nation has? I mean, they’re all the same, right? Nothing special about any of them. No reason to acknowledge them individually.

@Dutchess_III The added sentence reframes the entire post, however, which changes it’s meaning. The first version was more assertive and ignored the relevance of her own behaviors. I completely accept that the edit represents your true intentions and that the way I read the unedited version was therefore not how you intended your point to come across. My response to @JLeslie was just meant to point out that what I had written made more sense in response to what it seemed like you were saying before the edit (since after the edit, which represents what you actually meant, it clearly makes less sense as a response).

As for why we don’t combine all holidays into one, your question is based on a false premise. Those who might celebrate Christmukah or something like it aren’t doing so under the pretense that the two holidays are the same. They are doing so as a way to celebrate both. If they were the same, this wouldn’t even make sense. So the practice of combining them is understandable only if those doing so recognize that the two holidays are importantly different.

Since Google has finally decided to be cooperative, it turns out that the term Chrismukkah originated precisely as I speculated above (though on television, which I hadn’t guessed): a term for someone with a mixed heritage to acknowledge the importance of both holidays. One might still wonder why we merge these and not others. But the answer to that is obvious: these two often overlap. The issue only arises when one celebration overlaps with the other. Instead of choosing one over the other, some have decided to acknowledge both. This is how they do so, which means that your worry about not recognizing their specialness is unfounded. The whole point is to do exactly that without favoring one over the other.

LOL! This so reminds me of facebook! Creating issues where non existed before. I don’t know of anyone who combines holiday words!

In my family of origin, we celebrated Chanukah only. In the family I created, we celebrated Christmas and Chanukah but never had the need or desire to smush the two together.

@SavoirFaire Interesting. I had assumed it was just a word to acknowledge the holidays are celebrated around the same time, but your link, and you, are saying it’s like it’s own holiday? That makes no sense to me.

I’m not religious, but I still care that Chanukah is celebrated for a specific reason. I don’t care if the miracle really happened or not. Other Jews might not care what Chanukah is supposed to celebrate, that’s fine, I am only speaking for myself. Making it seem like Chanukah is the same as Christmas rubs me the wring way a little. It’s enough that we have twisted Chanukah a little to make Jewish children feel ok during the Christmas holiday.

Edit: you might be interested in this article I put on my facebook a couple of days ago about how Jewish people feel about Chanukah. I don’t agree with all of them, but most hit home.

@Dutchess_III You kind of make a good point about just making one long word for everything, because Chanukah basically gets sucked up into Christmas. It isn’t like the holidays have similar meanings. To me it’s the holiday season and it includes New Years and for some of my friends into January. Sometimes Chanukah starts late November! Then what? Thanksgivingmukah?

LOLL!

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed anyone using these terms before I read this question, but just today, a Jewish friend used “Christmukkah” in a Facebook post. Perhaps it just wasn’t on my radar before.

Personally, I’d rather celebrate Festivus, the other ersatz t.v. holiday.

Me too.

Little late for the airing of the grievances, ladies.

You don’t suppose this is the last holiday season, @Blondesjon, do you? Our last HanuKwanzMas (I did not make that up, but copied it from the net) ever?

Oh the horror!

@JLeslie “I had assumed it was just a word to acknowledge the holidays are celebrated around the same time, but your link, and you, are saying it’s like it’s own holiday?”

I think it can be either depending on who is celebrating. The television coinage came about because the character wanted a way to represent his particular relationship with his beliefs and heritage. But it seems the term could also be used for groups of people who aren’t individually of mixed heritage, but are not of all the same heritage (that is, groups where some are Jews and some are Christians, even if no individual person is of mixed heritage or beliefs). The origin of the word, after all, does not fully determine its meaning.

My main point on this thread has simply been that we don’t get to determine what other people believe or how they celebrate it. If a person of mixed heritage feels like they want to celebrate both holidays, they can. And if they feel that the best representation of their beliefs is a mixed holiday, that’s also up to them. They don’t need to give it a name in either case, but I think that “Chrismukkah” could be sensibly applied in both instances if the celebrant so chooses. If it helps bring people together, great.

I’m all for and on with celebrating both holidays. What I don’t like is making them into one holiday. If someone else likes it and feels it represents them them that’s fine with me, I can only speak for myself.

I do Christmas with my husband’s family and Chanukah at home. I do them both so to speak, but I am not both heritages myself.

If my husband had stayed Catholic and we had had kids we would have done all of it without any problem. I wouldn’t want to make the two holidays into one though.

I was interested in both the term and the practise, especially in blended and multi racial families. Recently i saw a christmas tree in a Jewish home. Granted, they are russian israelis, but i know they are jewish.

Too lazy to fix the capitilization on this little ipad. Sorry.

Oh, great discussion jellies. For a minute it was 2009.

Ta.