Chrismukkah 2024: 5 Things To Know About Christmas And Hanukkah Hybrid

Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah fall on the same day Wednesday due to a calendar quirk called Chrismukkah, a portmanteau in use for centuries, but popularized by a prime-time drama about teen angst.

The lunar Hebrew and solar Gregorian calendars don’t align, and the start of Hanukkah occurs on different dates every year, but always on the 25th day of Kislev, the ninth month on the Hebrew calendar. Christmas is always on Dec. 25.

Here are five things to know about Chrismukkah:

True Chrismukkah Is Very Rare

Chrismukkah is used any time Christianity’s Christmas and Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights intersect.

However, it happens fairly infrequently that Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah occur on the same day. The last time was in 2005. Chrismukkah — also sometimes spelled Christmukkah — also occurred in 1959 and 1921. The two holidays will next line up in 2035, and then again in 2054.

It Started As ‘Weihnukkah’

The secular celebration’s beginnings can be traced to the 19th Century as German Jews became increasingly assimilated into German Christian culture.

They began to adopt certain Christmas traditions that were more of a family reunion than a religious celebration, combining “Weihnachten,” the German word for Christmas, and Hanukkah.

When Did Chrismukkuh Come To The U.S.?

While celebrated in the United States since the post-World War II years, Chrismukkah was popularized in a 2003 episode of Fox’s “The O.C.” One of the lead characters, Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), whose mother in the series is Christian and whose father is Jewish, celebrated both holidays.

The show’s creator, Josh Schwartz, told Rolling Stone the idea came from a writer who celebrated the blended holiday as a child.

“We liked the fact that the Cohens were proudly Jewish and proudly interfaith as well. That term ‘Chrismukkah’ came from writer Lauren Gussis’ family, who had celebrated that, and we loved the idea of Seth educating Ryan (Ben McKenzie) on it.”

Worth noting: The writers of the show chose Chrismukkah over “Hanimas.”

How Is Chrismukkah Celebrated?

Author Ron Gompertz offered some ideas on how to celebrate the blended holiday in his 2006 “Chrismukkah: Everything You Need to Know to Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday,” an often lighthearted and hilarious guide through events, history and lore surrounding Chrismukkah.

Some traditions include the Yamaclaus, a Jewish yarmulke in Santa’s colors, and the Chrismukkah bush, a small pine tree decorated with Stars of David and dreidels.

Some people see Chrismukkah as a “purely commercial venture meant to sell cute tchotchkes and branded merch next to traditional Hanukkah gifts,” Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, director of Chabad of the Bluegrass and the University of Kentucky Jewish Student Center, told Reader’s Digest.

Christmas And Hanukkah Are Still Separate

Although traditions of the Christian and Jewish holidays may be fused in quirky creations like gingerbread eggnog sufganiyot, a twist on the jelly-filled doughnuts traditionally served during Hanukkah, many interfaith families don’t merge the two holidays.

Rather, they celebrate aspects of each, author Samira K Mehta explained in “Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christian-Jewish Interfaith Family in America.”

Christmas and Hanukkah differ greatly in their significance. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas is a major Christian holiday while Hanukkah, which celebrates the Maccabees’ military victory over Greek Syrians in the second century B.C., is relatively minor.

Many interfaith families negotiate to find the balance that honors both heritages. They have open discussions about traditions from both Christmas and Hanukkah that best represent their respective religious beliefs — for example, a devoutly Christian person might agree not to put up a tree in favor of a Nativity scene, which has more significance, Mehta told Moment, a digital and print magazine that publishes articles on Jewish culture, politics and religion.