Merry Christmukkah!
 

I love this idea simply b/c my BF is Jewish, his mother is Catholic, and I am a Catholic who adores the wisdom and teachings of Jewish faith....GO CHRISMUKAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YGBSM! The spirit of Crass-mas is alive and well... :rolleyes:

Its a free country, and the market place will prevail. That said, it seems ridiculous to me. Chanukah may not be the holiest of Jewish holidays, but it does diminish it. This must be much worse for Christians. I'm not sure what Christmas means, but my guess would be "Christ Mass," or something like that. Christmas is America has been transformed into an intersection of Paganism and Visa/MasterCard. Now its being sliced, and diced, and pieced together into some Frankenstein of a holiday. It seems very silly to me.

that article just seems to highlight why I only celibrate Yule at this time of year- I doubt corporate America will commercialize Yule for many years. And when they do, I guess I'll move on to some other way to celibrate the ending of the year, the changing of the old life cycle to new.

Hey, if it sells, it sells. ;) I don't see what's wrong with a generic "Happy Holidays", though.

Which is what I prefer on the rare occasion I send off Christmas/Hanukkah cards.

I celebrate Hannukah.

Let me tell you why.

I celebrate that a miracle can happen and that my faith can be strong.

I celebrate the fact that my people fought back their oppressors and showed their strength.

I celebrate a holiday and remember.

I celebrate something holy tied to my faith.

I don't send cards to friends and family when I have a weekend free from work, a sick day, or I'm vacationing. Why? There is no reason to.

-Rudey

I'm Jewish...my husband is Methodist...we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas with our respective families. We have the menorah and a Christmas tree. Both get lit at the appropriate times. We get the best of both worlds and never have to discuss which family we're spending the holidays with.

I send out "Happy Holidays" cards so I don't have to buy separate cards for respective family members and everyone is happy...

It's interesting that you would mention paganism. Christmas, in and of it's self is intertwined with pagan traditions. Santa Claus and the christmas tree are both pagan traditions. It really hasn't been a pure christian religious holiday.

So very true... most of the traditions associated with Christmas now were borrowed or adopted from the religious practices of the Celts and Germanic peoples...

For example the practice of decorating a tree with ornaments and lights was done by both the Celts and Germans. Then there is the whole Mistletoe thing... tied in to the fertility rituals of the Celts.

I agree...I don't really see much of a point to this "Chrismukahh" or whatever. Whatever cards I get don't make a difference as to how my Christmas is; it's the midnight Mass and the religous celebration that really affects me the most.

I'll give them points for creativity, but that's about it.

I like the Virgin Mobile commercials better... "Happy ChristmaHanuKwanzaakah to you." ;)

I have Virgin Mobil and they have that song as a free ringtone. So of course it's been my default rington since the day after Thanksgiving. :)

that's exactly what this thread reminded me of:) lol

Leave it to Hallmark to find a way to make a buck. They also have a "America's Heroes" line coming out, to be sent to Soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan.
http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/jump/nov04/276685.asp

Easter "ain't" a pure Christian Holiday either...bunnies and chicks and all that stuff is Pagan in origin as well. The Hare was the consort to the Goddess, or something like that.

That is also true. The early churches decided to leave some pagan traditions mixed in with religious holidys was because they found it easier to covnert pagans to christianity if they could still "practice" some of their traditions.

weekend today show had a segment where a shabby chic decorator did a house for hannukah and christmas. it was interesting. no tree. presents put around a working tiny train set.
lots of candles and mennorahs.

Much of Christmas is actually derived from the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia (a 'Pagan' holiday) which involved slaves and masters trading places for a day, things being decorated with green trees and candles, people trading gifts for good luck, and a big feasts and singing.
Glad to see it's returning to its roots.

I've just started a new job in a VERY diverse Mortgage company, and today they asked me to decorate the office, put up a tree & trim it, put up wreaths, etc. I was really surprised, because the two men that created our company are Muslim, and the man that helped me put the tree together was Jewish. Being raised Christian, I always associated Christmas with only my religion, and so I asked my co-workers how it was possible that no one was offended that more holidays weren't included. I got a similar answer from everyone - no one felt that Christmas was really a Christian holiday, as things like trees, lights and Santa Claus weren't religious, and so they had always celebrated it. Many said that as long as they had lived in the US they had celebrated it.

One woman told me that Christians put too much of an emphasis on Christmas, while Easter was so much more important to the religion. It definitely made me stop and think!