Post-Chrismukkah Blues.

We returned home last night after a long weekend with the Indiana in-laws. Babes in Goyland. It was 8 degrees below zero with a foot of white stuff on the ground when we arrived. Minna had her first true snow experience and now knows the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat after an afternoon of driveway sledding. On Christmas Eve, we all went to St Peter's Church (United Church of Christ - UCC denomination). Indeed, as advertised in those "controversial" UCC TV commercials that have been airing this month, there were actually gay men and women sitting together in the next row. The candles flickered throughout the room as the candlelighting ceremony commenced and the choir sang. The compassionate words of the pastor were inspiring and yet not so different from those of the rabbi at the Chanukah service we attended a few weeks earlier in Bozeman. The nostalgic Christmas carols and lovely holiday tunes were seductive... and I found myself following the lyrics in the prayer book and mouthing the words .... that is until a "Christ" lyric snuck up on me... at which point my mouth froze - Jeeeee - a flash of embarrassed self-consciousness and guilty betrayal to my own Jewishness... the panicy alienation of an outsider being caught crashing a party I wasn't invited to... and really had no interest in attending... I swear to Gad... The feeling passed quickly as I intellectualized the situation... I morphed back to the outside observer, and remembered why I was there in first place ... I looked to see Michelle, who knew all the lyrics by heart, even though she rarely goes to church anymore, at my side. Minna was in her Mother's arms squirming to get down. My brother-in-law Randy was to my left, and my sister-in-law Emily, to my right. I relaxed and allowed myself to inhale deeply the beauty of this Christmas Eve moment. Christmas Day was spent the way hundreds of millions of others spent the day.. watching the kids opening and playing with their new toys and eating 17 varieties of casserole. The next day, the devastation of the Indian Ocean tsunami washed over Indianapolis too, knocking Christmas and Chrismukkah and everything else that had seemed so important clear out of the hot-topic conversation box. Returning home to Montana and my trusty iBook, I checked the latest Chrismukkah related news. Time Magazine included Chrismukkah in it's "Year in Buzzword's" list. The Washington Times wrote a strange editorial... misquoting me and mangling our intentions to neatly fit their agenda (Aren't they the Moonie owned paper?). This past month, Chrismukah somehow become a lightening rod, one of several, in the political/theological/cultural war being agressively prosectuted by the ever more emboldened religious and political right. Now that our season has past, our 15 minutes timed out, how do we, or should we, respond to this worrisome trend? We began Chrismukkah with modest intentions - a line of light hearted, self-depricating greeting cards in the spirit of our marriage and mixed-faith daughter... at best, we hoped that over the years, we'd be able to put away Minna's college tuition. But since mid-November, something much bigger happened... entirely disproportionate to the physical smallness of those 12 cards. Has it now become our moral responsibility to stand up and defend what we believe in.... to participate in a cultural battle that we unintentionally played a role in sparking... at the risk of it taking over a good chunk of our lives?

Are we there yet?

For us, Chrismukkah is finally winding down with only a few days left before Xmas. Not a moment too soon... we're toast. Only a handful of last minute shoppers to take care of today. Had a long conversation with Rachel, our illustrator, about next years plans. One joker who registered a mispelling of our name and is now taking advantage of our heavy visitor traffic, had the chutzpuh to cut and paste our own copyrighted original artwork and start hawking it on CafePress as his own with the only change being the mispelling of our name - with only one K. I worry about innocent people finding their site, thinking it was ours... and saying... is that what all the fuss is about... a lame "Bah Humbug" mug with bad artwork? it's time I get cracking on designing the "Official Chrismukkah Calendar - 2006. I'm waiting for the inevitable flood of "Menorahaments" (TM & Copyright Chrismukkah.com 2004) from China. Will I ever be able to one-up those darn Yamaclaus (TM & Copyright Warner Brothers 2004) - hats? Stay tuned to this station. Sunday morning, I woke early too early to do what was likely my last radio talk show of the season - "Religion on the Line" with the kind Father Paul Keenan and the warm, funny Rabbi Joseph Potasnik (President of the New York Board of Rabbis) on WABC-AM in New York. It was more like having a relaxed conversation over bagels and lox... even though they both objected to Chrismukkah. Best of all, my mother listened in from New Jersey.. ROTL being one of her favorite shows. What a pleasant contrast to the hyperbolic rumble that was the Alan Colmes show last week. The highlight of my day so far was finding an article in "Pravda" - Russia's leading on-line newspaper - about our Chrismukkah story. The headline confused me a bit -"American and European Santa Claus to Change his Sex and Sexual Orientation." but apparently the Rusky's will do anything to boost their readership. The story, coming from a uniquely Russian perspecitve, is fascinating... at least it is to me, one who finds any article with my name in it fascinating. We leave for Indiana on Thursday to visit Michelles family for Christmas... um I mean Chrismukkah. Tomorrow the 1/2 price card sale starts (for shiping after we get back from Indiana on 12/29.)

Chrismukkah - Shmitzmukkah.

The Chrsimukkah season is now half-way over, yet we're still reading about it all over the news. Todays' New York Times, US Today, NPR's "Talk of the Nation" Boston Globe, everwhere I turn they're talking about Chrismukkah. The phone has not stopped ringing. Arrrrgggggg. However, today's news is a different - all the stories are leading off with The OC's" fictional Chrismukkah episode, rather than our real life interfaith holiday soap opera. The folks at The OC publicity are pulling out all the stops to publicize tonight's show. I read somewhere that Josh Schwartz said their ratings are down and they're trying to make-up for it with it with a lesbian plot line development. So for the moment, our humble little story is taking a back seat to the hype, and we're being accused of "copying", "cashing in on" and "making a buck" off the OC. The big spin.. not surprising, I suppose. We should be happy so long as they include our web site address. I just got a call from the editor of "HEEB"... a Jewish humor magazine. She's doing a feature story on "Jewish Pets" and wanted to get a sample of our "OY JOY" doggie shirt. She wasn't in the leastinterested in talking about Chrismukkah. Go figure. Earlier this morning I spoke with Rabbi Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis. Since last week, I'd been getting requests for reaction to the NYBR joining the The Catholic League's William Donahue to denounce Chrismukkah in a Press Release.. and I wanted to get the straight poop. Rabbi Potasnik and I had a great chat... I was relieved to find that he's funny and warm. He wanted to know where I was bar mitzvah'd and what I was doing in Montana. It turned out he knew the Rabbi of my youth... Rabbi Bernard Cohen. After a brief game of Jewish geography, he invited me to join him as a guest on his weekly show "Religion on the line" on 77 WABC Radio this Sunday morning. Listen in if you can... they have live streaming audio. Whoops gotta go... Bob with the Herald Dispatch in West Virginia is on the line and wants to talk.

Minna Meadow

Minna will be 19 months old tomorrow. Last night she awoke just after midnight and began to cry... she'd always been such a good sleeper... until this past week. She came down with a virus, but a few days after the visit to the doctor, she was back to her old happy-go-lucky self. But last night, all our attempts to rock her, to sooth her, to comfort her just got her more agitated. Eventually she cried herself into a huge huffing and puffing tantrum. I think the non-stop intensity of this past month is starting to affect her. Having a home based business means the seperation between work and home is always blurred, and I'm sure Minna is sick and tired of having her Daddy always on the phone or stareing into the iBook or stressed out over something unkind somebody blogged or wrote in an email. Only 11 days before Chrismukkah 2004 is over. The orders have tapered off in the last few days, and I'm thinking about having one of those a big half-price sales just after we return from our Christmas trip to visit the in-laws in Indiana. One remaining big media story is yet to materialize... CNN International last week requested we Fed Exed card samples to their London headquarters. We understand they plan to interview Dr Johnathan Romain, the leading reform Rabbi in London - the man who first endorsed our Chrismukkah concept to the London Times back in November - will be showing our cards and doing an interview endorsing Chrismukkah and explaing how interfaith families celebrate the holidays. Unless there are unexpected surprises, the media attention seems to be winding down. For the first time in a month, I have no sheduled interviews today. For us, there are just a few seconds left in our 15 minutes. Soon the Chrismukkah of 2004 will be a great bedtime story to tell Minna - "How Mommy and Daddy inadvertantly changed the world in a small way with an idea and a few clicks of the mouse."

Got beat up a little tonight.

I went to bed late last night after doing a Denver talk show that ended close to midnight. The alarm rang at 5:30 AM for another New York talk show, followed by another at 8:15, then 4 more print media interviews throughout the morning. Next I heard the news that Chambers Dictionary, the leading Europe reference dictionary had given us credit for adding "Chrismukkah" to the lexicon. Here's an excerpt from the article: "Fancy a spot of shoulder surfing this Chrismukkah? But what would you do with your Yngling or Chelsea tractor? These are some of the recently-coined words and phrases that made it big during 2004, and are set to be rewarded with inclusion in that famous authority on the English language, the Chambers Dictionary. Researchers for the Edinburgh-based publication have been monitoring the lexical movers and shakers of the past 12 months and noted the emergence of exotic terms such as Chrismukkah - a combination of Christian and Jewish festivals used on some greetings cards....." http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1419752004 OK, that's pretty cool, I must admit. Then it was back to packing and shipped today's orders. This evening, after lighting our menorahs, Michelle cooked a delicious baked chicken parmesan with polenta. Minna took her bath and was fast asleep by the time Alan Colmes called from his Fox News Live radio show. Alan was joined by outspoken Catholic League activist William Donahue, who last week issued a press release denouncing Chrismukkah. Alan is the liberal one on the "Hannity & Colmes" show and I hoped would be pro Chrismukkah. Not to be. These two professional pundits proceeded to pound on me... and I did my best to get a word in edgewise. I don't know how it all came off, but it felt like I got beat up a little tonight.

"I have a bone to pick with Ron"

As if there wasn't already enough controversy about Chrismukkah... on December 7th the New York Board of Rabbis joined the Catholic League to issue a press release denouncing Chrismukkah. Now Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C. has been pitted against me in the "Battle of the Matzoh Ball Snowmen." The Chrismukkah media backlash has officially begun. In the December 8th edition of the New York Daily News, columnist Lloyd Grove, in his "Lowdown Daily Dish" reports that Josh Schwartz and I are "locked in a fierce competition to market and profit from Chrismukkah holiday cards, T-Shirts, coffee mugs and otehr paraphernalia." "I have a bone to pick with Ron," Josh Schwartz, "The OC's creator, told me yesterday, tongue in cheek. "He's kind of using us to make money." I don't know if we invented the word Chrismukkah, but this guy is sure running with it". "We have Chrismukkah cards and wrapping paper, too, and our stuff is the real deal." Now we've assumed Josh Schwartz is way too busy to know or care about our little barn based micro business... so we were puzzled by Josh's comments... especially given the fact our cards preceeded the OC's "real deal" cards by months. Just look at our "Matzoh Ball Snow Man", "Candy Cane Menorah" and "Chrismukkah Man" beanie hat - all created last winter, then look at the OC versions now being sold on the www.OCinsider.com site. Notice any similarities? So why is Josh tossing hot matzoh balls at us? "In the spirit of Chrismukkah," Schwartz said, "I will try to make Ron feel guilt - and at the same time, I will turn the other cheek." Now I always feel guilty about something... so that won't be hard. But Josh knows that variations on the word Chrismukkah have been in use years before The OC put it in a script. Plus, I can count of one hand the number of people who've bought our Chrismukkah cards and mentioned "The OC" as the reason. Most of the journalists and customers I've spoken or emailed with had never seen an episode of "The O.C." The teen base that "The OC" attracts is not your typical customer for interfaith Jewish holiday cards. Seems to me the media atttention Chrismukkah.com received these past few weeks has done far more to boost awareness of the "The OC" show then "The OC" has benefited us. Josh did say it was "cool that he acknowledged that our show inspired him". And that's true. The OC did inspire us and I've let people know that when asked. Josh and his creative team at The OC have produced a very watchable series which Michelle and I TiVo every week. (Course, we relate to Sandy and Kirsten much more than Seth and Ryan.) We had hoped Josh would be proud that his show played a part in inspiring a real life interfaith family to help create a real life Chrismukkah holiday. We even sent Josh and the other exeuctives behind the show a gift of our cards back in early October... a week later WB lawyers filed the first trademark on the word Chrismukkah. Now, 2 months later O.C. greeting cards go on sale. Stay tuned till next week. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/260051p-222649c.html

Chrismukkah on Fox News

We're not sure when exactly, but we're supposed to be on Fox News Friday 12/10. Not the "regular" Fox channel - the 24 hour cable news one. A very nice crew from Fox in Chicago visited us at our home the first night of Chrismukkah. They filmed our Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony and gathering with friends. In the spirit of Chrismukkah, we had a very nice evening of traditional and non-traditional Hanukkah foods, song and gift giving. We're expecting Fox News will spice it up a bit with a controversial angle in their final edit. Stay tuned.

It's beginning to look a lot like Chrismukkah

Just got word from Fox that they're sending a news camera crew in from Chicago today to film our Chrismukkah/Hanukkah party this evening at our house. It's windy like heck today and starting to snow... we hope they're able to make it safely and in time. We've invited a few other interfaith families to light Menorahs, exchange gifts and get tipsy on Manishewitz mulled wine. We're serving cinnamon challah, matzoh pizza, curried latkes and cranberry blintzes. Perhaps Fox is thinking about turning us into a new reality show? Since we live in Park County, Montana, they might as well call it "The P.C." Here's the pitch - a nice liberal minded family (call them the Chrismukkah family) sell everything and move from the big city to a small cattle ranching community in ulta conservative but scenic Montana. She's a reserved WASP from the midwest, he's a wacky Jewish liberal from New York City. Their 18 month old daughter is blonde, cute, precocious and witty. When they can't find a decent job that doesn't involve relocating manure, they decide to start a greeting card business out of their old barn. The greeting cards celebrate diversity, tolerance and peace... but the nieghbors all think they're just PC nuts. The show follows the Chrismukkah family as they get into all sorts of mischief trying to make a sucess of their fledgling card company. Picture "The Simple Life" meets "Curb your Enthusiasm" meets "The Brady Bunch" meets "The O.C" meets "Little House on the Prairie" and you get the idea.

Out Foxed

Yesterday, Michelle and I got up extra early to make the 150 mile drive to Butte, Montana, for a live satellite uplink interview with the New York based "Fox News Morning Show". It turned into a wild goose chase... or "Fox" hunt might be the better metaphor. Butte, Montana is home to one of the largest toxic cleanup site in America. It' a top "super fund" site. The center of town overlooks a 5 miles wide crater carved out of a mountainside, a former copper mine. Hundreds of people died there in 1917 in an underground fire. Butte was a boom town in those days with over 100,000 residents. One can buy a house there for under $20,000. The TV station in Butte looks like it hasn't been updated since 1963. It's located in a former train station. Everything is slightly yellowed. A youthful Dan Rather promotional poster from the 1970's still hangs in the reception area along with promos for "One Day at a Time". The engineers had me sit at the paint chipped nightly news anchor desk, and I was wired for sound while bright studio lights trained on my head. In the control room engineers fidled with knobs and phone lines while they established the uplink. Michelle tried to make my hair look better. They did a sound check. I waited nervously staring at the monitor trying to guess what they were going to ask me. I waited some more. Everyone stood around staring at me. Then they told me I could unplug myself... the segment had been cancelled at the very last second. Turned out, just as we were about to go live, a heavy downpour in New York City messed with the satellite signal quality and the top dogs at FOX Network pulled the plug on me like Wolf Blitzer in Baghdad. Instead of doing my Chrismukkah interview, they broadcast a "puppies for Christmas" back-up story. Michelle and I drove back home, frustrated and dejected. Hey, that's show biz.

No Soup For You!!!!!

Guess who just joined our little Chrismukkah 2004 party? I suppose it was only a matter of time. Life imitates art imitates life... or something like that. We particularly were impressed by their reinterpretation of our "Matzoh Ball Snowman" cover boy and our best selling "Candy Cane Menorah" card and the Yarmuclaus hat that looks suspiciously like the hat our own Chrismukkah Man wears. My grandmother would be really ticked off if she knew they were messing with her original one of a kind matzoh ball recipe!