Chrismukkah News
NPR - Mixed Families Set to Celebrate 'Chrismukkah' - 12/15/06
Click to listen to interview
Day to Day, December 15, 2006 · Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. But in some houses, you might find a menorah buried in a tableau of lights, tinsel and a manger -- all scenes of that OTHER holday.
Christmas is everywhere. As a Jew, you can either do your best to ignore it and go out for Chinese food on Christmas Day -- or you can do what Ron Gompertz has done: Embrace it and make it just a little less goy.
He calls his version of the holiday Chrismukkah, a hybrid of Christmas and Hanukkah.
Gompertz, author of Chrismukkah: Everything You Need to Know to Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday, talks about mixed traditions with Madeleine Brand. For some families, the holiday season is a time for compromise.
"The most important thing is to respect your partner," Gompertz says, and to make an effort to learn about family traditions.
His book also includes recipes tailored for the holidays, from Fa-La-La-Latkes and Matzoh Pizza to Gefilte Goose, in which goose takes the place of fish.
"We couldn't do Gefilte Ham, because that just wouldn't be kosher," Gompertz says.
There is a side benefit to the melded holiday, as well: Gompertz's children rake in eight days of gifts, followed by "one day of many, many gifts, he says.
The Jewish Daily Forward - A Holly Jolly Hybrid Holiday - 12/08/06
by Daniel Treiman
Chrismukkah: Everything You Need To Know To Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday
By Ron Gompertz*
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 144 pages, $17.95*
Ron Gompertz has found the solution to the December Dilemma: He punts.
Gompertz is the self-appointed pied piper of Chrismukkah, a hybrid holiday popularized three years ago by the Fox television series "The O.C." A New York Jew transplanted to Montana (of all places) and married to the daughter of a United Church of Christ pastor, Gompertz jumped on the Chrismukkah bandwagon (to the apparent chagrin of the creator of "The O.C."), launching the Web site Chrismukkah.com, where he sells greeting cards and various holiday-related tchotchkes.
Now he's written a book, "Chrismukkah: Everything You Need To Know To Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday." In 144 colorful pages, Gompertz serves up a syncretistic smorgasbord of do-it-yourself recipes ("Fa La La Latkes"), drinks ("Yule Plotz Egg Nog") and decorations (What's a Chrismukkah tree without "menorahments"?). Gompertz, whose sense of humor is decidedly more ham than wry, also tosses in hybridized holiday song lyrics, a list of Hollywood "half-Hebrews" and some silly stories, including one in which Mrs. Claus divorces her cheating, sleigh-riding husband and is swept off her feet by "Hanukkah Harry."
"Chrismukkah is a celebration of diversity, a global gumbo of cherished secular traditions," Gompertz writes. "It's the good stuff we all enjoy, no matter what our religion: sleigh bells, eggnog, snowmen, twinkling lights, flickering candles, exchanging gifts with family and friends."
To those who may think that Chrismukkah is nothing more than newfangled nonsense, Gompertz has a ready retort; Tradition! As it turns out, the holiday has a long history in Gompertz's family. His mother was born in Germany, her father a Lutheran and her mother Jewish. Before Hitler's rise to power, the family, like many other assimilated German Jews, celebrated both December holidays, a combination that was dubbed "Weihnukkah," from Weihnachten, the German word for Christmas - in other words, Chrismukkah.
Indeed, as Gompertz notes, the winter holidays have histories of hybridity. Many traditions associated with Christmas - including the fact that it's even celebrated in the winter - have pagan roots. Santa Claus is himself a mélange of some dozen different folkloric figures. And let's be honest, what is Hanukkah, as celebrated today, with its eight nights of gifts, if not an effort to one-up (or seven-up, as the case may be) Christmas?
Chrismukkah is certainly fun for the kids. (Really, what kid wouldn't like a pine tree decked with bagels?) But is it good for the Jews? And is it good for Christmas? Some clearly don't think so. In 2004, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and the New York Board of Rabbis issued a joint statement blasting the made-up holiday for "spiritual misrepresentation."
True, Jesus plays little more than a bit part in "Chrismukkah," and the Maccabees aren't much in evidence, either. But Gompertz has no hidden agenda. "As a brand-new, twenty-first-century pseudoholiday, Chrismukkah is more connected to postmodern pop-culture traditions than the ancient ones," he writes. Those up in arms over Chrismukkah are railing at the symptom of a much larger problem: Christmas and Hanukkah are so commercialized that they already have been stripped of much of their deeper religious meaning.
Personally, having grown up in a family in which not having a Christmas tree was as central to our Jewishness as lighting the menorah, I was prepared to hate "Chrismukkah." But it's hard to hate a book that features pictures of dogs wearing yarmulkes, snowmen made out of matzo balls and delightfully schmaltzy jokes on almost every page - even for a grinch like me. I may not like the hybrid holiday, but I have to give credit where it's due: Ron Gompertz has written a very merry Chrismukkah book. Ho, ho, ho - and oy, oy, oy.
Daniel Treiman is the founding editor of The Brooklynite magazine and a former associate editor at the Forward.
Chrismukkah: A truce in the war of the holidays
Combining faiths makes for interesting holiday seasonSaturday, December 16, 2006
KRISTEN CAMPBELL
Religion Editor
Inside Nancy Pierce and Barry Silverman's Oakleigh home, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care and eight menorahs stand in the dining room there.
"We just kind of celebrate everything," said Pierce, a member of Ashland Place United Methodist Church. Silverman is a member of Springhill Avenue Temple.
"I think it's really neat because Barry and I have been able to teach each other so much and we've been able to try to understand each other's culture so much better," said Pierce, spokesperson for Mobile County public schools. "We both believe in God and that's what's important to both of us."
While reports about holiday wars seem to be everywhere these days, some interfaith families have found ways to make it through the month with good will and good humor.
Three years ago, interfaith couple Ron and Michelle Gompertz were inspired by their daughter's birth to launch Chrismukkah.com. More recently came the publication of Ron Gompertz's kitsch-filled "Chrismukkah," which includes chapters on "Deck the Halls with Lots of Tchotchkes," "Oh! Tannenbaum, Oy! Rosenbaum: Bush, Shrub or Tree" and "Spinning the Dreidel Under the Mistletoe."
"Chrismukkah won't bring you spiritual enlightenment, or get you right with God," Gompertz writes. "Your rabbi or priest won't know much about it, and if you ask your parents, they may wonder what they did wrong to deserve this. Nonetheless, for the growing number of interfaith families whose living rooms sport both a menorah and a tree, Chrismukkah is a good solution to the so-called 'December Dilemma.'"
While the hybrid holiday, hailed on Web sites, TV shows and elsewhere in the media, has garnered increased attention in recent years, its existence is not a 21st century phenomenon.
Gompertz notes that a recent Chrismukkah exhibit at the Jewish Museum in Berlin traced the celebration to German Jews in the late 1880s. Then it was known as "Weihnukkah," "Weihnachten" being the German word for Christmas.
"Celebrating Christmas with a tree, songs, and gifts became a symbol of being a part of German culture for many middle-class Jewish families in the 19th century. Jews celebrated Christmas as a secular 'festival of the world around us' without religious meaning, or they transferred Christmas customs to the Hanukkah festival."
Whatever the history, Rabbi Steven Silberman of Congregation Ahavas Chesed finds the notion of Chrismukkah disgusting.
"It trivializes two very important and very spiritual traditions. It may be well-intentioned and an attempt to contend with competing desires and loyalties but the end result is that both Hanukkah and Christmas are diminished.
"Hanukkah represents the first recorded battle for religious freedom. Christmas represents the idea that God shared of God's self for the betterment of humanity. Neither one is better. Both are different. The consequences of mixing the two traditions' motifs are the degradation of the uniqueness of each tradition."
But the Rev. Ken Cumbie, rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, emphasized how much interfaith family members might learn from one another.
Cumbie said he has talked to an interfaith family in his congregation about what a marvelous opportunity their children have to learn about the Jesus of the Bible in Sunday school, then learn about the richness of Judaism at synagogue.
Christians, particularly those living in regions where they are a majority, don't know much about the Jewish faith, he said.
"I believe that our own Christian faith can have depth and can become more and more vital if we will take the time to learn, in this case, about Judaism," Cumbie said. "We owe so much of our own understanding of God to the God of the Hebrew faith."
Over on Selma Street, Pierce and Silverman separate their Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations, though signs of both holidays -- a Nativity scene on the coffeetable and menorahs on a highboy -- sit in adjacent rooms.
"I don't think it's watering anything down at all," Pierce said.
"I've learned so much about the Jewish faith," she said, "and I think he also has learned more about the Christian faith because of me. But we just like to share it all."
© 2006 The Mobile Register© 2006 al.com All Rights Reserved.
Arizona Republic - Chrismukkah! - 11/06/06
Kathy Cano Murillo
The Arizona Republic
One spouse is Jewish, the other is not. How the heck do you decorate for Christmas and/or Hanukkah? Celebrate Chrismukkah of course! Chrismukkah (a hybrid of both faiths) runs December 15-25, and all is fair because the attention is split down the middle. We're talking Menorahments, dreidel wreaths and colorful matzo bread houses - the options are as endless as the crafty opportunities. Think we're kidding, visit www.chrismukkah.com as see for yourself. You'll find merchandise, features stories, a newsletter and of course, things to make! If you like what you see, pick up a copy of Chrismukkah: Everything You Need to Know to Celebrate the Hybrid Holiday by Ron Gompertz ($17.95, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 144 pages, hardback). And if you want more Jewish-themed crafts for the season, you'll appreciate the fun of Judaikitsch: Tchotchkes, Schmattes & Nosherei by Jennifer Traig and Victoria Traig ($14.95, Chronicle Books, 128 pages, paperback).
Toronto Star - Holidays' Convergence Adds to December Dilemma - 12/21/05
Townhall.com - Happy Chrismukkah - 12/21/05
Dec 21, 2005 by Suzanne FieldsBERLIN -- A cold dampness hovers over the streets and the skies turn bleak and dark early in the afternoon. Nevertheless, 'tis the season to be jolly. More than 50 Christmas markets celebrate the season, and none is as unusual as the one here at 14 Lindenstrasse behind the provocative new Jewish Museum, lit by a huge Hanukkah menorah and traditional Christmas decorations celebrating an exhibition titled "Chrismukkah."
Here, Christians and Jews gather to share a warm glass of Gluhwein, the seasonal spicy wine, warming the hands and lifting the spirit, or to nibble a potato latke or a stollen, the Christmas cake studded with dried fruit. The strains of "Maoz Zur," the most popular Hanukkah song with lyrics set to the melody of "Rock of Ages," soar over the gathering. The notes hark to a 15th century German folk song incorporated into chorals of Christian faith by Martin Luther.
Germans, like Americans, argue over the politically correct language of the season, but the Jewish Museum puts things into perspective, tracing the origins of the religious, cultural, commercial and political images associated with both Christmas and Hanukkah. A display of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" album is displayed at the entrance with a photograph of der Bingle, and the old crooner's distinctive voice wafts through the hallways as a reminder that "White Christmas" was written by Israeli Isidore Baline, better known as Irving Berlin, who spoke Yiddish before he spoke English. Someone once asked him how a Jew could write the signature secular hymn of the Christian holiday, and he replied: "I wrote it as an American."
The exhibition is filled with such ironies, revealing the way traditions can lift the spirit or plunge it into despair, depending on who's in charge of the message. A photograph from 1932, taken from inside the window of a rabbi''s home, depicts a graceful menorah with its candles lighting the windowsill and, beyond it, a Nazi swastika hanging from a rooftop across the street. A cartoon depicts a menorah morphing into a Christmas tree, satirizing the customs of German Jews whose assimilation could not save them from the "final solution." On display are Christmas-tree ornaments decorated with swastikas and other symbols of the Third Reich, wooden angels transformed into "winged end-of-the-year figures" of the socialist German Democratic Republic, and an American menorah made with tiny replicas of the Statue of Liberty as candleholders.
Christmas and Hanukkah in Berlin are rife with tragic memories of the Third Reich, and its streets are haunted by the ghosts of Jewish souls whose names are commemorated with bronze plaques, marking the spot where men, women and children were ripped from their homes and sent to death camps. But every time a visitor is tempted to blame every German for the Holocaust, he finds another example of the "Righteous Gentiles," the many heroic men and women who saved Jews because they couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Tucked away in an alley at 39 Rosenthalerstrasse in Mitte, a tiny museum now under renovation commemorates one Otto Weidt, a Gentile paperhanger who set up a small brush-and-broom factory for sheltered blind and deaf Jews to use their skilled hands to work with straw. After the SS raided the factory and arrested the Jews, Herr Weidt marched down to the transit camp where they awaited deportation to the death camps and, at great personal risk, insisted his employees were doing valuable work for the Third Reich. He "convinced" them with extravagant bribes. In subsequent raids, he hid Jews in a tiny room whose door was camouflaged by a cupboard until an informer told the Gestapo where they were hidden. Most eventually died at Auschwitz, but two survivors tell on videotape of their memories.
The Talmud, the sacred book of the Jews, teaches that "to save one life is as if you have saved the world." This is a message for all seasons wherever and whoever we may be. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah.
Suzanne Fields is a columnist with The Washington Times.
Copyright © 2005 Tribune Media Services
New York Times - Blended Family says "Merry Chrismukkah" - 12/21/05
On Sunday afternoon, millions of families in the New York area will sit down to Christmas dinner. As the sun prepares to set, some man, woman or child will say a brief prayer in Hebrew and light the first candle on the Hanukkah menorah. This year, for the first time since 1959, the first and typically most festive night of Hanukkah falls on Dec. 25. In the ever-growing ranks of families where Christians and Jews have intermarried, this is more than a mere quirk of the calendar.For an unabashed syncretist, the double-barreled holiday offers an excuse to eat mashed potatoes and potato latkes in the same sitting, with candy canes and chocolate gelt for dessert. For those who take care to faithfully pass on to their children both their Jewish and Christian heritages, an annual juggling ritual is tricky, and the danger of confusion greater.
But for everyone in a blended family, the phenomenon that has become known as the December Dilemma poses a particular logistical challenge this year.
The intermarriage rate has been rising steadily since the 1970's, according to the United Jewish Communities' National Jewish Population Survey. As of 2001, about 31 percent of married Jews in the United States had non-Jewish spouses. For Jews who have married since 1995, the intermarriage rate approaches 50 percent.
Some see in this year's confluence of celebrations the opportunity for commerce. Ron Gompertz, proprietor of chrismukkah.com - named for a "holiday" featured on a 2003 episode of "The O.C." - said that when he realized that this year would be "the mother of all Chrismukkahs," he was inspired to publish a Chrismukkah cookbook. Featured recipes include a gingerbread mensch and Rabbi Reuben's bread pudding.
(Even Mr. Gompertz, who also sells interdenominational knickknacks like ornaments depicting dreidels adorned with Christmas trees, has his limits. He vetoed a recipe for gefilte ham after deciding that good taste, in both senses of the word, would not be well served by it.)
Los Angeles Times - For This Holiday, Religious Themes Are in the Cards - 12/17/05
Mixed-faith cards are another major trend, reflecting the large number of Christian/Jewish families in the nation. Some of these combine Christmas trees and menorahs or Christmas-tree ornaments and dreidels and carry best wishes at this "beautiful season." Some are humorous, like the card from NobleWorks that shows two freeway offramps, one marked "Jews Who Buy Christmas Trees," the other "Christians Who Think Hanukkah Is a Major Holiday."Ron Gompertz, chief executive of Chrismukkah.com, argues that it is better to celebrate both religious traditions than try to deny them with a generic card.
Last year, his Bozeman, Mont.-based company shipped 30,000 interfaith cards. This year, he expects to ship 90,000. His best-selling card is one that shows bagels topped with cream cheese and holly and offers "Good Cheer with a Schmear."
Chrismukkah is a metaphor for people of different backgrounds finding common ground, said Gompertz, who is Jewish, and whose wife, Michelle, is the daughter of a United Church of Christ minister. "We don't advocate blending the holidays in the religious sense," Gompertz said.
Wall Street Journal - Shopping Around 12/15/05
Retailers have latched onto a new holiday: Chrismukkah. The Christmas Hanukkah hybrid was front and center in pop culture last year. This has led more online merchants and national stores this year when Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah coincide - to roll out products that take interfaith holiday decorations a step further and specifically trumpet the spirit of Chrismukkah.The idea is to appeal to the growing number of interfaith families in the U.S. A Jewish population survey of 4,500 people four years ago found that 47% of those who had married between 1996 and 2001 wedded non-Jewish spouses, according to New York based United Jewish Communities. Some Options:
Chrismukkah.com, a web site run by an interfaith couple that lives in Bozeman, Montana, recently published "Chrismukkah: The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook," a $15 book that includeds recipes for dishes such as a challah sticky-bun wreath and "kris kringle kugel."
This year, Urban Outfitters Inc, which has sold interfaith holiday cards in the past, started selling its first Chrismukkah card. It features a reindeer bearing menorah-style antlers and wishes the recipient "Merry Chrismukkah."
Cafepress.com is selling Chrismukkah postage stamps - approved for use by the US Postal Service - for letters and postcards.
USA Today
Editorial/Opinion - Rabbi Gerald Zelizer - 12/7/05
"Some interfaith couples avoid the religious component altogether by favoring the commercial. Chrismukkah.com, a business owned by mixed-faith couple Ron and Michelle Gompertz, sells items such as Christmas tree ornaments with designs of Jewish stars, and menorahs with reindeer antlers for candle holders. Ron Gompertz, who recently wrote Chrismukkah: The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook, says, "Our solution is to focus on the fun parts that we can enjoy without getting into all that theology."
Bravo Television
What's So Great About the Holidays?
Bravo made its list - and checked it twice - of the 100 yuletide traditions that celebrate the merriment and mayhem that are the "Great Things About The Holidays," from claymation villains to Bing Crosby." And guess who's #89 on Bravos list? The segment, which premiered on December 1st, features numerous closeups of our geeting cards and several photos from our website. They even include some bootlegged video of me packing up shipments in our warehouse!Jewish Telegraphic Agency - A Recipe for Kris Kringle Kugel? Chrismukkah Time is Here Again - 12/18/05
On Dec. 25, Rod Shapiro and Pat Wong will exchange Christmas and Chanukah gifts spread under a seven-foot Christmas tree.The interfaith couple in their late 50s, married three years, will light the menorah in the evening and invite friends to stop by their Long Beach, Calif., home.
Welcome to Chrismukkah 2005, a holiday that offers greeting cards featuring a reindeer with menorah antlers, recipes for Gefilte Goose and Kris Kringle Kugel in "The Merry Mish Mash Holiday Cookbook," Christmas-tree ornaments decorated with Stars of David, a children's book called "Blintzes for Blitzen" and gift wrap adorned with matzah-ball snowmen.
For Shapiro, who describes himself as culturally Jewish, Chrismukkah is a light-hearted solution to the familial conflicts that interfaith couples often face.
"Personally, I think that more and more people should embrace their similarities and tolerate their differences, and Chrismukkah is a holiday that allows couples to do that," he said.
The melding and mingling of customs is nothing new. Historians trace it back to Christians in the first century CE who still considered themselves Jews. And interfaith couples for ages have been quietly celebrating both holidays.
But for many families the distinctions are more blurry, and decisions regarding religious upbringing are often ignored until a child enters the picture. That was the case for Ron Gompertz.
Gompertz, who describes himself as "a typical bar mitzvah boy from New York City," is the son of Holocaust survivors but grew up with a Chanukah bush in the house. His wife, Michelle, the daughter of a Church of Christ minister, identifies more with Buddhism and atheism than anything else.
It wasn't until two and a half years ago, when their daughter Minna was born, that Gompertz, now 52, and his wife started thinking about religious issues.
The family moved to Bozeman, Mont., where in 2004 Gompertz created and launched www.Chrismukkah.com, which he saw as a way to make light of his intermarriage.
The Web site serves as an online store to sell Chrismukkah cards and merchandise as well as a forum to publish Gompertz' reflections on the subject.
Commercially, Chrismukkah might be gaining some ground. Gompertz reported that sales on his Web site have nearly doubled since last year. He expects to sell about 75,000 Chrismukkah cards, with "Good Cheer with a Schmear," a picture of four bagels with cream cheese, this year's top seller.
Still, "It's a very small, garage based business," he said.
Fayetteville Observer (NC) - Merry Chrismukkah 12/20/05
With interfaith families in mind and tongue stuck clearly in cheek, Ron and Michelle Gompertz have based an Internet business on this Jewish/Christian hybrid observance. Their Web site, Chrismukkah.com, sells a line of humorous Chrismukkah greeting cards, a Chrismukkah cookbook, even Chrismukkah stocking stuffers."It's important for me that Chrismukkah was a reminder for everyone, no matter your religion, (that) the holidays are about sharing what we have in common rather than what separates us," he said. " Chrismukkah - I think of it as an olive branch. It's a demilitarized zone in a year some are complaining about the war on Christmas. It's a truce during the holiday season."
Along with " The O.C.," Chrismukkah.com has been instrumental in getting the word out.
"They certainly popularized Chrismukkah," Gompertz said of the show. " We also did a pretty good job for people who don't watch television. When we came out with the greeting cards, we heard from people all over the world. They thought we had invented the word Chrismukkah. We didn't invent the word Chrismukkah, and neither did 'The O.C.' "
Instead, Gompertz gives credit for that to a high school teacher in New Haven, Conn., who sent out a facetious press release over the Internet in 1998 to poke fun of the commercialization of Christmas.
The roots of Chrismukkah appear to lie in another pseudo-holiday, Weihnukkah.
An exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Berlin sources the origin of Chrismukkah to German-Jews in the late 1800s and their observance of Weihnukkah, according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Weihnachten is the German word for Christmas,
"Weihnukkah was known as the festival of the world," Gompertz said. "They had Hanukkah trees and decorations. I'm the caretaker of Weihnukkah in America by doing this."
Gompertz, 52, is Jewish and a native of New York. His wife, Michelle, is a Christian from the Midwest and the daughter of an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
Together, they created Minna, their now 2-year-old " hybrid" daughter whom they credit as the inspiration behind the Internet company that operates from the garage of their home in Bozeman, Mont.
" It's not like a business," Gompertz said by telephone on Thursday, a couple of days before he was scheduled to fly to New York to tape a segment for the Dec. 25 weekend edition of the " Today" show.
"My wife and I promised we'd never go into business together," he continued. "It began as a simple Web site and line of greeting cards that we sold to other interfaith families like our own to underwrite the cost of the Web site. The greeting cards kind of took off last year, unexpectedly."
Though untracked by the U.S. Census, there are an estimated 1.7 million married couples nationwide with one spouse of Christian heritage and another spouse of Jewish heritage. In 1990, the National Jewish Population Survey reported that 52 percent of American Jews intermarry.
Gompertz said he views Chrismukkah not as a holiday, but rather as a metaphor. An "state of mind," as he put it. His company emphasizes the commercialized, secular aspects of the Christmas holidays: the eggnog, Frosty the Snowman, the surge of seasonal songs. Those parts of the holidays that everyone can enjoy, he said, no matter their religious beliefs.
Indianapolis Star Tribune - Hanukkah's Dec. 25 start a test for interfaith families Jewish holiday, Christmas overlap for first time since '59 12/18/05
Ron Gompertz, 52, Bozeman, Mont., is positively frantic about the holiday overlap. That's because he's made a whole industry of blending the holidays and is rushing to accommodate customers of both faiths.On Gompertz's Web site, www.chrismukkah.com , he sells such items as " Chrismukkah" cards, tree ornaments emblazoned with Stars of David and reindeer-shaped menorahs with Hanukkah candles for antlers.
In past years when the holidays didn't overlap, Gompertz, who is Jewish, spent Christmas with Christian in-laws in Indianapolis, and Hanukkah with his family in New Jersey. His mother recently moved to live closer to him in Montana, however, so this year Gompertza is lobbying for the Indianapolis wing to come to him." If he's successful, he'll whip them up some recipes from a self-published cookbook he's hawking online, " Chrismukkah: The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook." In it, you'll find such creative treats as festive edible houses made from matzo instead of gingerbread.
Gompertz has been criticized for diluting and commercializing both holidays, but he contends that his products actually reinforce the moral tenets of each faith. " We look at it as an opportunity to share the common values, like peace on Earth and good will toward men," he said. " Whenever people of different backgrounds get together, it teaches tolerance,"
The Missoulian
Hybrid holiday: Bozeman writer meshes Christmas, Hanukkah in new cookbook
"So what's it going to be, asks a new hybrid-holiday cookbook: Figgy pudding or gefilte fish? Latkes or fruitcake? Spin the dreidel or kiss under the mistletoe?Don't choose, says Bozeman writer Ron Gompertz, a New Yorker who married a Midwesterner and who's smooshed Hanukkah and Christmas into Chrismukkah. Enjoy all of the secular traditions of each holiday by embracing both Santa and Harry Hanukkah, challah and sticky buns, matzoh ball snowmen and "Ho Ho Hummus."
Gompertz figures about 10 million Americans are matrimonially mingled, with one a Christian who grew up with reindeer and candy canes, the other a Jew nibbling on chocolate gelt and lighting menorah candles. Last year, he launched a line of humorous holiday cards that celebrate Chrismukkah, a fusion of Christmas and Hanukkah; this year he came out with "Chrismukkah: The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook," with more than 55 hybrid-holiday recipes.
"It's as if Martha Stewart married Jon Stewart, and together they wrote a cookbook," he said.
Gompertz is working on a bigger book about the symbols and traditions of Christmas and Hanukkah, and the cookbook is one chapter of that project. He and his wife, Michelle, took family and traditional recipes, turned them over to a professional culinary teacher and chef in Bozeman - Kathy Stark, owner of Starky's Authentic, dubbed Montana's only real Jewish delicatessen - and the book was born.
It is a Montana product, from idea to photography to recipes to printing. Gompertz said he nixed the temptation to include a recipe for gefilte ham; "It would have looked and tasted awful." Three rules applied to the recipes:
They had to taste good.
They had to fuse elements from different cultures.
And they "shouldn't offend our grandparents."
Chrismukkah, Gompertz explains in the book, is a "gumbo of cherished secular traditions. It's the good stuff we can all enjoy, no matter what our faith." His family had a Hanukkah bush in his New York neighborhood, which was filled with Catholics and Protestants and other Jews. His own daughter, Minna, is growing up in Bozeman, in a home that blends Christian and Jewish cultures and traditions, he said.
As clever as the idea of Chrismukkah is, Gompertz admits he's treading on some emotional terrain. Religious history can be dark and serious, and he said he doesn't want to offend. But he does want to celebrate all cultures, and seeks "to eliminate the friction, confusion, and awkwardness" of "the December dilemma."
"Making a cohesive story and making it resonate emotionally is the challenge,"he said." I'm trying to tie in some of the more serious themes of culturalism and tolerance in our world. I didn't want to write a book making fun of Jews and Christians. I wanted to treat them with respect."
But humor is important, and "The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook" finds it in some fun props - Godzilla and reindeer menorahs, "Oy Rogers" on his favorite horse, Trigger - and clever rewrites of holiday songs ("T'was the night before Chrismukkah, and me, being Jewish / I was 'on call' again, and feeling quite blueish").
It includes a list of 34 celebrities who might celebrate Chrismukkah, including Kate Hudson (Italian father, Jewish mother) and Paula Abdul (Syrian father, French-Canadian-Jewish mother), and also some short histories of favorite holiday foods ("Latkes are not to be confused with anything the House of Pancakes would have on the menu.")
But the recipes, designed, tested and tweaked by Stark, are the soul of the cookbook. Begin the planning with Noel Nosh appetizers such as Chutzpah Mix or Deck the Halls with Boughs of Challah. For brunch, consider Lotsa Latkes or Blitzen's Blintzes with Manny-Cranny Sauce.
After a Chrismukkah Smorgasbord that includes Mama Mia Matzah Pizza and Rabbi Reuben's Bread Pudding, choose from the chapter on Fancy-Schmancy Desserts (Kris Kringle Kugel or Gingerbread Mensch, for instance) followed by happy hour selections, including Hava Tequila Sunrise/Sunset or Clarence's Merryschewitz Mulled Wine, named after the angel from "It's a Wonderful Life," who orders mulled wine during the "evil bar scene."
Also in the cookbook: directions for making a Matzoh Bread House, a "soon-to-be-classic Chrismukkah project."
So go ahead. Cook already!
But don't forget to say grace."
The Oregonian - Oy Joy! - Chrismukkah helps you nosh on Noel
"Gefilte goose. Kosher fruitcake. Meshugga Nog. Now interfaith families can create their own delicious traditions with "Chrismukkah: The Merry Mish-Mash Holiday Cookbook," a collection of hybrid-holiday recipes for Jews and Christians by Ron Gompertz. "lThe cookbook might bring to mind the question asked by Charlie Tuna: Does it taste good and is it in good taste? Miraculously, the answer is yes. Each recipe manages to be mouthwatering while keeping tongue firmly planted in cheek," says Gompertz. The recipes were co-created by Kathy Stark, former executive chef with -- oddly enough -- the HoneyBaked Ham Co. Find the book ($15, 120 pages) at Chrismukkah.com, along with cross-cultural greeting cards, holiday ornaments, CDs, T-shirts and more."T.V. Guide
November 21-28 " Season's Greetings? Oy Joy! In 2003. The O.C.'s Seth Cohen introduced a new holiday to the world when he told his foster brother, Ryan Atwood, that his family honors both its Christian and Jewish roots by celebrating 'Chrismukkah' between Hanukkah and Christmas. It's become so popular that Chrsimukkah.com features greeting cards."Jewish Museum of Berlin - "Chrismukkah - Stories of Christmas and Hanukkah"
From the press release: "A Christmas celebration with a tree, songs, and gifts became a symbol of being a part of German culture for many middle-class Jewish families in the 19th century. Jews celebrated Christmas as a secular "festival of the world around us" without religious meaning, or they transferred Christmas customs to the Hanukkah festival. This mixture was and is referred to as "Chrismukkah." Those who would like to know more about the "December dilemma" which many Jews face each year will find this in the last room of the exhibition.Over 700 objects, photographs, and film clips illustrate how social, political, and economic changes have led to new traditions and how commercialization and secularization have superficially made it possible for the two festivals to approximate today. The exhibition tells lots of surprising stories. Or were you aware that "White Christmas," the most successful Christmas hit of all time, was written by a Jewish composer? Irving Berlin, who had fled the Russian tsarist realm for the USA, anticipated the worldwide success of his song when he played it for the first time in 1940: "It's not only the best song I've ever written but the best song anybody's ever written." October 28, 2005- January 29, 2006