How our Family Celebrates Chrismukkah
Shhhh. Don't tell my daughter, but Chrismukkah isn't a "real" holiday. No more real than Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, Santa Claus or Hannukah Harry. We think of Chrismukkah as a "state of mind" for the season.
In a story that appeared in the London Times on 11/13/04, Dr. Jonathan Romain the leading reform rabbi in England welcomed our Chrismukkah cards as a wonderful new tradition for intermarried families. Shortly after this article appeared, Chrismukkah began spinning into a global phenomenon. It was covered by thousands of media outlets around the world - newspapers, radio stations, TV reports, web sites, blog sites, discussion groups. Within weeks, Chrismukkah became a household word.
And inevitably, there was the Chrismukkah backlash. One conservative organization issued a national press release denouncing Chrismukkah. Another encouraged a boycott. The Boston Globe printed an editorial highly critical of Chrismukkah. Our advertising was refused by numerous Jewish and interfaith organizations because publishers felt Chrismukkah was going to offend some readers. We were called "too far over the syncretistic edge". We were suspected of being "Jews for Jesus", which we're definitely not. Some rumored we'd formed a religious cult in Montana. Nothing could be further from the truth.
My wife Michelle and I are a typical inter-married couple who grew up with different religious beliefs. That did not stop us from falling in love. We have a daughter, we try to be mindful and make the best of the unique challenges that face families like ours.
Michelle grew up in Indiana. Her father was (and still is) a career pastor with the United Church of Christ. He's a great guy and I love talking theology and politics with him. Like millions of others just like us, Michelle and I are doing our best to figure out the right thing to do as a family and as parents in a very complex world.
I was raised in New York City. My parents were German-Jews who survived the holocaust. Mom and Dad met in the early 1950's. My mother's mother was Jewish, but her father was Lutheran. The Nazis categorized my Mother as a "Mischling" - German for mixed breed or mutt. She narrowly escaped being sent to a concentration camp. As a little girl, Mom grew up celebrating the Christmas rituals... at the insistence of her strict and protective father. Years later, as an adult, she missed those Christmas traditions...and enjoyed decorating a tree. In most other ways we were a typical Jewish family. I found this old snaprshot of me (left) with my kid brother Jeff posing in front of our family Hanukkah bush. The bush is actually a silk kumquat tree decorated for the holidays. Take a close look. You'll see it's adorned with little mesh Santa Claus stockings filled with chocolate Hanukkah gelt. This bush symbolize the roots of Chrismukkah for me.
Michelle and I respect everyone's right to believe in whatever they may chose, and to whatever degree of orthodoxy they choose. We believe in religious freedom and our right to worship, or not to worship, as we please. This is especially true today, a time of anxiety about the separation of church and state in our own country, and fundamentalist violence around the world.
By celebrating Chrismukkah, we are not recommending combining the religious observance of Christmas and Hanukkah into one. In our family, we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas as individual holidays. Michelle loves the ritual of decorating our holiday tree with vintage ornaments and tinsel. We light the menorah during the 8 nights of Chanukah. Our house is decorated with electric lights... blue for Chanukah and red for Christmas. Together we attend the Chanukah party at our local synagogue and then we go home to visit Michelle's family for Christmas.
We fully understand that Christmas means more than stockings, snowmen, pretty lights and gift giving to Christians. We know Hanukkah has deeper meaning than merely the spinning of a dreidel, the lighting of candles and eating latkes. That said, Chrismukkah is not intended for those who are deeply observant. It is meant for people who believe what we do... that celebrating Chrismukkah is a celebration of what we have in common, rather than what makes us different. increase the likelihood that children of interfaith marriages will be more knowledgeable about their dual cultural heritage and that it will encourage tolerance and foster a better understanding of the differences between us all.
Merry Mazel Tov!
Ron & Michelle Gompertz
Bozeman, Montana
info@chrismukkah.com
