Blended familes prompt hybrid holidays

In Adam Sandler's perennial favorite, "The Chanukah Song," he brags about that holiday's observance of "eight crazy nights."

Apparently, no one ever told him of "Chrismukkah," a newly popularized interfaith holiday that runs a full 18 days, from the start of Hanukkah on Dec. 7 all the way through Christmas Day.

Combining elements of Jewish, Christian and secular traditions, this hybrid reflects the growing trend of interfaith marriages and multicultural families. In the United States today, there are at least 1 million unions between Jews and Christians or other non-Jews. Additionally, rates of inter-faith marriage have increased, from 13 percent of all Jewish marriages before 1970 to 47 percent between 1996 and 2001.

Although the concept has existed for many generations -- as interfaith families struggle to balance traditions -- the formalization of Chrismukkah is a new phenomenon. Aside from a few random references on the Internet during the late '90s, Chrismukkah was relatively unheard of until last year, when Fox's The O.C., in grand Seinfeldian form, pushed it into the cultural consciousness.

Seth Cohen, a character on the hit show, is raised by a Protestant mother and Jewish father and used the term Christmukkah -- like its root, Hanukkah -- to describe his holiday traditions.

Inspired by this episode and their own recent interfaith marriage, Ron and Michelle Gompertz began creating greeting cards featuring matzoh ball snowmen, reindeer with Menorah for antlers and kosher fruitcake.

Operating out of a barn in rural Montana, this creative couple set up a Web site, Chrismukkah.com, to sell their products and post messages from other multicultural families.

"Back in January 2004, we thought registering Chrismukkah.com would be a cool way to honor Minna, our 18-month-old daughter's 'half Christian-half Jewish' heritage," said Ron. "Our motivation was to do something innovative, clever and inclusionary that could appeal to other interfaith families like our own."

Sensitive to other's religious beliefs, the Gompertz's try not to cross the line between secular and religious imagery.

"We realized there were two distinct sides to Christmas. First there is the serious religious holiday celebrated by Christians. Second, there is the highly secularized commercial holiday which everyone can enjoy ... no matter what your faith background," explained Ron.

Additionally, Ron recognizes that there is a difference between humorous and offensive.

"Off limits would be cards depicting serious religious images -- Jesus Christ, a Torah, Christmas Cres or too tacky and stereotypical (things) like pork latkes for a Chrismukkah meal," he said. "Good taste and humor (are) highly subjective, and it's a fine line."

Similarliy, according to Ron, there is a growing side to Hanukkah and Jewish culture. He said that various Jewish Web sites sell Nike-branded Yarmulkes, dog-shaped menorahs and NFL football Mezuzahs.

"Overall, we tried to avoid offensive designs, cheap shots, ethnic stereotyping and the too obvious ideas that had been done before," he said.

While possibilities exist for other hybrid holidays, the Gompertzs don't anticipate marketing them.

"Easter and Passover are close on the calendar each spring. During the Passover Sedar, there is a part mostly designed to entertain the young children at the Sedar where we hide the matzoh. Later, the child that finds the hidden matzoh gets a reward or prize. This of course is very similar to the Easter Egg hunt ritual. So there are possibilities. However, I think we'll let someone else try their hand at an 'EasterOver' card line."