 chrismukkah is a pop-culture portmanteau neologism referring to the merging of the holidays of christianity's christmas and judaism's hanukkah. the term was popularized by the tv drama the o.c., wherein character seth cohen creates the holiday to signify his upbringing in an interfaith household with a jewish father and protestant mother (although the holiday can also be adopted by all-jewish households who celebrate christmas as a secular holiday). chrismukkah is also celebrated as an ironic, alternative holiday, much like the seinfeld-derived "festivus". usa today has described it as "[t]he newest faux holiday that companies are using to make a buck this season". ==history== long before "chrismukkah" entered the popular lexicon in the early 21st century, christmas and hanukkah celebrations have been informally merged with one another. 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. some jews celebrated christmas as a secular "festival of the world around us" without religious meaning, or they transferred christmas customs to the hanukkah festival. in the 1990s, the popular sitcom friends often portrayed jewish characters ross and monica celebrating christmas with their christian friends, signifying many contemporary american jewish households who celebrate christmas in the strictly secular sense. chrismukkah was named for the first time, and prominently featured, in the fox television program the o.c. (2003â2007). show creator josh schwartz used the holiday (which the writers almost named "hanimas") to depict, he later said, {{quote|my experience as a jewish kid from the east coast coming to usc ... and being surrounded by all these kids from newport beach who were water-polo players, and these very blonde girls who only wanted to date them. i felt very much like an outsider. even trying to talk about hanukkah with some of them was like coming from an alien planet and talking about life there. the show is really about outsiders: ryan was the most obvious outsider, as was seth
Christian_and_Jewish_interfaith_topics Christmas-linked_holidays December_observances Fictional_holidays Hanukkah The_O.C. Unofficial_observances