Even if the concept of "Chrismukkah" fails to catch on, the WB’s The O.C. has scored a public relations hit with the idea of a combined Christian and Jewish holiday first proposed a year ago by a character named Seth Cohen, the product of a mixed marriage.
Chrismukkah has garnered coverage in papers from The Wall Street Journal to the New York Daily News to, in a sure sign of a trend, USA Today. And now AdFreak. Even our neighbors to the North have taken notice. "Chrismukkah may sound silly," Karen von Hahn wrote in the Toronto Globe and Mail, "but its arrival on the radar is a wonderfully appropriate seasonal reminder that the only road map to peace is one paved—if not with kosher fruitcake—then, at the very least, mutual tolerance, openness and understanding."
Mutual tolerance is all well and good, but ringing cash registers are the true measure of any holiday’s success. The TV show’s Web site, theocinsider.com, offers red "yarmaclaus" (at right) with a white tassle for $15.95, in addition to Chrismukkah wrapping paper and cards. And in Livingston, Montana, of all places, a guy named Ron Gompertz has created Chrismukkah.com, offering his own line of cards ("Oy Joy" and "Merry Mazeltov" among the greetings) for the contrived season. "Chrismukkah is generally celebrated from the first day of Hannukah through Christmas Day," the Web site asserts.
Only eight days left.
—Posted by Trevor Jensen
