For some interfaith families, there is a special holiday season because Hanukkah and Christmas overlap

“My parents thought it was unfair for Jews not to celebrate Christmas, so we always had a Christmas tree with about 8,000 dreidels on it,” she said.

Her husband, John Nolan, said he was raised Catholic but no longer practices the religion. They would raise their two children in the Jewish faith and enroll them in a Hebrew school, they said.

“It’s nice that they feel part of both cultures,” Nolan said.

The Christmas-Hanukkah blend, often called “Chrismukkah,” was celebrated Saturday at Mamaleh’s Kibitz Corner in Cambridge, a Jewish restaurant, test kitchen and event venue owned by the group behind Mamaleh’s Delicatessens in Kendall Square, Brookline and downtown Boston .

Co-owner and pastry chef Rachel Sundet greeted visitors as they escaped the cold, removing their coats and scarves to reveal Christmas sweaters underneath. Sundet wore a sweater that said “snowflakes.”, “My latkes bring all the boys to the yard.”

Sundet said she is Jewish and her husband, Tyler Sundet, the company’s executive chef, was raised Lutheran and they celebrate both holidays each year.

“Having the opportunity to do something that combines both traditions is really fun and exciting,” she said. “Especially with the holidays being very tight this year, it just felt like a nice opportunity to throw a fun party that was a little different and inclusive for everyone.”

Although the Sundet family celebrates both holidays, they likely won’t be opening presents on Christmas morning. Rachel Sundet said Mamaleh’s was open that day, so they were at work but were home in the evening to light their menorah and enjoy some Hanukkah food.

For Nolan and Funkenstein, their plan is to spend the day at home, opening presents in the morning before celebrating Hanukkah in the evening.

Hanukkah is a relatively minor Jewish holiday commemorating the recapture and rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the second century BCE. Christians consider Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus, to be one of the two most important holidays on the calendar, along with Easter.

Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, said Hanukkah began to gain prominence in American culture as more Jews immigrated to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.

“In the mid-20th century, the broader American culture begins to notice that Hanukkah exists and begins to bring it into public consciousness alongside Christmas, even though it is not as significant a holiday in Judaism as (Christmas). ) is in Christianity,” he said in an interview on Saturday.

Joslyn-Siemiatkoski said many observant Jews have concerns about viewing the two holidays as equivalent.

“The story of Hanukkah is really about Jewish survival and self–Determination in the face of a culture that is trying to assimilate it,” he said. “This is a real tension within ‘Chrismukkah’ itself, which can have a slightly assimilatory edge.”

Joslyn-Siemiatkosk said a “Chrismukkah” party like the one hosted by Mamaleh’s aims to be “a gesture toward pluralism and the emphasis on that value in American culture.”

“Religious diversity is simply a given in the United States, and especially in a place like the Northeast, where, in addition to the majority, there is also a high density of Jewish communities–In Christian culture, there are just patchwork families and close friendship networks that intersect between Christians and Jews,” he said. “So I think that at best a ‘Chrismukkah’ party is trying to recognize and validate each other, even without claiming that they are the same thing.”

Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date that falls between late November and late December in the Gregorian calendar. The Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and does not agree with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on December 25th.

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Eve was in 2016, and the last time the first night fell on Christmas Day, as it did this year, was in 2005. The term “Chrismukkah” gained wider popularity in 2003, as the character Seth Cohen on the 2003-2007 television drama “The OC” used the Fusion holiday as a tribute to his Jewish father and his Protestant mother.

A 2021 Pew Research Center report found that about 63 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies as Christian. According to a 2020 Pew study, Jews now make up about 2.4 percent of the population. The 2020 study also found that about 42 percent of married Jews reported having a non-Jewish spouse.

Christmas music played in Mamaleh’s Kibitz Corner as more families entered the event space, surrounded by Christmas and Hanukkah decorations. Tinsel in the traditional Christmas colors of red and green was wrapped around support beams, while others had blue and white tinsel representing the colors of Hanukkah. A string of lights decorated with the Star of David hung from the ceiling.

At a table in the back of the room, children decorated Christmas cookies and made ornaments. While the children were at work, their parents chatted nearby and ate latkes, mini sufganiyot, cows in a blanket, and rugelach.

Jack, Nolan and Funkenstein’s 5-year-old son, placed red stars and icing on a cookie shaped like a dreidel. He said he enjoys celebrating both holidays because his family gets together and opens presents.

“It’s basically an eight-day Christmas,” Jack said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Nick Stoico can be reached at [email protected].