Today is both Christmas and the beginning of Hanukkah. Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ, and Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, align on the same day an average of five times a century. The last time they aligned this way was in 2005. Since 1900, the first night of Hanukkah has fallen on December 25 five times: 1910, 1921, 1959, 2005, and now 2024.
The first night of Hanukkah, which begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month Kislev, changes year to year because the Jewish calendar relies on a lunar calendar, based on how long it takes the moon to go around the sun.
Chrismukkah is a pop-culture portmanteau (a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others) referring to the merging of the holidays of Christianity's Christmas and Judaism's Hanukkah (I made up Hanumas). The term was popularized beginning in December 2003 by the TV drama The O.C.
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