Word: holidays
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sandler's song notwithstanding, few Hanukkah productions have come close to matching the enduring status of A Charlie Brown Christmas - but the holiday is increasingly spreading its Jewish joy to the world. Last month, thinking woman's heartthrob Jon Stewart appeared on Stephen Colbert's Christmas TV special and meekly sang the tune, Can I Interest You in Hanukkah? Whether the answer from most viewers was yes or no, at least Kyle can tell his South Park buddies it's getting a little less lonely to be a Jew on Christmas...
...many Americans - even those who have sworn off airings of It's a Wonderful Life - the holiday season is crowded with pop CDs, TV specials and 24 hour holiday-music radio; in short, a nearly limitless array of festive Santa-tainment options. Traditionally, for those who celebrate Hanukkah, which started at dusk on Dec. 21, artistic representation has been harder to find. The comparatively minor Jewish holiday has long been inflated to match the commercial allure of Christmas (itself a day so far separated from its original religious meaning that the Puritans banned it in the 17th century...
...received - an actor celebrating Hanukkah? - paved the way for more writers and artists to be loud and proud about their Jewishness. A couple of years later, the humorously juvenile Comedy Central series South Park weighed in with an episode in which Kyle Broflovski, a Jewish kid exasperated by the holiday season, singing "A Jew on Christmas." "I'm a Jew, a lonely Jew, I'd be merry, but I'm Hebrew, on Christmas... Hanukkah is nice but why is it that Santa passes over my house every year? And ... what the f--- is up with lighting all these candles tell...
...flood of Festival of Lights extravaganzas. Sandler's critically panned animated 2002 film, Eight Crazy Nights, was a cult hit, while a cool kids' film, Chanukah on Planet Matzah Ball, targeted the 6 and under set. The beautiful teenagers of The O.C. came up with an all-inclusive holiday, much like Seinfeld's Festivus, called Chrismukkah. Jewish hipsters gathered to watch rockers like Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell toast Hanukkah at the now-annual New York City event, A Jewcy Hanukkah. The punk-pop band the LeeVees formed specifically to "spread Hanukkah cheer" and released the 2005 CD, Hanukkah...
Retail sales may be sluggish this holiday season, but aside from theft, there's at last one ultra-cheap way to put more presents under the tree. Organizers behind the massive online freebie network known as Freecycle.org say that they have noticed a surge in new users looking for hand-me-downs and raw materials being given away on the nonprofit site, which has more than 6 million members around the globe. "People used to ask others in the network for luxury items," such as laptops and other high-tech gadgets, says Michelle Martinez, a Freecycle volunteer who oversees...