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O
O
Holiday cards
reflect a growth of
interfaith
holiday
celebrations.
Above: The inscription
this Hallmark card addres s
the 'December Dilemma"
interfaithfamiliesface: lince.
you welcome both Hanukkah
and Christmas..into your home,
you know the unique meaning.%
and happiness` each holiday
brings. " Hallmaikpublishes
only two mixed-holiday cards.
Right: Designer Greetings pub-
lishes several cards that combine
Chanukah and Christmas.
(This one says "Happy Holi-
days" on the inside.)
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
Staff WFivo
card 135i .Rpcycled Paper
Greetings4a. s it best:
"Have a SO ndid Whatev-
.
er.
If you don't want to off , or you
simply have interfaith frien•;send
them one of the hybrid cards that are
becoming, slowly, more pOpulir on
the shelves of local stores.
The biggest manufacturer of
Judeo-Christian holiday cards is
Designer Greetings, based in Staten
Island, N.Y. Owner Jack Gimbelman
says his company has published two
cards that give traditional Christmas
tales a Jewish bent — "The Eight
Days of Chanukah" and "Twas the
Night Before Hanukkah" — for 20
years. .
Other Designer Greetings hybrids
combine Santa spinning a dreidel;
Santa and an elf carving a Chanukah
menorah; and a lighted menorah,
dreidel, mistletoe, candy cane and
tree ornament, all of which say
"Happy Holidays" on the inside.
"The interfaith cards are for inter-
married couples, or people send them
when they are sending a card to a
whole group which is mixed," Gim-
belman says. Sales of mixed holiday
cards started off slowly "but really
gained a tremendous amount of
momentum."
The hybrids comprise about 10
percent of Designer Greetings'
Chanukah sales and a hundredth of
its Christmas card sales, Gimbelman
says.
The interfaith cards sell well in
southern Florida and New York; sales
are "spotted all over the country ...
usually where there's a Jewish popula-
tion," he says. The Half Off Card
Store in Farmington Hills is one of
the biggest local outlets for Designer
Greetings' interfaith holiday cards.
Gimbelman says he hasn't received
complaints since he first introduced
the line.
"I don't think we're discriminatory
either way. I happen to be Jewish,
publisher of the biggest [line of] Jew-
ish cards in the world, and if I
thought it was going to be discrimi-
natory or self-effacing, I would never
do it," Gimbelman adds.