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A Splendid Toy Shopping Adventure! ---
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Los Angeles

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-

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42

December 15 • 2011

We do Estate Sales
and Ehay.

his jingly freilich season,
with Christmas falling in the
middle of Chanukah, may be
as good a time as any to examine an
interfaith-oriented product called the
Hanukkah Tree Topper. It's a 6-inch
plastic Star of David attached to a
stainless steel coil that allows the star
to sit atop a Christmas tree.
Typically a five- or multi-pointed
ornament representing the Star of
Bethlehem or an angel is placed atop
the tree, though hundreds of other tree
topper designs are available, including
crosses and Santas, even a Yoda.
On a recent flight, the Hanukkah
Tree Topper caught my eye in the
SkyMall magazine. Soon I found out
that the ornament, which has been
on the market for three years, also is
available online at Home Depot and
Sears.
According to its Jewish creator,
Morri Chowaiki, the topper "has

been the No. 1-selling tree topper on
Amazon.com (the cost is $18.99) and
has sold in the thousands:' including
at hundreds of mom-and-pop stores.
It has been successful enough to even
have several competitors.
During the Chanukah and
Christmas seasons, especially since
the 1980s and with the rise of inter-
marriage, there has been a kind of
growing holiday mashup that began
with "mixed blessings" greeting cards
and reached a pinnacle of sorts in
2003 when the Fox Network aired an
episode of The 0. C. series titled "The
Best Chrismukkah Ever." The episode
featured Seth Cohen, a character with
a Jewish father and Christian mother,
who declares he is the inventor of the
new holiday.
In a reaction soon after in USA
Today, "Chrismukkah" was denounced
jointly by the New York Catholic
League and the New York Board of
Rabbis, who called the created holiday
"insulting" to Christians and Jews.
Would any board of rabbis endorse

Oy, Tannenbaum on

page 44