Christmasukkah is the mash up of Christmas and Chanukkah, which occurs when the two holidays overlap, but this year, the Jewish holidays are earlier than usual, retailers and restaurants are preparing for Thanksgivingukkah.
According to the New York Daily News, the early arrival of Chanukah is seen as a chance to look at the Festival of Lights in a different light and a perfect excuse to blend the two feasts. Chanukkah foods focus on dishes fried in oil, symbolic of the oil that lasted for eight days and nights.
Chanukkah is also not completed without plenty of latkes, or potato pancakes, and Sufganiyot, sweet, fried jelly donuts. Families may have to put both meals on the table this year, but chefs are also considering how to combine the two food-focused holidays.
According to the Daily News, modern, Jewish-style restaurant Kutsher's Tribeca, a nod to the old Catskills resort, will serve three courses for Thanksgivingukkah. Traditional potato pancakes will become sweet potato pancakes topped with melted marshmallows. The Sufganiyot, donuts will be filled with cranberry sauce.
"We have a once in a lifetime opportunity here," said Zach Kutsher, owner of the eatery. "It enables us to have a lot of fun and combine the two holidays in a culinary mash-up that really is a celebration of a combined culture."
Turkey will incorporate the chocolate coins that so many kids receive as Chanukkah "gelt" (Yiddish for money) as a mole sauce, adding Latin flair to the mash-up. The Daily News reported Anthony Weintraub commissioned his nine-year-old son, Asher, to create a plaster turkey ornament with nine candles, to represent the two holidays.
The turkey hybrid is called a "Menurkey" and, according to the Daily News, it has raised more than $45,000 on Kickstarter.
Kutsher, told the Daily News he considers this year to be a "once in a lifetime opportunity."
"It's not going happen again, at least not for a very, very long time," Jonathan Mizrahi, a quantum physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, said. "This is more than once in lifetime. Actually, as far as we know, it's once ever."
This is the first time in 125 years that the night of Chanukkah will fall on Thanksgiving and the next time the two holidays will overlap is in 2070 and then again in 2165.
