Two religious holidays to merge

Continuing the current trend of large-scale mergers and acquisitions, it was announced today at a press conference that Christmas and Hanukkah will merge. An industry source said that the deal had been in the works for about 1300 years.

While details were not available at press time, it is believed that the overhead cost of having twelve days of Christmas and eight days of Hanukkah was becoming prohibitive for both sides. By combining forces, we're told, the world will be able to enjoy consistently high-quality service during the Fifteen Days of Chrismukah, as the new holiday is being called.

Massive layoffs are expected, with lords a-leaping and maids a-milking being the hardest hit. As part of the conditions of the agreement, the letters on the dreidel, currently in Hebrew, will be replaced by Latin, thus becoming completely unintelligible to a wider audience.

Also, instead of translating to 'A great miracle occurred there', the message on the dreidel will be the more generic 'Amazing stuff happens'. In exchange, it is believed that Jews will be allowed to use Santa Claus and his vast merchandising resources for buying and delivering their gifts.

One of the sticking points holding up the agreement for at least three hundred years was the question of whether Jewish children could leave milk and cookies for Santa even after having eaten meat for dinner. A breakthrough came last year, when Oreos were finally declared to be Kosher.

Both sides appeared happy about this.

A spokesman for Christmukah, Inc., declined to say whether a takeover of Kwanzaa and Ramadan might not be in the works as well. He merely pointed out that, were it not for the independent existence of the other two holidays, the merger between Christmas and Hanukkah might indeed be seen as an unfair cornering of the holiday market.
Fortunately for all concerned, he said, there will still be a competitive balance.

He then closed the press conference by leading all present in a rousing rendition of 'Oy Vey Maria'.