On the first night of Hanukkah … a partridge in a Menorah Tree?

NEW YORK – Hanukkah, the eight-night Jewish holiday that starts this evening, is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Entrepreneurs have introduced a fresh wave of Noel-inspired products over the past two years, including the Menorah Tree, which lets you hang ornaments on an evergreen-like frame, and Mensch on a Bench, a Jewish version of Elf on the Shelf. You can even buy ugly Hanukkah sweaters and gingerbread house-style kits made by Manischewitz Co. for the Festival of Lights.

The “Christmasification” of the holiday has been fueled in part by the growth of interfaith families and the ease of selling products online. Hanukkah also is an attractive market. While Jews represent a small fraction of the U.S. population, they spend more on the holidays than Christians do, according to Prosper Insights & Analytics. The question for rabbis and traditionalists is whether the latest products threaten to further undermine a holiday long overshadowed by Santa Claus.

“Jewish history is filled with examples of Jews adapting elements of the majority culture in which they live,” said Rabbi Ellen Flax, director of the Hadassah Foundation in New York. “But a ‘Menorah Tree’ and its ilk? Personally, I couldn’t imagine buying such an item.”

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Hanukkah evolved from a minor holiday into a larger celebration after American Jews sought an alternative to Christmas. The festival, which usually falls in December, commemorates the oil used to keep a lamp burning for eight days in the Temple in Jerusalem during an uprising against the Seleucid Empire.

Menorah Tree

Still, some yearn for trees and other trappings of Christmas. That’s what motivated Mike Patchen, a managing director at a financial-services firm who invented the Menorah Tree with his brother Alex.

While he’s raising his kids in the Conservative Jewish tradition, Patchen’s wife grew up in an interfaith household with a Christmas tree.

“What she really missed was the festivity of Christmas,” said Patchen, 40, who introduced the product last year.

Before the Menorah Tree, Jews could buy so-called Hanukkah bushes, a product that many view as a watered-down version of a Christmas tree. Patchen said that wasn’t for him.

“I didn’t want the Jewish symbolism to be kind of the afterthought by putting a little star on top,” Patchen said. “If we were going to do something big, I wanted the centerpiece to have a more iconic Jewish design.”

Patchen’s company also sells a $10 frosted Star of David.

‘Dream Come True’

Stephanie Lipman, a 39-year-old mom in Boca Raton, Fla., calls the Menorah Tree “a Jewish kid’s dream come true.” She spent yesterday afternoon decorating the tree with her 4- and 5- year-old sons.

“It allows you to stay true to your religion but still participate in all of the fun and festivity of the holiday season,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for this product to be invented for years.”

Not everyone thinks this is kosher, though.

The Menorah Tree is “too assimilated,” said Beth Katten, a mother of two and librarian technician from West Hartford, Conn.

“Hanukkah is not Christmas,” said Katten, 49. “I love all of the Christmas music and some of the festive and colorful Christmas items, but I would not put a tree in my house.”

Jenn Fishkind, a blogger from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., with millions of followers, said she’s not comfortable using the Menorah Tree in her home either.

Too similar?

“It was a little close to Christmas for me,” said Fishkind, 44, though she understands the appeal. Some of her Jewish friends put up Hanukkah bushes, she said.

Fishkind prefers products such as Manischewitz’s Chanukah House because they provide a family activity. The kit, which sells for about $24 on Amazon.com, lets you build a house out of vanilla-cookie material and decorate it with frosting, beads and six-pointed stars.

The 126-year-old company, which was acquired by a Bain Capital affiliate earlier this year, introduced the cookie kit in 2012 and began selling it nationally for the first time this Hanukkah.

Manischewitz, based in Newark, N.J., is now offering the item in drugstore chains such as CVS, said Nora Sordillo, a senior associate brand manager at Manischewitz. The kit is designed to tap into the do-it-yourself trend and “give families a new holiday tradition,” she said.

Americans celebrating Hanukkah plan to spend an average of almost $940 this year on gifts, decorations and food, according to Prosper Insights, about 16 percent more than Christmas shoppers.

Mensch on bench

Two other products, meanwhile, are trying to capitalize on the popularity of Elf on the Shelf, the doll that has become a fixture in Christmas-celebrating homes in recent years.

The Mensch on a Bench, from former Hasbro executive Neal Hoffman, and the Maccabee on the Mantel co-opt the idea, while aiming to preserve Jewish traditions behind the holiday. Both dolls come with a book that explains the story of Hanukkah.

Patchen said his goal is create a distinct new Jewish tradition, rather than eliminate an old one. The Menorah Tree has already achieved that status in his Greenwich, Conn., home, he said.

Patchen sets up the Menorah Tree on Thanksgiving and removes it toward the end of the year.

“The kids always cry when we take it down,” he said.

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