Monday, November 28, 2005

Can The Jews Save Christmas?

Meaning this year's Christmas holiday shopping season, since Hanukkah doesn't start until December 25th this year. Reasons for skepticism:
Every year, forecasters debate the possible impact of Hanukkah's timing on Christmas sales. But I'm skeptical it will make much of a difference this year. In New York and other regional markets with large Jewish populations, the fact that Hanukkah falls late on the Christian calendar this year could affect the pace and timing of shopping. But given the numbers, Jews would have to perform superhuman feats of consumption—out of all proportion to their population, number of children, and income—to have anything but the most marginal impact on nationwide sales. Over the centuries, anti-Semites (and less frequently, philo-Semites) have endowed Jews with the ability to perform mystical feats. Saving the Christmas holiday shopping season isn't one of them.

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