Tonight at sundown, marks the beginning of Hanukkah and for merchants, perhaps another opportunity to squeeze more holiday dollars from consumers. The Christmas holiday has become more of an exercise of consumer largesse than a religious celebration and retailers wouldn’t mind taking Hanukkah there too.  Year end holidays provide major boons to retailers who look to Black Friday and Cyber Monday as the opportunity to reach profitability for the year.

Hanukkah is based on the Jewish lunar calendar and moves around. It can start as early as November and as late as after Christmas. Every year, financial forecasters ponder the potential impact of Hanukkah on holiday retail sales. In 2007, Hanukkah has arrived quite early beginning in December 4^th – providing a longer selling season. In 2005, Hanukkah started on December 25^th.

Hanukkah means dedication in Hebrew and retailers are wondering how much Jewish consumers will “dedicate” to spending for this holiday which commemorates the Maccabees' victory over a larger Syrian army in 165 B.C. and the occupation and rededication by Jews of the temple in Jerusalem.

As Jews light the first candle in their Hanukkah menorahs tonight, many will join a modern trend of nightly gift-giving that rivals Christmas. Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song” chides,

“Hanukkah is the festival of lights,
Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights.”

Hanukkah is a celebration that is less solemn than other Jewish holidays but like Christmas, has been a seasonal target for retailers like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Spending for Hanukkah has been pulled up by the competition of the Christmas bounty.

From Richmond.com,

“Hanukkah, a minor holiday in the Jewish faith, gets inflated to Santa-size proportions just because of its proximity to Christmas. For generations, Jewish parents have had to explain to developing young minds why a holiday devoted to presents, candy, reindeer, decorative trees and a jolly fat man is not for them. Their holiday, the Jewish holiday, is about lighting some candles and celebrating their ancient triumph over religious persecution.”

The truth is, as analyzed in an article in Slate in 2005, spending for Hanukkah has a minor impact an overall holiday shopping figures.

“Let's say, for the sake of argument, the average Jewish Hanukkah-shopping household spends five times the national average, or about $2,300. If there are 2 million such households, they'd account for about $4.7 billion in spending. That sounds like a lot, but it's a drop in the bucket. The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales, which it broadly defines as all retail industry sales in November and December, will total $439.5 billion.”

In a year be felled by the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and failing consumer confidence, retailers will take what they can get.