NEW YORK — How many ways can Mickey Mouse celebrate Chanukah?
Five different Mickey designs, licensed from Disney, are now available to answer that question.
If you’re more into Winnie-the-Pooh, two colorful chanukiot display the whole gang from the Hundred Acre Wood.
And the latest this year in character candelabras is the irrepressible Curious George.
It’s menorah madness — and the last couple of years have witnessed an explosion of styles made of almost every conceivable material.
Two decades ago, there wasn’t much available beyond a traditional eight-branched candelabra made in brass.
Today chanukiot are designed for children and adults, as well as aficionados of a wide variety of hobbies. Prices range from around $30 to $1,500 — and more.
Bloomingdale’s, which will be carry chanukiot in its 22 stores coast to coast, is orienting its merchandise this year to kids, said Gabrielle Schein, a buyer in charge of holiday merchandise.
Everything from ballerinas to baseballs, dancing dreidels to bicycles, can be found on child-oriented chanukiot.
And the new designs are not just for kids.
Mah jong your bag? There’s a chanukiah crafted of the game’s tiles.
If animals are your attraction, choose between several different renditions of Noah’s ark chanukiot.
Friendly with felines, you say? Cats shown cavorting in front of candles are available on one chanukiah, as is a rustic moosehead cut out of metal; the antlers each hold up one of the holiday’s ritual candles.
If you’re into tiny replicas of the synagogues of Jerusalem, Eastern Europe or the Lower East Side, each is available on its own chanukiah this year — as is one with tiny Statues of Liberty, each lady holding aloft a Chanukah candle in place of her famous flame.
Klezmer musicians crowd together on another chanukiah, and this design, along with others, is available with a music-box component that plays the Chanukah classic “Maoz Tsur” (“Rock of Ages”).
Top brands in tableware are also extending their lines into Chanukah.
Waterford offers an elegant crystal candleholder to mark Chanukah’s eight nights. Limoges porcelain has produced delicately hand-painted dreidels.
The artistic approach to chanukiot is also booming. Craftspeople — not all of them Jewish — have branched out into the menorah market.
Whether your taste runs to fused art glass, anodized aluminum or hand-painted ceramic, there’s a funky chanukiah available to collect.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t get a call from an artist who wants to show me something new,” said Claire Schneider, manager of the Treasures of Judaica store at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.
Adam Berkowitz is a young designer who describes himself as an “industrial sculptor.” He creates cabinets, chairs and wall coverings out of environmentally sound materials.
This year, for the first time, he designed a chanukiah. Crafted from brushed aluminum, with rounded curves, it fits together like a sophisticated puzzle.
“An appreciation for new materials in Jewish objects is trickling down from the secular design world,” said the 29-year-old Berkowitz while standing in his prototype-filled Brooklyn studio.
“I’m trying to interest my generation and younger people in Judaica.
“Just seeing what’s happening to my friends and the rest of the Jewish community with intermarriage, I feel that in some way by having Judaica with a certain edge and freshness it might spark the interest of someone who otherwise might not” light a menorah.
The number of outlets selling chanukiot has also expanded in recent years. Once purchased most often in mom-and-pop Judaica stores, chanukiot are now also sold in chic galleries and the largest national chains, from Lord & Taylor to Bed, Bath & Beyond.
America Online (keyword: JEWISH STORE) has also gotten on board with 22 chanukiah designs.
Catalogs — those selling only Jewish ritual objects and crafts, along with those who fit in a menorah or other Chanukah object next to their Christmas selections — have proliferated as well, both on paper and on the World Wide Web.
Not all of the newfangled chanukiot are kosher, warned some retailers. The moose design, which has antlers at different levels, does not meet the religious requirement for chanukiot; all of its eight candles must stand at the same height so that the shamash, which is used for lighting the other candles, is the only elevated flame.
At the same time, not all characters are acceptable for trendy merchandising. Philip Lax, owner of Aviv Judaica Imports, one of the country’s largest distributors of Chanukah goods, licensed the right to put Mickey, Winnie-the-Pooh and Curious George on chanukiot.
He has been approached by the creators of some characters, including Power Rangers and Superman, to render their characters on chanukiot but turned them down, he said, during an interview in his bustling warehouse in Brooklyn.
Lax, who is Orthodox and permits his own children to use only the oil-and-wick chanukiot preferred by the fervently religious community, said he wouldn’t produce a chanukiah with violent or unpleasant characters.
“It has to be geshmakt,” said Lax, using the Yiddish term for “enjoyable.” “It has to have a ta’am,” or appropriate flavor.
As workers packed orders full of chanukiot, musical Chanukah snow globes and Winnie-the-Pooh-painted dreidels and glitter cups, Lax said two types of people buy the kitschy chanukiot — collectors and those “who want a flavor of something Jewish or are trying to get their Jewish child to participate.”
But in the experience of one major retailer, most people “choose Noah’s arks or choo-choo trains for kids, which can be charming. When they bring in the real secular stuff, it’s almost like they forget the meaning of the holiday,” said Daniel Levine, whose Manhattan store, J. Levine Judaica, carries about 300 different chanukiah styles.
As far as some people are concerned, the Disneyfication of Chanukah is taking things a few steps too far.
“Since when are Mickey and Winnie Jewish?” asked Shari Boraz, proprietor of Galerie Robin Fine Judaica in Hanover, N.H., which focuses on more artistic chanukiot in both its traditional and online catalogues.
And for many menorah mavens, the tried-and-true works well.
“With all the hoopla, the traditional still sells,” said Terry Heller, manager of a large Judaica store at Denver’s Temple Emanuel and proprietor of an online catalogue, Artistic Judaic Promotions.
Even with all of the alternatives available today, “some people want it to look like a menorah should.”