Today?
* recovers from a mild heart attack *
Hanukah starts on December 25th this year. The Chanukkah bazaar at my synagogue is not even until Sunday.
All right, I can breathe again. Hobby, you do not know you danger, asking these questions where Frelga roams.
Although I don't deserve Jn's compliments, I do Google quite well.
From Aish.com
Hanuka dates back nearly 22 centuries, to the successful Jewish revolt against Antiochus IV, one of the line of Syrian-Greek monarchs who ruled the northern branch of Alexander the Great's collapsed empire. Alexander had been respectful of the Jews' monotheistic religion, but Antiochus was determined to impose Hellenism, with its pagan gods and its cult of the body, throughout his domains. When he met resistance in Judea, he made Judaism illegal.
Sabbath observance, circumcision, and the study of Torah were banned on pain of death. A statue of Zeus was installed in the Temple in Jerusalem, and swine were sacrificed before it. Some Jews embraced the new order and willingly abandoned the God and faith of their ancestors. Those who wouldn't were cruelly punished. [...]
The fight to reclaim Jewish religious autonomy began in 167 BC. In the town of Modi'in, an elderly priest named Mattathias refused a Syrian order to sacrifice to an idol. When an apostate Jew stepped forward to comply, Mattathias killed the man and tore down the altar. Then he and his five sons took to the hills and launched a guerrilla war against the armies of the empire.
When Mattathias died, his third son, Judah Maccabee, took command. He and his band of fighters were impossibly outnumbered, yet they won one miraculous victory after another. In 164 BC, they recaptured the Temple, which they cleansed and purified and rededicated to God. On the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, the menorah -- the candelabra symbolizing the divine presence -- was rekindled. For eight days, throngs of Jews celebrated the Temple's restoration. "All the people prostrated themselves," records the book of Maccabees, "worshipping and praising Heaven that their cause had prospered."
Tradition maintains that as the Temple was re-dedicated, there was only enough purified oil to burn for a day, while it took eight days to press and prepare more oil. In an act of faith, they lit the menorah anyway, and it burned miraculously for eight days until more oil was prepared. Hence the tradition of eating foods fried in oil, and of lighting candles for eight days of the celebration.
As far as I can tell, it is pretty much by chance that Chanukah falls in winter. If chance you call it. It's not always Midwinter, due, as TH supposed, to the vagaries of the lunar/solar calendar, and can begin as early as Thanksgiving.
Is there more? Oh yes, there's plenty more to say, but you don't want to encourage me with undue patience.
I meant that I had used that quote from Sam twice in one day (the other time in response to Queen B). But I do look forward to your further thoughts, when you have the time. 
