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By virtue of its place on the calendar, Hanukkah, an eight-day celebration that marks a Jewish military victory some two millennia ago, has become the kosher answer to Christmas – a role it was never intended to fulfill. But because of that – or perhaps in spite of it? – The Festival of Lights has also become an important Jewish moment in pop-cultural expression and exploration.

All of this has cleared the way for the hipster Hanukkah.

Speakeasy offers this highly selective guide to the holiday (which begins tonight) with eight great moments in Hanukkah-goes-pop history.

1) “My Dreidel” (pre-1950)

You probably know the holiday tune by its first line: “I have a little dreidel…” But it’s actually called “My Dreidel” – and it exists in both English and Yiddish versions. The details surrounding the song’s creation – and first recording – are a bit murky, but we do know that it’s credited (at least partly) to Samuel Goldfarb, a Jewish educator in Brooklyn who went on to become the music director of a Seattle synagogue around 1930. Somewhere along the line, his playful ditty became the Hanukkah equivalent of “Jingle Bells.” There are too many recorded versions – by artists Jewish and non-Jewish alike – to list here. So we’ll just mention our favorite take on the tune – namely, when Larry David stumbles into singing it in a tripped-out moment from “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” How, um, festive.

2) Hanukkah Harry on “Saturday Night Live” (1989)

Who needs Santa Claus when you can have Hanukkah Harry (aka Jon Lovitz), who’s here to reward all the good little Jewish boys and girls with…socks. It took “Saturday Night Live” to give the holiday its first – and maybe only — signature character. Sadly, Harry made it back for just one other “SNL” episode, but his legend endures.

3) “The Hanukkah Song” (1994)

What began as another “SNL” skit – in this case, a “Weekend Update” bit – soon became arguably the most famous of hipster Hanukkah moments. We’re talking Adam Sandler, of course, and his ode to “eight crazy nights” (yes, he later made an animated Hanukkah movie by that name, too). The song, which exists in a few different Sandler-penned versions, has little to do with the holiday itself. Instead, it’s a musical tribute to the chosen people. As Sandler sings, “David Lee Roth lights the menorah. So do James Caan, Kirk Douglas and the late Dinah Shore-ah.”

4) “A Rugrats Chanukah” (1996)

Call it the Jewish equivalent to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – a holiday fable that put Hanukkah (here spelled “Chanukah”) on the animated map. “TV Guide” ranked it number five on its list of the top 10 holiday family specials of all time. To quote Grandpa Boris on the holiday’s signature offering of fried potato pancakes (aka latkes), “The miracle [of Hanukkah] is that these things have clogged our arteries for 2,000 years. Yet, we survive.”

5) “The Best Chrismukkah Ever” (2003)

American Jews have long found ingenious ways to merge the Hanukkah and Christmas celebrations. But the Fox TV show (now on WB) “The O.C.” found a way to make it “official” with its first episode devoted to all things “Chrismukkah.” “Hearing you say it makes me feel all festive,” says lead character Seth Cohen of his holiday mash-up.

6) “Hanukkah Hey Ya!” (2003)

Take a hip-hop hit and let a Jewish MC-comedian rethink it as a holiday jingle (later turned into a video by a fan) and what have you got? The YouTube sensation known as “Hanukkah Hey Ya!,” courtesy of OutKast and Eric Schwartz (aka Smooth-E). Sample lyric: “Why don’t you meet me rabbi? He isn’t such a bad guy.” Schwartz, a regular on the California comedy circuit, has come up with other Hanukkah/Jewish parodies, but this one remains the standard by which all others are judged.

7) No Limit Texas Dreidel (2007)

The age-old dreidel contest with a World Series of Poker-style twist. Since its introduction three years ago, the game, courtesy of the ModernTribe.com Judaica company, has gone practically mainstream – Bed, Bath & Beyond has even sold it. As the game’s creators promise, “You’ll never look at a dreidel in the same way again.”

Dreidel HD (2010)

Hanukkah goes high-tech, thanks to this new iPhone, iPad and iTouch app (price $1.99). “This is no ordinary dreidel – it talks, it spins…and it keeps electronic score,” say the app’s creators. “Oy!” say our Jewish forefathers.

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