Too late! It's already the Jewish St. Patrick's day/Halloween/Mardi Gras
When Arafat croaks, we'll have another holiday to celebrate.
My point was that when Chanukkah comes "early," it's virtually ignored by the general culture until chr*stmas, when it suddenly becomes all-important (in effect "secularizing" chr*stmas). We could do the same with Purim, couldn't we?
You left out apr*l fool's, s*t*rnalia, and feast of fools. Oh, and don't forget "holi," the h*ndu festival that basically falls on the same day (much less benign, however).