You are correct, there is no comparison whatsover between Christmas and hannukah; the former is an extremely important holy day to its followers, the latter simply is not. This being the case, it's fairly easy to determine that some people are using 'hannukah' as an instrument to take the joy out of Christmas by attacking it and suppressing it. But alas, they tried to suppress Christ 2,000 years ago by crucifying Him, and that didn't work. Some folks just never learn.
Some may do this, but I believe most simply want to have a celebration at the end of the year, and don't want their kids to feel left out while all the gentile kids are having their orgy of consumerism. At least that's the way it was when I was growing up.