In 2005 the first day of the Jewish holiday of Chanukah is December
26.  My questions are: (a) what is the lastest day on the Christian
calendar that Chanukah has ever begun or will begin? and (b) when is
the last time Chanukah began on December 26 or later and on what date
was it and (c) when is the next time Chanukah will begin on December
26 or later and on what date will it be?

Hello.

(a) what is the lastest day on the Christian calendar that Chanukah
has ever begun or will begin?

December 27th is the lastest date for Hanukkah to begin on the Gregorian calendar.

See:
"For this reason Jews celebrate Hanukkah for eight days, starting on
Kislev 25, which can fall between November 27 to December 27."
http://calvarychapelleesburg.org/articles_view.asp?articleid=6031&columnid=267

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For (b) and (c), I used the Chabad.org calendar converter (manually
changing the year of Kislev 25 forward and backward):
http://www.chabad.org/calendar/1000year.asp


(b) when is the last time Chanukah began on December 26 or later and
on what date was it?

December 27, 1986.

source: 
Chabad.org Calendar: 
December 27, 1986
25 Kislev 5747
"Chanukah Day 1"
http://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=12/27/1986&mode=j

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(c) when is the next time Chanukah will begin on December 26 or later
and on what date will it be?

The next time it will be on December 26 will be in 2024 (25 Kislev, 5785).

December 26, 2024 (25 Kislev, 5785).
http://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=12/26/2024&mode=j

The next time it will be on December 27 will be in 2043 (25 Kislev, 5804).

December 27, 2043 (25 Kislev, 5804). 
http://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tdate=12/27/2043&mode=j

---------------
search strategy:
hanukkah "can fall between november"
kislev converter calendar

I hope this helps.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 24 Dec 2004 16:19 PST

Sorry for that typo in my first sentence:

"December 27th is the LATEST date...."

Perfect answer rendered very promptly.

Thank you for the tip.
-juggler