There’s a conversation that goes on in almost every Jewish household around the holidays, where kids wonder where all the cool Hannukah decorations are? Who gets more gifts? And, how is a spinning top not lame?
I’m going to answer those questions in the order in which they were received, with the help of an awesome website called Modern Tribe, which gives every Jewish family the gift of cool.
While we may not want to festoon our homes with sparkly lights and
shiny balls, it is nice to make your home look special. That’s where
these lovely hanging decorations
from Polli come in. With images like doves and olive branches,
they make a sweet hostess gift. Hang them in a window (no, not on a “Hanukkah bush”) and feel the peace settling in.
Next: “Who gets more gifts?” Well, my answer is that
it’s not a competition, and in fact there are plenty of children out
there who get no gifts. As a reminder of that, I think this simple, Make your own Tzedakah box
is a really nice first-night gift, at a price that lets you give one to
every kid at your Hanukkah party. You’d be amazed how much spare change
we have lying around our house and once we collect it, we have a blast
going to the counting machine then donating the money to a charity we
all chose together.
As to: “How is a top not lame?” check out Spinagogue,
a multi-themed dimentional board game that has elements of baseball,
skee ball and other games to make playing dreidel very cool indeed. This might be the item at Modern Tribe I’m excited about the most.
Hannukah is only a few weeks away, but would it kill you to get your shopping done early? Oy!–Betsy
Check out the Hanukkah gifts decorations, tzedakah boxes and dreidel games along with a ton of other cool holiday ideas at Modern Tribe.
I’ve been looking for *cool* Hanukkah decorations everywhere, so thanks for the tips!
We live in a Jewish home… no Christmas or any other type of holidays celebrated here (even getting a rose for valentines day is a stretch since my husband reminds me that it’s SAINT Valentines day and hence not a Jewish holiday).
But a few years back I got him to agree to letting me hang blue and silver balls (hung down by blue and silver ribbon) all over our main floor ceiling. With the colors and the rest of our decorations you don’t walk in and say “wow look at those christmas decorations” but instead it looks like Chanukah.
This year I plan to make 3D paper snow flakes and hang those too (maybe as a garland type decoration and hand them in a non-door doorway). Then I want to make a Chanukah countdown/what-to-do-each-night kind of hanging and next year some garland type decoration with knitted holiday lights (in blue and silver) and knitted sweaters with stars of David on them.
Really I hate being the only non-festive house on the block so we are going to up our game a bit 😉
It sounds just lovely Alison. Enjoy all of it.
(And tell your husband that the Jews among us here expect roses on Valentines Day. Hmph.)