After Thanksgiving, all hell breaks loose in America. We shopped and nearly killed ourselves on Black Friday to get that perfect candle for our co-worker, Linda.If you live in a normal town where they decide to put up their holiday decorations after Thanksgiving, then it looks like Santa threw up his Christmas magic all over every mall and home. Christmas music begins to play on the radios and you will sing on the top of your lungs “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey; horribly no doubt because you will never have Mariah’s vocal range. ABC begins showcasing their 25 Days of Christmas movies on TV and you pray to God that your finals are done before How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey is played.
Most people hate that the holiday season starts almost a month before the actual holidays begin; I am not one of those people. To be honest, I love it. I am not ashamed to say that I am Jewish and I love the holiday season, even though my holiday is not represented nearly as much as another popular holiday. I love the Christmas music, Christmas movies, and I especially love the Christmas decorations. However, “when you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree” (Adam Sandler’s hit, and only popular, Hanukkah song) the holiday season can start to feel a little lonely.
I mean, my holiday is just as cool as Christmas. We eat greasy foods (latkas and jelly doughnuts), light a menorah, and get eight days’ worth of presents. Thank God for Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song, otherwise no one would know how many cool and famous people celebrate Hanukkah, like Tom Cruise’s agent. Despite these facts, you cannot find many Hanukkah songs or movies in the mainstream media (even though many of the Christmas songs and movies were created by Jews).
My holiday story begins on one Friday afternoon in a not too far away city in 75-degree weather. My friend and I were going to a typical ugly sweater holiday party and being Jewish we wanted an ugly Hanukkah sweater. Some of our friends managed to get their sweaters at some of the local stores, so we decided to try out our luck and look at the same stores. Little did we know it would take us 5 hours and 7 different stores to find the sweater.
First, we went to Kmart and did not find anything. Okay, fine we didn’t get discouraged. By the third Walmart, we were losing it. I mean, it was December 2nd and we could not find one Hanukkah sweater. Every time we asked a store employee if they had any sweaters in the back, their response was always, “we ran out already.” We called up every department store asking if they had any Hanukkah sweaters in stock. We were getting irritated by the fourth phone call and were beginning to give up and started to relay on a Hanukkah miracle. I’m sorry (not really), but the holiday season has barely begun and you ran out of Hanukkah sweaters? Was everyone in this town Jewish and going to the same party as we were? Doubt it. I mean I know we live in Boca Raton, but still…
On hour 5, after calling the ninth store on our list, we finally found two llama sweaters that said Happy Hanukkah on it. We almost did the hora inside Walmart. We went to the party and everyone loved our sweaters. Every time someone said “cute sweater” my friend and I told our sob story on how long and difficult it was to find the sweaters. And almost every single time, someone would say “why didn’t you get from Amazon?” No, because I should not have to order my holiday sweater online. It should readily be available in the stores just like the Christmas sweaters are.
So, as much as I have been assimilated into the Holiday season and it is my favorite season of all, I can’t help but not be in a very holiday mood. Why not put more Hanukkah shows on air? All we have is Full Court Miracle and sometimes Hanukkah is mentioned in some of the Disney shows with a quick joke. How about make a cartoon movie about the Menorah that Could? There once was a menorah that could not stay lit, but he tried with all his might and finally he could stay lit for the full eight days.
Moral of the story: give Jewish kids a miracle for Hanukah by ordering more Hanukkah sweaters in stores. They deserve it just as much as the Christian kids. I mean hey, if we can live without bread for eight days, and must fast every other month then we surly deserve to have our holiday represented more in the mainstream media.
