notes on the hannukah song

december 3,1994 adam sandler debuted the original hannukah song on saturday night live. i watched in it in awe and part disbelief. it was hysterically funny and unmistakably jewish. while i was watching it i had no idea it would become such a cult classic and the only hannukah song played on the radio amidst of all of the x-mas carols every december.
the hannukah song is really a very silly song. it lists all the jewish celebrities who may or may not actually celebrate hannukah so all of us lonley jewish kids dont feel like we are all alone lighting a menorah each december. it also is sung by adam sandler in one of his childishly annoying voices. no matter. somehow this silly song caught on.
its too bad a song more like al hanisim or even the dreidel song do not reach the public air waves each december. but they do not. so im glad that the hannukah song does. at least it reminds the unaffiliated that there is a hannukah and that some hip celebrity wrote a song that they might be able to relate to.
i dont think that adam sandler had any idea he was creating a cult phenomenon when he was cooking up his hannukah song. he probably was just trying to write some kooky hannukah song for a saturday night live skit. dumb luck turned it into a holiday classic. and yes i do think that this is ultimately good for the jews.

al hanisim v'al haniflaot ! aka - a real hannukah miracle!!

a real hannukah miracle happened to me today. i had situation in my apartment that needed attending to and by the miracle of hannukah it was able to be fixed by the super today. laugh if you must, but this truly was a hannukah gift. within the first few days that i had moved into my apartment i had true tsuris. i flushed the toilet that fateful evening and the toilet flushed for eight hours straight. it was loud , it splashed and the super was nowhere to be found. it took weeks to get the super to install a new flushometer. this is why today my friends i consider it a hannukah miracle that my apartment ailment was so promptly attended to . not only has it been fixed , but i wont be spending my free moments leaving messages for the super or calling 311. i bh will be able to enjoy the rest of the holiday in my repaired abode.
happy hannukah!!

the hannukah stamp.

well here we are again. its december. its happy hannukah time. though i love e-cards, i always send out traditional snail mail cards. i have an aresenal of hannukah stamps. apparently i still have some of the first hannukah stamp which was 32 cents!!! i had bought a bunch of them because i was so excited they actually had a jewish stamp and i was afraid they wouldn't make them again the next year. well they did and they even made a dreidel one which i have the 37 cent, 41 cent and 42 cent version of. since ive been buying the forever stamp for the past few years i never remember how much a stamp is , so i looked it up online. turns out there is an updated menorah stamp that was made in 2008 that's actually 44 cents (which turns is still how much a stamp is in 2009) i have some now. i only bought 20 of them this time.

however the spirit moves you

i dont remember which year it was when i started hearing people chant "happy holidays" instead of "merry x-mas". im glad the change has taken over, even though when people say "happy holidays" they always seem to mean x-mas and goyeshe new year's and not Hanukkah. no matter, i still prefer deluding myself in to thinking that "happy holidays" includes "happy Hanukkah". its kind of like including your photo in your jdate or frumster profile, you get a "no thank you " letter and you assume its that they didnt like your profile when they probably just didnt like your photo. aint delusion grand.

when i say " happy holidays" this time of the year i mean "happy whatever holiday you happen to be celebrating". and if im totally honest, i have a little ethnocentrism and really think im wishing everyone a "happy Hanukkah" when i wish someone "happy holidays" .

..... HAPPY SECOND DAY OF HANUKKAH!

hannukah fever

im really looking forward to hannukah. i love the latkes and lighting the menorah. i love the parties. i love receiving a little hannukah gelt. im not keen on the Israeli jelly donut.

as a kid i loved attending community hannukah parties , where they would give cute gift bags to all the kids. my favorite toy was those little dolls that would be in a bottle shaped like perfume and they would have the scent of tea rose.

my mom would save all of the prizes found in cereal boxes and make a grab bag during hannukah. this would cut down on fighting over who got the prize from the cereal box during the year. before my mom did this we would take turns getting the prize from the cereal box, but i think we would still bicker, so she decided to do the grab bag thing.

one hannukah i was at union square and the lubavitchers were playing music. an obviously non-jewish woman was prodding her non-jewish child to listen to the music. she said to him "its music, appreciate it" it was really cute. it was like being in an alternate world where hannukah is the holiday of the majority and x-mas is the holiday of the minority.

i like the fact that there are so many major department stores in ny that include hannukah in their holiday windows. im including a photo of a menorah that was in Bloomingdale's' holiday window december 2006.