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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A seasonal Chanukah party

The kids were adorable; the performance was beautiful; and the mothers surreptitiously shed a few tears.

But nevertheless, in many respects, the recent gan Chanukah party was rather disappointing.

I mean, consider the following flagrant breaches of gan Chanukah party protocol:

1) In stark contrast to last year’s paean to pyromania, this year’s party was surprisingly free of fire hazards. The requisite purple lights and their electrical cords were well out of the kids’ reach, and the gannenets lit the chanukiyah themselves. Moreover, they used tea lights rather than glass jars filled with olive oil, and they blew out the flames a minute or two later. (More on this chanukiyah below.)

2) Although the gannenets dutifully obeyed the edict from on high that gan must be dismissed early on the day of the Chanukah party, the kids were sent home at the relatively civilized hour of 12:00 – rather than at the more typical but highly inconvenient 11:00.

3) The party actually started more or less on time and ended a mere 1¼ hours after it started.

4) Many of the classic elements were missing, including the Giant Dreidel PiƱata, the Building a Chanukiyah Out of Wooden Blocks, and the Joint Parent-Child Arts & Crafts Project.

5) Very few of the kids are eldest children. Thus, there was only one (1) pushy mother blocking everyone else as she attempted to video her precious offspring from every. single. angle.

And yet, in spite of these egregious lapses, the Gan Party of 5770 does have one claim to fame.

In years to come, it will surely be remembered as the only Chanukah celebration to feature a… tinsel-festooned chanukiyah:

IMG_0129“We wish you a merry, er, Chanukah…”

smile_teeth

7 comments:

  1. See, if there wasn't this big holiday around the globe around the same time as Chanukah, you wouldn't be able to get that cheap, shiny, made in China tinsel to decorate the Chanukiah!

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  2. No Joint Parent-Child Arts & Crafts Project, how you must have missed this!

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  3. Leora - Even veteran olim are amused when Israelis don't realize that the shiny tinsel and flashing lights they buy for their succot are actually surplus Christmas decorations...

    Ilana-Davita - LOL! I see you know me well. Indeed, it was QUITE the disappointment...
    ;-)

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  4. If you think that 12:00 is a civilized hour to send children home from school, then all I can say is...
    Congratulations! Your transformation from American to Israeli is now complete.

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  5. Raizy - LOL! I was waiting for someone to call me on the fact that I referred to the party as running a "mere 1¼ hours". But I forgot that a 12:00 dismissal time isn't exactly normal either...
    :-)

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  6. A safe party. Wow have things changed!

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  7. Batya - A safe party. Wow have things changed!
    Who knew that such a thing was even possible?
    :-)

    ReplyDelete

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