I'm just saying.
Tonight we gave her a sleeper for one of her dolls. That worked really well.
I can't wait for the night we give her the art supplies. I'm planning that for the weekend.
There are many ways that I appreciate that I celebrate hanukah instead of Christmas.
For example, I still have to buy several nights of gifts, but there is no crazy deadline, so I'm not worried.
I don't obsess about what to give my husband (answer - nothing, the holiday is just for the kids).
I don't break the bank (Yes, one year my parents really did give me the coloring book one night and the crayons the next).
But I really appreciate the idea of Christmas MORNING!
Anyone else struggling with this?
My husband and I both work, so at 4:45 I'm just packing up to get her at daycare.
Before dinner sounds great - if you don't actually want to eat dinner.
Morning: see the first line. That would be an even bigger disaster.
We do give right after dinner, and that gives 1/2 to 1 hour to play. OK for a book, not so great if the gift is Candyland, or some other really engaging toy.
It isn't too bad this year because we overlap with xmas which means fewer "weekday" nights, and I have several exciting gifts, that do not promise "hours of fun." For example, tonight will be a little backpack. Her "big" gift this year is an apron, brushes and paints to go with her easel. I may time-shift that one to xmas morning. But yes, and the Gelt. That made me laugh, although we don't generally do it in our house - at least not all 8 nights!
For those that commented that 8 nights is a bank-buster. The key is that the gift is small On the order of a stocking stuffer most nights. The nights in our house range from $1 to around $20. Even spread out over 8 nights, we spend maybe $100, and only on the kid.
I am not Jewish, so I dont know the rules, but at the risk of sounding naive, couldnt you do the gift after dinner, as opposed to bedtime?
Happy 2nd!!!
We celebrate both... and I have to agree with you.
I suspect a grandmother or father invented it. Seriously. Gelt before bedtime is another one. Yes!!! Lets load them up on chocolate, open presents, and here honey.... put the kids to bed.
Although... in all honesty... Xmas morning is often at 4am or (groan) even earlier... and it's a *nightmare* getting kids to bed the night before!!!
Any chance you could put the blame is on Adam Sandler?
i have to laugh at your title --blame it on the Macabee's :) Happy Hanukah!
Not struggling with it, we celebrate Christmas and my kiddos are really too young to know whats really going on, but...
LOL! I had to read your entire post (as I imagined you would say it) to my husband. So cute and really made me smile.
Happy Hanukah! Enjoy your remaining 6 nights.
Well our psycho family does gifts on Christmas Eve, from the family, then the big fat man comes that night and dunps buttloads under the tree in the morning. I try really, really hard not to go overboard, but I have no help from the elf I am married to, and usually get something sparkly in my stocking.
I have been known to buy gifs at the thrift store and this year's big gift is a used basketball hoop from a friend of my husbands.
Don't know but I bet they had a spoiled kid so to placate that child they drug an entire religion down with them. :p I am joking of course. I didn't realize that is an actual practice until I read your post.
Please don't tell my youngest, she will want to convert. There is this one gift from my husband that she would do anything to open early. :(
The only Hanukkah gift I've received was given to me after dinner. I was visiting a close friend's family for dinner and his mom would not hear of me not having a gift to open. Nevermind that we were all in our 20s (she didn't have grandkids yet). Would right after dinner be better?
We have been moving it to "as soon as it's dark" (or whenever my husband gets home from work) because of that. It's impossible to get them to bed on time right after they've gotten a new toy! However, we've broken the rules on everything else- my husband's Jewish, I'm not- so why not this? Maybe we'll be crazy and move it to mornings on the weekend too! Open your Hanukkah gift WITH your present from Santa- HA! The only difference is the wrapping paper!
It's Thursday. We have a homework packet due tomorrow morning. It's maybe 15% completed. Struggling says it all.
Thanks for posting this, and Happy Hanukkah!
I come from Israel and we NEVER got a gift for each night, NEVER.
First time i heard about it was when coming to the US and i was in mini-shock.
It's totally a capitalist- American invention and i don't think it's a good one (maybe for the retailers it is)...and i don't believe i'm going to practice it with my 3.5 yr old son either.
I think it raises our kids in a spoiled, rotten, "i deserve it" kind of way, maybe to get us Jews to feel better because we don't have Xmas... don't you think?
Have you every asked an elder in your religious circle what they did as children?
I grew up around a lot of religions. And I distinctly remember my Jewish friends celebrating Hanukkah without presents. That was not part of the custom. But my Jewish friends started comparing their giftless holiday to our Christian and Christmas traditions and probably felt left out. Back in the 1970's and 1980's small gift giving during the 8 days started to filter in....I was unaware that it was every night now.
It goes to show, how much each generation adds their own uniqueness to the traditions of the past.
I'd do it in the morning, or right after your husband comes home. I enjoyed Hanakkah with my neighbors one time, about 6:00 before their dinner. Why not you?
Dawn
The candles are lit at sundown so the present should be given then.
You should subscribe to Tablet magazine online. It will stimulate your mind and and get you to look at all things Jewish from a completely different perspective.
Why right before bed? Do you get home from work pretty late? I guess when I was a kid, we lit the candles before dinner and I opened my gift then, and still had time to play with it before bed. How early does your child go to bed? As a kid, I couldn't have opened gifts right at sundown because my mom got home from work around 6:00 but I probably still had a good hour of playtime with whatever I got that night after dinner and bath.
We generally do it right at sundown, so more like 5:00 or 5:15. It's a little later on the nights when my husband goes into the office (three times a week) and gets home closer to 6:00. I try not to give exciting toys on the later nights though. Tonight was a gingerbread house kit for my son (we'll make it in the morning) and bathtub crayons for my daughter (that they both used tonight in the tub).
I do love that I can buy cheap stuff and they still get excited - tomorrow night my son is getting dreidels from the $1 bin at Target. :D He's been asking for them, so I know he'll be happy.
Alas, we do xmas too, so I definitely have to make sure not to go TOO crazy.
K.
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We do it at sundown, which last night was 4:23, so it was not fight before bed. However, one thing I do really like is that each night they get something and get to enjoy it and focus on it before moving onto the next thing. They really do like the smaller things (first night my 7-year-old go Uno) and don't just push them aside hoping to find the BIG gift (eletornic stuff) since they only get one per night. They do get more on the "family party day" and sometimes are overwhelmed (depends on their ages). Sometimes I wish we did it all at once (My husband is not Jewish so we could do it that way if we wanted), as we want to see if they like it all, but overall I like the 8-day thing.
Okay Hanukah.... "spend 8 nights giving them a gift before bed" tradition.
Even if I knew about that, I doubt I would do it.
What a budget buster as well.
Nope, can't do it.
But we do other cultural things... which is real fun.
LOL we do both, if that makes you feel better. And even better...we spread it out over a month! Extended family Hanukkah at Thanksgiving, where each child gets a gift from one of my FIL's aunts, uncles or cousins. Then Hanukkah with my immediate ILs whenever it's convenient on a weekend near Hanukkah (so last Sunday for us). Then 8 nights starting last night (tonight's gift was Pez dispensers, another night will be books, another will be stickers, etc.). Then on Saturday we'll host Christmas Eve dinner with my family and the kids will open gifts from my parents. Then Christmas day they'll open gifts here in the morning...then stuff from my siblings and my mom's siblings in the afternoon, then my dad's siblings and my Nana at night. So all in all, there will be 14 gift receiving events, times 4 kids. Just shoot me.
All that said, luckily our families do a wonderful job of going off of a list that we give them, so we actually don't spend that much ($150 - $200 per child) and they still manage to get some big ticket items (composite hockey sticks, expensive video games, big Lego sets), some nice clothes that they want like designer hoodies or sports jerseys, and great practical gifts like i-Tunes cards and movie gift certificates that help us keep entertainment expenses down well after the holidays are over. We thankfully rarely end up with any clutter or junk - the toys are good quality and get well used and everything else gets used too, so no complaints here!
You're the parent, set boundaries. Give them gift, set a timer, enforce the rules. The toys aren't going anywhere, they'll have them to play with for a long time to come. Maybe try theming the gift with when you present it-you gave her an apron? Give it to her BEFORE dinner and let her be your dinner helper.
Also, maybe try not to call the tradition of giving gifts for 8 nights psycho, some people might be offended.
