A dreidel is a dreidel is a dreidel? Maybe when you were a kid but not anymore. These days dreidels sing and stack, flash and duel. The old wooden dreidels of Mom and Dad’s childhood are strictly passé. Dreidels have gone high-tech.
According to Eileen Velen, co-owner of L’Chaim! Gifts for Jewish Life in Danville, the dreidel revolution is part of a trend. American culture is seeping into the Jewish market as toy manufacturers take popular toys, change the packaging, add a gimel here or a candleholder there and voilà, you have a Chanukah gift.
This year the focus seems to be on dreidels and there’s a whole lot of new ones that will make wonderful, relatively inexpensive Chanukah gifts for children.
Consider the Let’s Play Dreidel mug, which, according to Jerry Derblich, owner of Afikomen in Berkeley, will drive parents crazy but is sure to please the younger set. It’s a new twist on the old game. It runs on a computer chip and solar energy. As soon as you pick up the mug, it makes noise and lights start flashing around the outside, which is painted with the traditional Hebrew letters. Eventually the lights stop flashing, illuminating one of the letters and the mug plays the dreidel song. And the best part is that you can actually use the mug to consume everyday, low-tech beverages. It sells for approximately $9.
Then there’s the Dreidel Over Dreidel game, which is also new this season and sells for between $5 and $6. It comes with five plastic dreidels of progressive sizes. Each player takes a turn winding up the dreidels and then stacking them on top of the next-largest dreidel. The object of the game is to get as many dreidels stacked and spinning at the same time as you can. The player with the most wins.
At $17.50 the Dreidel Train is a little pricier but could make a great gift for toddlers. It’s a wooden train with an engine, three cars and wheels to pull it along the ground. Sitting on each car of the train is a dreidel equipped with a string to get it spinning. But unlike the traditional dreidel, these have dispensed with the Hebrew letters so you can’t gamble with them.
For about $9 you can pick up Dueling Dreidels, which is battery operated and comes with two dreidels and a joystick. The dreidels attach to the joystick, which, with the press of a button, gets them spinning. Press a little harder and they pop off the joystick. With a little practice, kids can get the dreidels into formations, do tricks or just bang into each other. You’ll have to buy your own batteries but think what you’ll save in medical bills when your children don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome from excessive dreidel play.
And for the child who wants to create his or her own dreidel, there’s Deco-Dreidel. It runs about $4.50 and comes with two wooden dreidels and a bunch of decals to stick on the side. Depending on your child’s interest you can pick out a Deco-Dreidel with the appropriate theme from sports to dolls, and dinosaurs to butterflies.
For a new twist on an old game, consider Chanukah tic-tac-toe, which uses dreidels and menorahs instead of the usual Xs and Os. The board and pieces are made out of wood and it sells for about $18.
But Chanukah isn’t just about dreidels. For the older child or maybe even the college student in the family, there’s Chanukah to Go, which you can pick up for somewhere between $10 and $12. It’s a tin box that comes with candles, four wooden dreidels and one plastic dreidel that can be filled with chocolate gelt. The top of the box, which has a house painted on it and candleholder glued to it, becomes your menorah.
For people of the book, books are always popular Chanukah gifts and there’s no reason why they have to be Chanukah-specific. “101 Jewish Read Aloud Stories” is a classic with stories that take about 10 minutes each to read, drawing from a variety of Jewish sources such as the Bible, the Talmud and Eastern European lore as well as contemporary material. For teenagers and others there’s “Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul.”
Nurit Sabadosh, a former teacher and now the owner of Alef Bet Judaica in Los Gatos, recommends “Fun With My First Words,” which uses pictures with their English and Hebrew translation to give children a basic Hebrew vocabulary. And for the child who is reading Hebrew at a fourth- or fifth-grade level, bob and bob in Palo Alto has all four volumes of Harry Potter in Hebrew.
But if it’s Chanukah-oriented book you want there’s “Hanukkah, A Three-Dimensional Celebration,” a pop-up book for younger children. There’s also “Hanukkah Lights,” by Ben Lakner and illustrator Christopher Santoro, which is a heavy cardboard book and tells the story of Chanukah through windows that open.
“Zigazak! A Magical Hanukkah Night” by the popular children’s author Eric Kimmel comes highly recommended by Ellen Bob, co-owner of bob and bob in Palo Alto. It’s the story of a wise rabbi who turns an encounter with demons into a magical Chanukah night. Although designed for 4 to 8 year olds, Bob says it’s a wonderful book for young and old alike and had her employees completely engaged when she read it to them.
If your child has a tape or CD player, there’s “Lights and Laughter: Joel ben Izzy Spins Hanukkah Tales,” which is new this year from the Bay Area storyteller.
And Judah Maccabee is back, this time as an 18-inch soft stuffed toy who comes attired in a yarmulke, shield, tunic, sandals and beard.
But nowhere is the influence of popular culture more evident than in the chanukiot. Name your sport, hobby or favorite characters and most likely there’s a theme menorah to match from baseball and football to bicycles and dolls, and Curious George to Winnie the Pooh — sans the traif little Piglet. But alas, there’s no Harry Potter chanukiah, at least not yet, but store owners wouldn’t be surprised to see one bearing Potter and his fellow Hogwarth characters on the shelves next year.
While not all of the above items can be found at every Jewish gift store, a variety can be found at each. But owners advise not to put your Chanukah shopping off until that last minute. Because of you-know-what, shipments have been slow coming in from New York and things are selling fast.