How (and why) to Let Kids plant Tu B’Shevat Parsley

Tu B'Shevat parsley for Pesach karpas

Tu B’Shevat is the New Year and/or Birthday of the Trees, but the classic Tu B’Shevat planting activity doesn’t really have much to do with trees. We plant parsley.  All over America, little Jewish kids plant parsley seeds on Tu B’Shevat.  Sounds like Sunday School in Chelm, right?  But it does make sense.  To germinate parsley seeds and use the plant two holidays later as the karpas on a Passover seder plate connects our earliest Spring holiday to our main Spring holiday, and it lets kids get their fingers dirty fostering green life from dormant seeds. Tu B’Shevat is the official start of the agricultural year, when tree sap (and all lifeforce by extension) begins to rise after winter rest.

Parsley, though, is not a tree. It’s easier, folks say, easier than

Edible Hebrew: Alef-Bet Playdough

Edible playdo ingredients

Buying corn syrup just feels wrong.  I usually go out of my way to avoid corn syrup in foods, so buying a full, glistening bottle of Karo on purpose is just weird.  Yesterday, I felt so conspicuous slipping it into my grocery cart, I might as well have been buying sex toys or country ham or People magazine.

It was worth it.  The nervous guilt at the cash register has faded, and the recipe for edible playdough—featuring corn syrup—worked just fine.

Distributor Cap Menorah: an un-kosher tribute

Distributor Cap Hanukkah Menorah

Note: I didn’t allow for holiday mail delays when I placed my AutoZone.com order.  Let’s pretend this installment actually appeared during Hanukkah.

A hanukkah menorah made out of a repurposed V8 distributor cap is not kosher, I’ll admit.  But it sure is cute, and if you live with a car freak, satisfyingly thematic.  The function of a distributor cap is all about fire—or at least sparks: it’s part of the ignition system and it helps distribute or control the path of the current.

And Hanukkah is all about fire, right?  The miraculous distribution of that wee bit of fuel?

Too Santa: a letter from my Jewish Kid

an interesting development

My nearly-five-year-old knows how to address an envelope, where to put the return address sticker and where to put a stamp.

What I didn’t realize was that he intended to put these skills into practice with a letter: “Too Santa.”

8 Nights, 8 LEGO minifig flames

LEGO minifig menorah

Couldn’t help myself.

Happy 8th night, y’all.

Gelt S’mores (and a Hanukkah miracle)

Hanukkah Gelt S'more

Hanukkah lasts eight days, eight looooong days. Gelt S’mores help keep things lively.

And today being Christmas, Gelt S’mores also help cut the post-prandial greasiness from the lunch buffet lo mein.

Ours were made with Paskesz

Dreidel Challah, Menorah Challah

When Hanukkah and Shabbat coincide, the challah deserves a thematic tweak.  The preschooler and I made a big Menorah Challah and a few little Dreidels.

We learned that using food dye to color the “flames” orange is not worth the trouble.  After the challah is baked, the food color merges with the golden egg wash.  But it was fun to try, and now we have orange palms for the rest

LEGO Menorahs: flameless versions

LEGO minifig menorah

Ok, ok, I knew posting about a LEGO menorah that holds real Hanukkah candles might cause trouble.  I now present a few ultra-safe models that use LEGO bits as flames.  Thus, nobody gets hurt, LEGOs don’t melt, and nothing will trigger the smoke alarm.

LEGO Menorah for Hanukkah

LEGO and Duplo Hanukkah menorahs

The intersection of Jewish holidays and LEGO again, but this time, with fire.

Squirt the Menorah: Hanukkah game

Squirt the Menorah

I live in Nashville, so I’m not so much in touch with the rest of the Hanukkah carnivalling world.  Is “Squirt the Menorah” a popular Hanukkah game?  The only Google hits seem to be my own.

I should say “Squirt the Hanukkiyah,” but it doesn’t have the right ring to it.  Menorah works fine in this case.

Now, usually, when we light Hanukkah candles, they stay lit until they go out by themselves.  It’s a no-no to blow them out or extinguish them in any way.  Squirt the Menorah involves shooting water pistols at a lit menorah, which sounds pretty treyf to me.  But we don’t play it during Hanukkah on the really real candles, the candles upon which we’ve said the commanded blessings and all.  No, we play Squirt the Menorah ahead of time, when it’s okay to extinquish the candles with a squirt gun.  Odd, but okay.