Hanukkah
2020 is an eight day celebration beginning at sundown on Thursday December 10th
through Friday December 18th.
Even though this time period also occurs during rising numbers of Covid-19
cases and heightened concerns about continued spread, experts can now
authoritatively advise on how you and your family can stay safe. Or, as Lisa Millabrand writes in Real Simple: “With a little creativity there’s
plenty of Hanukkah fun to be had without increasing your family’s risk of
contracting coronavirus.”
First and
foremost, to put it bluntly, keep people outside your family or pod out of your
house. Or as she puts it: limit the guest list.
Zoom is
good for connecting with folks you might normally be spending this time with,
like grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends. In the unlikely event you
needed to be reminded of that.
If weather permits (one never knows in the
Hudson Valley) an outdoor celebration is reasonably safe, if you keep socially
distant and remain masked. Millabrand advises an LED menorah for this venture.
My
personal favorite Millabrand recommendation is Pajamakah, a full embrace of the
slacking off of wardrobe rules in quarantine. (I am, in fact, writing this very
article in flannel pajamas and fleece robe.)
READ MORE: Celebrate Hanukkah with activity book for kids
Millabrand
also suggests making one Hanukkah night a “breakfast for dinner” affair. Regarding
the all-important food aspects of the holiday, she reminds us that we can still
enjoy the same treats and Hanukkah recipes with friends if they live close enough. Who wouldn’t like to get some rugelach,
sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), or a little gelt delivery?
Focusing
more specifically on toddlers and preschoolers, Maressa Brown at Care.com offers up a whopping “101 Hanukkah activities for kids of all ages,” all
of which can be done at home surrounded by family or those in your pod.
They include such interesting suggestions as using dough to make the four
Hebrew letters on the dreidel, and discussing each letter in the process. Experts
have long heralded the efficacy of such teaching through play.
Brown’s
list returns again and again to multi-sensory learning. She offers tips such as
creating an upcycled menorah from an egg carton, or one from cardboard tubes,
or Lego, or baby food jars, or felt. Or cupcakes with candles in them, which
provides a multi-tiered opportunity for sensory learning about the Hanukkah
story as well a chance to make and eat something delicious.
Both of
these writers remind us that it only takes a little creative energy to maintain
– or even improve – a sense of fun, or intergenerational bonding, and a feeling
of genuine connection to loved ones during the holiday season, pandemic of not.
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