I’ve got the same problem every year. Go to the store, can’t find the Hanukkah cards. Or when I do find them the selection is so small and pathetic I almost wish I hadn’t. There’ve been years when the selection at the local Osco was so bad I wound up buying Christmas cards instead.
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There were five choices, which was enough really. I took a box of 12 over to the counter.
Then I noticed the problem. “Hey, look at this,” I said to the guy at the register. “Check this out. They got this wrong. This menorah’s only got seven candles.”
“Well, it looks right,” he said. “Do you think it’s important?”
“Yes, I’m Jewish!”
“OK,” he said, squinting at a calculator. “I’ll give you 20 percent off.”
I had a couple of packages of Hanukkah gelt that I’d bought for my sons. Maybe I’d just have one. The kids wouldn’t mind. I took out a piece and looked at the gold foil covering the creamy chocolate coin inside. On one side was Hebrew writing, which I can’t read, and under it “Israel.” On the other side was a menorah. With seven branches.
