Getting ready for Hanukkah

Stephanie Kramer can’t wait to do her holiday decorating. By the day after Thanksgiving, she had hauled out her boxes of treasures - the festive tablecloth, tea towels, tinsel and streamers in blue and white. There are also a variety of dreidel, including a giant inflatable one hanging from her ceiling fan, big blue Stars of David to hang in the front windows and precious menorahs of all kinds collected over the years.

Hanukkah is almost here. The first night of the eight-day festival of lights begins Dec. 16. For Kramer, who is a rabbi, doing up Hanukkah is for the kids.

“It’s all about him. And my daughter, but she’s only 6 months old,” Kramer said of son Micah, 4, and baby Noa.

While Hanukkah is not considered the most important of Jewish holidays, it falls in the winter, during a holiday season when signs and symbols of Christmas are ubiquitous in stores and public squares. As a young mom, Kramer, 31, wants to provide a fun and festive holiday infused with memory-making moments for her kids, within the traditions of her own faith.

“It’s hard for my little boy during December to see all of the Christmas decorations and hear all of the Christmas tunes. He’s just at an age where he’s learning we don’t celebrate Christmas and he can sing every single Christmas jingle there is because we live in the world,” she said. “So it was very important for me to make sure we really celebrated Hanukkah. We celebrate every Jewish holiday and try to truly celebrate all of them vibrantly.”

Gingerbread menorahs

So she will be making decorative ornaments with cookie cutters, in the shapes of Stars of David, dreidels, the little spinning gambling tops that children play for chocolate coins or “gelt,” and menorahs, the candle holders that are a centerpiece of the eight-night lighting ritual.

On her kitchen counter sit two unopened gingerbread kits, not to make houses but rather chocolate gingerbread menorahs.

“Try to tell your kid you’re not going to have a gingerbread house,” she lamented. “This comes with frosting and little decorations. I’m super excited about this.”

Every year Kramer, who is associate rabbi at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, looks for new items to add to her collection of Hanukkah decorations. In a culture engulfed by Christmas, the selection by comparison is limited. She was disappointed to find nothing at Michael’s crafts or Target.

“Not even in the Christmas section did they have Hanukkah wrapping paper or gift bags,” she said.

She set out to survey what was available in Santa Rosa and was dismayed by the meager selection. But she did find small sections of Hanukkah supplies at Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS and Party City.

“Certainly they can’t have a section the size of the Christmas section, but some token representation of Hanukkah would be good just so there is an awareness that it’s happening,” she said.

For those shopping, Congregation Shomrei Torah (2600 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa) has a gift shop stocked with a well curated and vetted selection of decorative and other items for Hanukkah celebrations, including the cookbook, “Oy to Joy: Recipes from Our Wine Country Kitchens.”

Pier 1 also has a selection of more elegant decor, like a velvet lumbar pillow featuring a menorah.

Shopping online

Kramer, who grew up in Houston, home to a large Jewish community, finds most of her things online or she asks her mom to check the stores back home, which have a better selection.

She lets Micah decide where to place the window clingers, the “Happy Hanukkah” banner and other symbols of the holiday.

The annual Holiday Home Tour in Sebastopol on Saturday, put on by the Sebastopol Christian School, this year will feature a “Hanukkah House.”

For the open house, Ileene Link, a retired school teacher, has created a beautiful Hanukkah table setting befitting the casual feast of potato latkes, brisket and sufganiyah (round jelly doughnuts).

She has a tablecloth from Israel and a Hanukkah table runner from Pottery Barn.

Her own Calico blue china works nicely for the Hanukkah colors of blue, white, silver and gold. On the table are special menorahs, including a bronze one she inherited from her grandparents. In one corner is a toddler-sized table set up with dreidels, gelt and her daughter’s favorite Hanukkah book, “Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins.” This year it will be enjoyed by her two-year-old grandson, Jonah.

Although her children are grown, Link, like a lot of other Jewish parents, felt the pressure of Christmas.

So years ago she began a snowman collection and has decorated her living room with her many folk art acquisitions, a nod to the season that says winter without shouting Christmas.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.