Preparing for Thanksgivukkah: Be Thankful and Pass the Latkes!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; spending time with family, football in the yard and on the television for those who watch, and a delicious turkey brined and roasted to perfection.  This year, though, it’s a double whammy!  The second night of Chanukkah falls on Thanksgiving which makes this Jewish girl plotz with excitement over the blended holiday.  Latkes frying, cider mulling, cranberries jelling, dreidels spinning – oy I’m getting all verklempt!  I’ll give you a topic: Sweet potato pie is neither a vegetable dish nor a healthy dessert – Discuss!  Thankgivukkah, as it has been coined in the pop culture media, is the blending of Thanksgiving and Chanukkah, the Jewish celebration of the rededication of the second Temple after the Maccabees defeated the Greeks and the miracle that happened: One day’s ration of oil for the eternal flame lasted eight days until more oil could be obtained.  On this holiday we eat foods fried in oil (we eat on every holiday but one, Yom Kippur, but when it’s over we eat like we haven’t eaten all year).  Traditionally, latkes – potato pancakes, and soufganyiot – jelly doughnuts are served.  As Jews, we often celebrate our freedom; at Chanukkah it’s our triumph over the Greeks, and at Passover it’s our successful exodus from slavery in Egypt.  As Americans on Thanksgiving, we celebrate our country and the opportunity it affords us and others to practice our religion freely.  So it makes perfect sense that the two fall on the same day and can be celebrated simultaneously.

This Thanksgivukkah will be the only one in my lifetime.  The last one was in the 1800’s and the next one won’t be for another 79,000 years, so we have to pull out all of the stops!  And just as Thanksgiving and Chanukkah come together once in a lifetime, so does this guest list!  My mother and stepfather and my father and stepmother and my in-laws will all be seated around the same gelt-filled cornucopia.  All parties do get along, we just haven’t celebrated a holiday together since the year 33 BD (Before the Divorce).  And to answer your question:  Yes, I am serving alcohol.  Early.

I am already preparing my menu for the event; blending American and Jewish dishes for the main meal.  We will begin the day with latkes and applesauce – a Jewish tradition.  I thought of making cranberry-applesauce, but I needed to consider my guests.  For instance, my father is a stickler for tradition.  Even though it is Thanksgiving and Chanukkah, the latkes are a sacred food (as is most Jewish soul food, in his opinion) and he would not take well to my messing with any part of the tradition.  Then there is the question of the main course.  I am serving turkey – that should go without saying – but, the real question is this:  Brisket on Chanukkah:  To serve or not to serve?  I don’t eat meat and my husband stopped eating red meat over a year ago, so it doesn’t matter to us.  I have a lot to prepare and many of my guests have offered to bring a dish, so I wouldn’t need to make it.  The issue is who to ask:  My mother would happily bring a brisket.  So would my stepmother.  Oh, and my mother-in-law would too.  If I ask one and not the others, it would be like babysitting suicide!   Or I could have them all bring some brisket, but that would lead to an unspoken cook-off gone wrong.  Like the Sophie’s Choice of brisket.  I think my brother would have a field day with it!  Even though I would love to entertain my brother, I think we will play it safe and stick to the 23-pound young, organic turkey I ordered this weekend and skip the brisket.

Side dishes are easily blendable to suit both holidays and I don’t think I will offend anyone with some creative cooking.  Instead of rolls or cornbread, I am going to make a pumpkin challah.  Instead of sweet potato pie with marshmallows, a known favorite amongst the New World Pilgrims and Native Americans, I am thinking of serving tzimmes.  Stuffing is easy – use challah bread instead of white bread.  And just in case we don’t have enough starch at this meal, I’m considering making a kugel (noodle pudding) – a cranberry-apple kugel (I don’t think my dad will mind).  Cranberry sauce will be aplenty and I will have a basic vegetable for those who don’t care what holiday it is, they are sticking with their diet.

As for desserts, those are straightforward – pie and doughnuts – why give up one when you can have both!  I think I will fill my doughnuts with cranberry jelly.  I found a recipe and I am going to rework it and see if I can make a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free cranberry jelly doughnut.  Sounds like the hit of the party to me!

Oh and I can’t forget the place cards/party favors I am making.  Here’s a sneak peak:

Thanksgivukkah goody bags

Once the meal has been eaten (and maybe before) we will spin the dreidel.  The letters on the dreidel, Nun, Gimmel, Hay, and Shin, form the acronym Nes Gadol Hayah Sham; A Great Miracle Happened There (“there” meaning Israel).  When the dreidel lands on Gimmel (the Miracle letter), the spinner wins the gelt (money) in the pot.  This year, our letters will form the acronym Nes Gobble Hayah Sham, meaning A Great Thanksgivukkah Happened There (“there” meaning Connecticut).  Only nine days left – I’ve got to get on that project!  My grandfather used to make dreidels out of scrap wood blocks and nubby pencils.  If he was here to celebrate with us, I bet he would make one for everyone.

On this Thanksgivukkah, we will continue to follow our family tradition of going around the table and sharing all that we are thankful for.  I, for one, am thankful to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime holiday with my entire family.  I am thankful that I get the opportunity to let my creative juices flow.  And I am thankful to celebrate a holiday where Pilgrim meets Maccabee, where sweet potatoes meet tzimmes, and where it’s okay not to serve brisket.

xo

B