When the Jewish calendar doesn’t cooperate with Christmas
At 5:30 a.m. one recent morning, I set out on a pilgrimage to Home Depot. The day ahead was packed, but I’d heard that DJ Dreidel, the musical Hanukkah stuffed bear who plays “Hava Nagila,”…
Assessment
The piece uses a personal shopping quest for a Hanukkah toy to illustrate a recurring cultural friction: the Jewish calendar's lunar months cause Hanukkah to drift relative to the fixed December 25 date, sometimes landing early or late. This year the holiday ends before Christmas, creating a compressed window for Jewish seasonal merchandise. The real tension is commercial and psychological. Retailers and consumers must navigate overlapping holiday displays and competing marketing rhythms. Watch for how stores adjust their seasonal inventory and whether Jewish consumers feel squeezed or overlooked.