VIDEO: Adding a personal touch to age-old holiday traditions
Sitting at their table at Penfield's Mud About You pottery store, Melinda and Ally Yanoff joked and laughed as Ally concentrated on the work at hand. One swift brushstroke after another, the 8-year-old was putting her personal touches on a white ceramic dreidel, adding colorful lines to the four-sided top to accent Nun, Gimel, Hei and Shin - letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
With Hanukkah starting tonight, Ally is excited to use that dreidel in Dreidel Wars, a game she created with her cousin to play during the Jewish celebration. Hanukkah honors the lighting of the Temple menorah during the Maccabee rebellion that took place around 165 B.C.
On Nov. 27, the Yanoffs and other families traveled to Penfield as part of an event put on by the Jewish Community Federation of Greater Rochester. Painting dreidels, menorahs and other Judaic items, they had the chance to add ceramic pieces to their holiday collection to celebrate, personalizing a holiday that holds an important place within the Jewish community.
"It's fun to purchase pre-made things, but it's always special for the kids if they make something themselves," said Melinda Yanoff of Pittsford. "They'll always remember it and they ask for it to come out again year after year."
Ally Yanoff said she was looking forward to the event because in addition to a love for painting, she loves spinning dreidels.
The same can be said for Tabetha Garver, 4, who came with her mother, Beth, to decorate a menorah. Tabetha loves singing Hanukkah songs and had never painted a menorah before, so the night was extra fun. Beth Garver noted that by making the family's Hanukkah celebration more individualized by using celebratory items they made together, it drives home the idea of just how personal an event like Hanukkah can be.
"It's so easy to go out and spend money on something, but when you make it yourself, you really remember it," said Pittsford resident Beth Garver. "You don't just remember the fact that it's sitting here in our living room, but the fact that you made it ... You remember the experience and that makes it very personal."
That was the goal, said Sarabeth Rogoff, a Penfield resident and director of Jewish family education for the Federation. Since a holiday such as Hanukkah draws families together, Rogoff said it's important to take opportunities to show everyone - especially children - how fun and personal it can be.
"We hope (families) leave feeling much more comfortable about how to celebrate the holiday and that not only did they get to make a wonderful item for their home ... but maybe they'll learn something they didn't learn before," she said.
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With many more Hanukkah celebrations down the road, Beth Garver believes the experience she shared with Tabetha is one that will help to make a difference for her daughter.
"Hanukkah has so much cultural significance and for a child growing up, she won't remember the gifts because toys get tossed away a week after you use them," she said. "But, when we actually spend time and go out and make something, that has so much more significance and that's a memory that we'll remember. Someday, she'll say 'Remember mom, when we made this menorah?'"