One Man's Santa is Our Yenta's "Hanukkah Harry"?

Hello my dawlinks!  Go grab your blankies, your pillows, your cups of water, perhaps something a little stronger, and let your Yenta tell you a story. 

When my kindeleh were young they had a lot of friends that were goyum (non-Jews) and they all spoke of this jolly man with a white beard, in a red suit that drove a slay behind eight reindeer.  I should only hope the poor animals didn't have gas as they flew the air, could you imagine?  Oy vey!  Anyway, my girls came home and asked if we had anyone that did anything like this Santa Claus person; so my husband and I had to think fast.

"Of course we do!"  Now mind you this was back in the 60's BEFORE Saturday Night Live.  "We have Hanukkah Harry.  Santa's third cousin, twice removed on his mother's side."  The girls looked at one another in amazement and then looked at us (I'll never forget this), "Is that why our gifts are on our beds after we light the candles?"

"Yes!  Hanukkah Harry, comes in through the window and leaves the gifts on the beds.  What?  He should get himself dirty every night and make his wife do more laundry than she all ready has to?  She doesn't do enough?"

The girls asked how he gets around and we had to create something quickly (these kindeleh aren't yolds)  Oh!  Yold is Yiddish, it's pronound Yo-ld and means dumb.  Anyway, we told them he employed the airforce to take him where he had to go (quite a few less houses than Santa) and he paid them all with good home Jewish cooking.  Let's face it, you can't get that in a Kosher Deli.

To this day, our girls tell the story of Hanukkah Harry to their children and their children's friends.  It actually became a problem for one our girls when my grandson told the principal of his school about Hanukkah Harry.  Our daughter was called into the office (as if we didn't have enough trouble with her growing up) and was asked about this "lie".  According to her, she sat straight up and said, "if the goys can tell their kindeleh about a fictional character called Santa Claus that steals into peoples houses in the middle of the night when their sleeping, why can't my son have Hanukkah Harry, that pokes in arm in a window, drops a present on a bed and takes off in a military jet!"  She then told of the Principals mouth dropping open and something about hearing "I never thought of it that way".

Looking at things a little differently... I like it.  Maybe I should do that more often... say it with me Kindeleh...

It Couldn't Hurt! 

Your

Yenta