CHAPTER 1The Best Holiday Ever?
Today is turning out to be an extra-fabulous day. In just a few hours, winter break is starting! That means almost two whole weeks with no school. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. But first I need to finish my drawing for art class.
I look over what I’ve made so far, and my smile gets bigger and bigger. Ms. Ray told us to draw our favorite winter holiday traditions. So I made a drawing of my very favorite holiday: Hanukkah.
In the drawing, my entire family—me, my dad, my big brother, Aaron, and my cat, Cookie—stand by the counter while we light the menorah. Of course, in real life, we would never let Cookie go near the menorah. But I wanted to draw her anyway. She is a very important part of the family.
There is only one problem with my drawing. The space next to the menorah is empty, and that’s boring. I decide to draw a plate of nice, hot latkes in the empty space. I like to eat my latkes with sour cream on top, but Aaron thinks they taste better with applesauce. Aaron and I disagree about a lot of things, but I’m happy to let him be wrong about this one. More sour cream for me!
I also draw a dreidel spinning because every year I play with dreidels. Now my artwork has all the biggest Hanukkah traditions! It really is perfect. I bounce up and down in my chair.
Since I’m done, I look over at the boy next to me. His name is Mason, and he’s drawn a picture of a gigantic Christmas tree with a star on top.
“Nice drawing!” I tell him.
I don’t know Mason very well because he just moved here, but I want to be nice. Maybe he can be a new friend.
Mason should say “thanks,” because that is the polite thing to do when someone says a nice thing. But he doesn’t. He just looks over at my drawing.
“You didn’t make a Christmas tree,” he says.
Well, duh! Of course I didn’t draw a Christmas tree. Why did he say something so obvious? Even though he’s asking a stupid question, I am going to keep on being nice to him anyway.
“I don’t celebrate Christmas,” I explain. “My family is Jewish, and we celebrate Hanukkah.”
Really, Mason should already know this. We learned all about holidays this month, and I talked to the class about how my family celebrates Hanukkah. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention, though. I sometimes have trouble paying attention in class, too.
He frowns. I don’t know what he’s frowning about. My drawing? The idea of Hanukkah? That’s just silly! Hanukkah is the bestest holiday in the whole world. Much better than Christmas. Obviously!
“So you don’t have a Christmas tree at all? Or stockings and sugar cookies?” Mason asks.
There he goes, talking about Christmas again! Now I’m starting to get annoyed. More than annoyed. I just told him we don’t celebrate Christmas. Some Jewish people do, like my cousins. But I never have.
“No, we don’t have a Christmas tree and stockings,” I say. “But we do have a menorah! And we eat jelly doughnuts, not sugar cookies. My dad makes the best ones.”
“But why can’t you celebrate Christmas?”
I play with my hands. “Because … because we don’t.”
That’s not a very good answer. But Mason didn’t ask a very good question!
“You’re missing out. Christmas is the best holiday,” he says.
He looks back at his own drawing. I want to go back to my drawing, too, but I can’t. I’m too confused. I don’t understand why Mason would say something so silly. Why does he think I’m missing out?
I am not missing out on anything!
CHAPTER 2Waiting for Hanukkah
I should be stupendously happy right now. Not only do I have two whole weeks off from school but the first night of Hanukkah is tomorrow. Tomorrow!
So I guess I am happy. But I am also a little bit mad. Mason was wrong. The most wrong person in the history of wrong. Hanukkah is a great holiday. Even though I’ve never celebrated Christmas, I am sure that Hanukkah is better than Christmas. I mean, Hanukkah lasts for eight days and eight nights. Christmas is only one day! Eight days is better than one. That is just a fact.
Take that, Mason!
Luckily, my best friend, Maya, is at my house for an after-school playdate. Maya always makes everything better.
My dad grins at us while he gets out a bowl of pretzels for our snack. “Are you excited about Hanukkah, girls?” he asks.
“YES!” we answer together.
“I can’t believe it starts tomorrow,” Maya tells me while we start to munch on pretzels. “My moms already bought so much chocolate gelt! I can’t wait.”
I bounce up and down in my chair. “That’s the best part! Well, besides the presents. Obviously.”
“Obviously!”
I look at Dad. “Did you get the race car yet?”
I want a race car for my doll so much. Just to make sure that Dad knows, I made a picture of it and put it on the refrigerator with the words HANUKKAH GIFT FOR RACHEL in big letters.
“Maybe,” Dad says. “Maybe not. You’ll have to wait and see.”
He looks at me and pretends to zip his lips up like a jacket. Annoying!
Still, I’m feeling so excited about Hanukkah and everything that I almost don’t mind. Dad pats me on the back and goes off to do Dad things. I hope those things involve wrapping presents.
That’s when Aaron walks into the room and grabs a fistful of pretzels.
“Hey, Maya,” he says. “Hey, Rachey.”
I scowl at him. He knows I don’t like it when he calls me Rachey, but he does it anyway.
Maya smiles at him, though. She likes him for some reason. Maybe because he’s actually nice to her.
“Are you excited about Hanukkah, Aaron?” she asks.
I expect my brother to say yes. I mean, what other answer is there? But instead, he just shrugs.
“Not really.”
What?! I cannot believe he would say this. Cannot! Aaron and I don’t agree on most things, but we always agree on Hanukkah. Most of the year, we fight all the time, but we put it aside on Hanukkah. Dad says it’s a true Hanukkah miracle.
“What?” Maya and I say together.
Aaron shrugs again. Which is very, very annoying.
“I said what I said. You know, Hanukkah isn’t even an important holiday. I read about it.”
Aaron is always talking about something that he read. He is a know-it-all like that.
I open my mouth to explain to him the bajillion reasons why he’s wrong. But before I get the chance, he sprints out of there with his pretzels. Rude!
CHAPTER 3Making a List
My brother is the worst. But it’s not like I wanted to spend time with him anyway. Maya and I finish our snack before heading up to my room, because we have manners. We sprawl out on the floor together.
“I cannot believe how many people don’t like Hanukkah!” I tell her. “First Mason and now Aaron.”
Maya frowns. “Mason? What about him?”
So I explain all about what happened with my drawing. How he said that I’m “missing out.”
“That’s terrible!” Maya says. “He shouldn’t feel sorry for us just because we don’t celebrate Christmas. Why would he say something so mean?”
“I know! What’s so great about Christmas, anyway?” I say in my grumpy voice.
Maya shrugs. “Well…”
“Well, what?” I demand.
“Well, it kind of does look like a lot of fun in the movies and on TV.”
That’s true. There are a bajillion movies and TV show episodes about Christmas. Plus seventy bajillion commercials about Christmas. On TV, Christmas does look pretty great. There’s always lots of food, laughing, and singing. But Hanukkah has those things, too!
“Forget about Christmas,” I say. “This year, we’re going to have the best Hanukkah ever. Eight perfect nights.”
Maya grins widely at me. “Totally!”
I immediately feel better. Yes! This is exactly what I need. After eight perfect nights of Hanukkah, Mason won’t ever be able to say that I’m missing out. I’m not missing out on anything. He’s the one who’s missing out!
“We should make a plan,” I declare. My dad is always talking about how plans make things happen. Blah, blah, blah. Normally I don’t really bother with making plans. But this is important!
“What kind of a plan?” Maya asks.
The answer comes to me at once. “We should make a list! Eight super-fun things to do for eight days of Hanukkah.”
“Oooh, yes!” Maya pulls out a notebook and pen from her bag. “Should we write everything down, so that it’s official?”
I jump up and down. “Yes!”
The first few things on the list are easy. We want to eat lots and lots of latkes. We’re going to do a dreidel-spinning contest. And we both want good presents. Maya wants a new jewelry-making kit. I want the race car, obviously.
So, that’s three things already. Now we just need five more.
“What about the Lego menorah?” Maya asks. “You guys always do that.”
Yes! Our family always makes a gigantic Lego menorah for the front porch. Aaron started doing it when I was just a baby, and now it’s our tradition. Every year it looks a little different—but it’s always fantabulous.
“Add it to the list,” I say.
There are a lot of super-fun Hanukkah things we do every year, so it isn’t hard to come up with ideas. We even want to start a brand-new tradition—ice-skating! Really, we should be in charge of every holiday.
In the end, we come up with a list of seven awesome things:
Cook latkes and eat them. (Be sure to add lots of sour cream!)Do a dreidel-spinning contest. (Eat lots of gelt after!)Build the best Lego menorah ever. (Even bigger than last year’s.)Make a Snow Maccabee. (Don’t forget to add the sword!)Go ice-skating. (A new Hanukkah tradition!)Sing Hanukkah songs in the park. (The good ones only.)Get fabulous presents. (Plus, start playing with them.)I frown. Coming up with seven things was easy, but now I don’t know what to do for number eight. The last number on the list can’t be just anything. It should be superspecial, to finish off a superspecial holiday. This Hanukkah needs to be better than all the other Hanukkahs.
“Maybe we can watch that old cartoon about Hanukkah?” Maya suggests.
“Boring!” I say. “We’ve seen that like a million times already.”
Maya makes a not-happy face back at me. “Raaachel. Don’t be like this. We have to come up with something!”
“We have to come up with the perfect thing,” I correct her. “Eight perfect nights, remember?”
Maya looks like she wants to argue with me, but she doesn’t. She just bites her lip.
“Okay. Fine. How about we leave number eight blank? Until we find the perfect thing.”
I wish I knew the perfect number eight right now! I don’t want to wait. But I guess Maya is right. So I go back to the list and write:
8.???
Copyright © 2024 by Sarah Kapit. Copyright © 2024 by Genevieve Kote.
