Showing posts with label Chanukah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chanukah. Show all posts

12/16/2012

Four Trees

Here are pictures of the four trees I set up in our living room and dining room.
This Chanukah tree turned out so beautifully that I wanted to take my good camera out of the studio and set it up to shoot pictures...but I've been so camera lazy lately. It's terrible. So I just took a bunch of individual shots.
I want to keep it up forever. I'm mesmerized by the delicate glass and the sparkling beads and the lights and the ornaments I made.







 I had a really great time decorating the big tree and the small ones, especially the last one pictured. It made all the difference in the world that I would be sharing them with guests.  They loved them and the children were wowed by the Monster High tree.

There is a small tree in the doll room. I must take a picture of that, too. It's really cute.

12/20/2011

Happy Chanukah, Doll-Face!

The rabbi doll holds his own menorah. He is standing before a human sized menorah.
 On the table behind Vanessa are three miniature menoras. The smallest is 1/12 scale and the largest is scaled for the American Girl doll. The 'gold' coins and dreidel are from American Girl, too. 



 Many people have asked me where I got the rabbi figurine. It was made by Possible Dreams-Clothtique, the same company that makes all Santa figurines.  He was purchased quite a few years ago and is no where to be found, aside from mine. 


Want to know more about Chanukah? Click HERE below for lots of delicious and interesting information.

12/01/2010

Wishing You A Dolly Chanukah

 A great Rabbi once remarked that “You cannot chase away darkness with a stick, you have to turn on the light.”  The way to eliminate darkness — to rid the world of ignorance, negativity, hatred and greed — is to kindle the lights of knowledge, generosity, hope and love.
I'm quite irreverent when it comes to religion but the origin and meaning of this holiday is beautiful.

I did a photoshoot last night using some doll sized menorahs and a full sized menorah. I hope you enjoy the photographs. If you want to read a little about Chanukah, see the links at the bottom of the post.




I did a Google search for Doll Menorahs which produced mostly menorahs having nothing to do with dolls. Off the top of my head, the only company that makes a menorah specifically for one of their dolls is the American Girl. The menorah at the back of the table in the above photo is an American Girl product. It came with the items in the picture below.
American Girl  - Discontinued Set
There is another, newer menorah set for sale. It is still available at the American Girl website for $22.  Here is a picture of the product.
American Girl - Rebecca's Hanukka Set
American Girl accessories are overscaled for your Fashion Royalty dolls and Silkstones. I like them anyway and who's to say that they don't have giant menorahs?
Have fun!

 The significance of Chanukah (also spelled Hanukkah) in our modern world is profound and beautiful and it is probably the best known Jewish holiday due to it's yearly proximity to Christmas. The Sanhedrin, a council or court of elders who met to answer questions of lawand all aspects of religious and political life in biblical times. It was established in 191 B.C.E. and continued although persecuted for almost 600 years.  In 358 C.E. Roman Emperor Theodosius disbanded the Sanhedrin and confiscated their property as a reaction to previous emperor Julian's pro-Jewish stance.

Hanukah, The Holiday of Lights  
Matisyahu: Light A Fire For Chanukah Music
Hanukkah


12/14/2009

Are There Any Jewish Dolls?

After writing my last post about the American Girl doll Rebecca, and the Chanukah and Sabbath accessories that can be purchased for her, I did a search for Jewish Dolls on Google. But before going there I want to share something I've wondered about on and off for the last few weeks. The Fashion Royalty doll called Night Warrior comes with a cross on a chain. It's not a crucifix but it is a cross. Jason Wu has created several pieces of jewelry for his dolls with crosses. One of the Homme dolls has a cross on a tiny bead chain. Several tiny rhinestone-studded crosses have shown up on belts. I began to wonder - are his crosses fashion statements or are they religious jewelry? I wanted to post the question on my favorite doll boards but I envisioned the possibility of a crusade ensuing. The necklace my Kaori is wearing is a Star of David. It is not a fashion statement. Here's what I found when I did my search: Gali Girls - Very similar to American Girl dolls but about half the price. Is Gali short for Galicia? Galicia was a royal province of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire where many Jews lived. There was a great deal of "ethnic oppression." According to one source "the majority of Galician Jews perished in the holocaust. Most survivors immigrated to Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia." Interesting name for a group of dolls. Odd...she doesn't look Jewish. ;-O Mini Mishpacha Doll Family These dolls are for children under 3 years of age. The male dolls have yarmulkas and prayer shawls and the females are modestly dressed and frumpy-looking. I'm sure that any 2 year old would tear the clothes off as soon as they figured out how to do it. I'm sure these are not widely distributed. Here's a quote from the site: "Modest - Lady and girl dolls have subtly feminine features (not like the immodest "fashion" dolls) Hmmm...do you think they're talking about Barbie? Duh. So I guess it means these dolls don't have breasts because that would make them immodest and god forbid a 2-year-old knew that women have breasts, vaginas and stuff like that. The grandpa doll: The Ellis Island Collection Dolls Series This is a wonderful collection of "turn-of-the-century replica dolls with beautifully featured porcelain faces. These dolls are dressed in historically accurate, detailed clothing. Each exquisitely detailed porcelain doll comes with its own stand. Fully dressed in clothing reminiscent of the late 1800s to early 1900's immigrants. Complete with accouterments as pictured. Includes certificate of authenticity." I am impressed! They're beautiful dolls. I love the costumes. Priced at $59.99, they're certainly within reach of collectors. I might actually get one of the 18 different characters. This is Sadie: You can buy the entire collection for $899.99. They're almost as tall as Cissy. I'm guessing that they have soft bodies although the description does not specify. By the way, these are not the same dolls as those from the company that goes by the name ellisislanddolls.com. Their dolls are beautiful as well. That pretty much concludes what I'd call Jewish dolls. I did find Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud beanbags, stereotypical caricatures of elder Jewish men, biblical figures such as Moses and adult gag gifts like Harvey Magila who is a sound-activated thing that dances and plays Hava Nagila. (Batteries included. $18.00) Tongue-in-cheek. I came across this interesting blog post that ties in with this post although in a political way. Gollywogs and Jewish Dolls. By this time you may be asking yourself what all this has to do with dolls wearing crosses. Why not come up with an answer yourself and post it here. Or not. At least I put it out there.

Holiday Accessories for Dolls Celebrating Chanukah

American Girl is just about the only company I have discovered to date that acknowledges the existence of holidays other than Christmas. I applaud them for being inclusive when it comes to different ethnicities and beliefs in the creation of their dolls and background stories. Their dolls are widely available and are not charicatures of children of various ethnic backgrounds, they are just children who happen to be different from eachother.
Although most adult fashion doll collectors do not include American Girl dolls in their collections, some of the accessories can be worked in. In my photo of Kaori, two posts back, I used an American Girl menorah and dreidel. This year AG has another menorah available and it's beautiful. It comes in a set called Rebecca's Hanukkah Set, [Item#F9723] and retails for $22.

Here are the photos from their website:


The description: "Rebecca can't wait to light the menorah and celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights! This set features: A beautiful menorah and nine pretend candles A dreidel Rebecca and her cousins spin to play games Three shiny coins, called gelt."

The price is right and can bring your gals into the multi-cultural world!

American Girl has also provided Rebecca with a Sabbath Set.
This beautiful set comes with:
"A Russian samovar and tray for heating water and serving tea
A tea canister and a ceramic teapot
Two glasses, pretend hallah bread and a scalloped cloth
A pair of [pretend] Sabbath candles that the women in Rebecca's family "light" before sundown
Two blue candlesticks that were a gift to Rebecca from Mr. Rossi"

The Sabbath set is back-ordered until March 2010. The retail price is $68.

Tea? My grandpa drank a shot of schnapps on Shabbos. I guess we can't give little girls bottles of Schnapps and shot glasses, can we?
In addition, hallah is spelled challah and hanukkah is spelled Chanukah. I'm just sayin'