Something blue

As many of you know, I live in a Jewish household. And, Hanukkah starts at sundown this Saturday. Having grown up celebrating Christmas, I feel the need to deck the halls for the holiday. It's no easy task. While stores are abound with Christmas decor, the pickings are slim at best for the Festival of Lights.

Last year, my fellow shiksa friend Alisa and I hosted our first annual Hanukkah party at my house. We chose tiffany blue, silver and white as our color palette. Alisa dug out some stunning tiffany blue and silver china from her basement that she had forgotten about. We managed to make the place look festive in spite of the dearth of decorative ornaments on the market. Too bad we didn't take any photos. We will for sure this year. Alisa is a designer and photographer, so don't be shocked when you see good looking pics in a later post.

While we're on the subject of blue, did you know that Tiffany & Co. is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year? To honor this milestone, here's a bit of Tiffany trivia:

• Tiffany's now famous blue first appeared on its 1878 catalogue (known as the "blue book") to appeal to Victorian brides, who gave turquoise broaches to their attendants.
• Super Bowl and World Series victors are awarded sterling silver trophies by Tiffany.
• The company revised the Great Seal of the United States in 1885.
• In 1968, U.S. First Lady Lady Bird Johnson commissioned Tiffany to design a White House china service, which featured 90 flowers.

Back on topic. I always turn to Martha first. Look what she's done to make the holiday glitter.

via Martha Stewart

I'm not a crafty chick, so this is out of the question. I did have a custom (tasteful may I add) Hanukkah banner made by Janyce May of Little Pumpkin Papers. Check out her Etsy shop for cute holiday banners, gift tags and other embellishments. 

I was delighted to see that Wisteria has a lovely collection of coastal Christmas Hanukkah accessories that are perfect for bedecking and bedazzling the halls: all of this sans the coastal Santa.

The beaded menorah ornament complete with the holiday story and packed in a jute envelope would make a nice gift. Adorable!

I'm loving these mercury glass votives and tiny ornaments.

And, these sleek lidded boxes would be fun to fill with chocolate gelt.

Before I sign off. Here's some random Hanukkah trivia. Flipping through Reform Judaism mag I came across a "What do you know about Chanukah (yes, it's spelled several different ways) songs" quiz:

Which of these American Jewish song-writers wrote the comical song Chanukah in Santa Monica? a) Bob Dylan, b) Alan Sherman, c) Tom Lehrer or d) Irving Berlin. The answer is Tom Lehrer. Never heard of him.

Who knew that Bob Dylan is Jewish? Born Jewish --Robert Albert Zimmerman -- and raised Jewish, he became a born again Christian in the early 1980's. Jew or not a Jew? "Barely a Jew," according to jewornotjew.com. Entertaining site.