Mishloach Manot - Article

PinkFridge

Mon, Feb 15 2016, 8:20 pm

Fox wrote:

I found the most thought-provoking element of the article to be the reference to "Martha Stewart Judasim."

The cultural phenomenon that Martha Stewart embodies is a backlash against the post-1950s movement away from "homemaking" as an art and the characterization of home-related tasks as necessary drudgery providing minimal satisfaction to those who perform them.

whatever floats your boat in the world of homemaking.

Jello molds, anyone? Wink

(Hey, great retro Purim theme!)

Laiya

Mon, Feb 15 2016, 9:38 pm

Fox wrote:

Purim is like the OK Corral of all these conflicts. It's the time when Jewish women can say, "Hey, I may not make all my own bread and challah; I may not make fresh 3-course meals for my family every night and send carefully packed lunches with hot soup every day; I may not grow my own herbs or make gefilte fish from scratch; I may not iron my pillowcases each week; I may not scrub my floors three times a week . . . but gosh darn it, one day a year I'm going to show you what I'm capable of! Bring it on, Martha!"

amother

Blonde

Mon, Feb 15 2016, 9:39 pm

I once read a letter to the editor in one of the Jewish magazines about a lady complaining that all the fancy recipes make peer pressure.....

I find that all this complaining about what other people do is ridiculous. You don't want to be busy with Mishloach Manos you don't have to. If somebody wants to spend her time being creative - amazing, why can't she use her talent? Why are we always so busy caring what other people do? Let's just focus on ourselves more.
The only problem I see here are the people who feel pressured to do something because somebody else is doing it - they have to grow up and work on their middos.

amother

Blue

Mon, Feb 15 2016, 9:51 pm

amother wrote:

The only problem I see here are the people who feel pressured to do something because somebody else is doing it - they have to grow up and work on their middos.

I was not familiar with fancy mm when I moved to a new community as a newlywed. I was astonished by some of the elaborate gifts we received. And our neighbors were equally astonished by our mm...the looks on their faces, mouths gaping, eyebrows raised...some people may feel pressure not to be embarrassed, if not the desire to "keep up."

seeker

Mon, Feb 15 2016, 11:45 pm

Bizzydizzymommy wrote:

I am a "theme" person because I'm creative and Purim is a way for me to use the creativity I was blessed with. I always write a cute poem, usually tied into Purim that fits my theme and dress up the whole family to boot. People have a good laugh and it adds fun to the Purim day.
This year I had planned for my boys to be scuba divers and I was going to make challah and dips for Shalach Manos ...and do something to the effect of we are "dipping and diving"...but my 5 year old doesnt even know what a scuba diver is and he wants to be a king...I finally convinced him into the scuba diver idea, but then today we decided that it's not fair to the kids. Let them be what they want to be. So my DH said HE will make shalach manos this year, since I told him I have an easier time keeping shalach manos cheap when I stick to a theme...lol...I may just let him! Though for me, I feel like I'm "giving up" my fun of Purim and my creative expression at this time.
I do think Purim has gotten out of hand, but if a person knows how to stick to a budget and enjoys the process it's an opportunity of artistic expression. There is no intention of "out doing " the neighbors or applying pressure to others.

I seem to be a little late to this thread but just to this post - I have a friend who had this situation. She and her DH are just fun and creative and had a great family-costume-MM-poem theme going every year. Then her kids got old enough to want to be just anything. So they went on doing the same thing but she and her DH dressed up to match the MM while the kids were just whatever they wanted, unless they chose to join the parents' theme. Works for them, and we still get a great kick out of their theme every year. I really enjoy seeing their theme because I have a great appreciation for this stuff - it's the kind of thing I would have done when I was younger, but now I just totally don't have the time and energy to put into it, and anyway we wouldn't have people to appreciate it, I'm the type who just brings some fresh soup and rolls to a couple of old lonely-looking neighbors and calls it a day, happily but not very creatively or fun-ly. So I love it when they pop in with their adorable mismatched kids and adorable matched theme and I have no shame reciprocating with "here, have some random hamentaschen and chill."