Your cutest Mishloach Manot ideas

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Purim

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

Ronit

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 3:54 pm

This is going totally off topic.

It really wasn't nice of you Fraidasima to bash a group of woman discussing mm ideas. This thread was very pleasant until then, and I don't think it's any different than the ones about crafts, recipes etc.

I disagree w/ the pple who are comparing this to other hiddur mitzva, because honestly speaking for myself only - that is not why I do themes. I do agree that the mitzva can be done beautifully & behiddur w/o a theme etc. But on the other hand themes don't take away- it makes it enjoyable & interesting for those that give & those that are getting it.

And I'm glad you think, that e/o in EY is holier & more focused - it's an issue for all of us chutz learetz & EY alike.

sky

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 3:55 pm

Shalhevet, Awhile back you posted something along the lines of: I wonder if people spend as much time getting ready for Yom Kippur as Purim. (not the exact quote)

I repeated it to dh and he thought it was fantastic. It has gotten me thinking.

On the other hand I use purim as a time to give mm as gifts to people who I owe hakaras hatov to: dh's chavrusa, our rav, morahs, ILs. I want to put time and effort into those, and a little money. its my way of saying thank you. I do take my kids on Purim to the nursing home. We give out a few plates of grape juice and sponge cake to people there.

GingerSpice

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 3:56 pm

loving the ideas!

Ronit

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 4:03 pm

sky wrote:

Shalhevet, Awhile back you posted something along the lines of: I wonder if people spend as much time getting ready for Yom Kippur as Purim. (not the exact quote)

.

You are right about yom kippur, but still you don't exactly expect to see a imamother thread in June "Best Yom Kippur teshuva ideas". While purim mm is a concrete thing that has to be done so pple want to prepare ahead of time.

WHY ALL THE BASHING?

shalhevet

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 4:35 pm

hadassa wrote:

You are right about yom kippur, but still you don't exactly expect to see a Imamother thread in June "Best Yom Kippur teshuva ideas". While purim mm is a concrete thing that has to be done so pple want to prepare ahead of time.

WHY ALL THE BASHING?

Sorry, I am entitled to my opinion, and I think it is WEIRD to be planning Purim in Tevet. Zehu. I said it. I think Rosh Chodesh Adar is plenty early to start - how long does it take to bake a little, cook a little, buy some MM and wrap them up?

And there is a mitzva to do teshuva every day.

Tammuz = Zemanei Teshuva Memashmashim Uva'im

ז מני ת שובה מ משמשים ו באים

ora_43

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 4:45 pm

shalhevet wrote:

I was wondering why you found it strange to plan 3 weeks in advance until I remembered Shvat.

Now I'll admit to being a bit confused as well. But kol hakavod to those who get these things done in plenty of time. And I like the ideas, even if tu b'shvat ideas would be a bit more useful right now.

Does everybody do themes? I had actually never heard of such a thing until this thread. Ya'll are inspiring me to be a little more creative this year.

Ronit

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 5:01 pm

shalhevet wrote:

hadassa wrote:

You right about teshuva and all, but one has n/t to do w/ the other.

I happen to be due w/ a baby iyh in 3 weeks & my sisters wedding is at the same time. I work full time & I hate when things are last minute. This way if I do it in advance there is no pressure & cheaper- because sometimes I find discounts now... I happen to be planning to attend the Ja Javits gift show this sunday - & hope to order my boxes & ribbons there wholesale...

Mrs. XYZ

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 7:02 pm

Quote:

So your real issue is the starting so early? Not the themes itself? Does it also bother you when people start cooking and baking and stocking their freezers in the beginning of the summer for the yomim tovim? We had a thread about that too, did you state your objections there too?

shayna82

Wed, Jan 21 2009, 8:51 pm

this is a classic case of just someone not understanding how any one else does things, or why they do them

for me , I will go and order my decorative boxes, cone bags, and pounds of candy. thats what I do every year , thats what im doing this year, regardless of other situations. the only thing that I might do different is give more tzedaka to worthy organizations...

GAMZu

Thu, Jan 22 2009, 11:33 pm

Quote:

If you want to be creative, then please do it. Create lovely inexpensive costumes for your children in order for them to put on a Purim play whose proceeds go to Zedoko. Make a raffle for the lovliest Mishloach Manos in the kehilla with the proceeds of the raffle going to support a yeshiva that just lost most of its support.

So you have to not only make costumes, but organize a play... with what time?? Maybe you can use all those hours to clean someone's home and make much more money that you can give to tzedaka that you'd ever make with a kids' play. Who would pay to see a kiddie play, anyway? Confused

How would the raffle work? Do people buy tickets and you raffle off lovely MM? Or do you mean vote for whose is lovliest? Where does the money come in to the vote? And I thought that lovely MM is exactly the thing you are bashing. Confused

Quote:

If you put a pretty wand in a little girl's hand and make her a fancy skirt from a piece of remnant and call her Queen Esther, it's considered just fine and dandy.

Don't you pay for the wand? Don't you pay for the hamantash and orange and nuts and raisins? You do- even more than you'd pay for a mini water bottle and a bag of hot corn chips.

Listen, there is no way to make Purim into a fundraising event. And there is not need to! That's not the point of Purim.
Would you deprive kids of a fun costume experience?

I personally start now because I have to
a> think of costume idea
b> decide how to implement it
c> buy materials for the costumes (and wait for them to arrive if I order online)
d> actually make them!

All that takes time. It's not like I'm sitting working on it for weeks NONSTOP. It's just that I need time to do a little here and there or else I'll never finish it.

freidasima

Fri, Jan 23 2009, 6:02 am

Gamzu, around here the teachers work on the purim plays and parents only have to provide the minimum costume which they usually have the pieces of at home. A "wand" is the bottom of the broom. The rest of the stuff you also have at home.

My point was that I think that here we are a lot more zedoko oriented when it comes to holidays then in many places not in EY...or so it seems to me. Not wanting to bash anyone but trying to point people to remember the meaning of Purim.

And writing this, it brings home a point to me.
So many of the religious non jews I know abroad have complained to me throughout the years how much they are upset that X is missing from the Xmas celebrations. They are celebrating - lehavdil - an event which is central to the creation of Xtianity and they want their celebrations to be focused on that, and not on "gashmiyus" lehavdil, which, without knowing the word, is exactly what they have said to me, knowing that I, a frum Yid, can understand and empathize with the concept even though I am faaaar away from Xmas and all it symbolizes.

Reading the stuff here about purim, I get the feeling that people forget what purim is all about. Sure, fun for kids, everything can be made into fun for kids, the bows and arrows of my lag baomer abroad (no bonfires then), decorating the sukkah in my old kehilla where no one had their own but we all ate together in the shul sukkah, decorating the shul for shavuos, all those things made the holidays tremendous fun for us as kids and built memories for me and my friends which have already lasted half a lifetime. Our parents helped us with it and provided the means, giving us the branches with which to decorate the shul, the bows and arrows from our Jewish school, and giving us the day off to enjoy and do for the klal.

That's what I feel is missing, but I also feel like I am talking to a wall. For us, the spirit of the chag was the chag itself, even as kids, and the feeling of doing for the klal, not for us as individuals. Purim as chazal say, pur hu hagoral, this was a time that the lives of the Jewish people in a very large area hung in the balance and behasdei Hashem we survived to triumph. Any memory of that?

And I feel like what is important to so many of the posters is not the mitzva, even though they are trying to portray it as "hiddur mitzva" but the importance to them of THEIR having fun. Hey, we are all mothers here, we are all adults. Fun in yuntif is for kids. We as adults should try to add to their fun but also inclucate them with the importance of the religious significance of the chag which seems to be missing here in all the emphasis of costumes, special themes (themes? Who ever heard of purim themes? The THEME is PURIM, as I think Shalhevet so rightly said!), doing this all in advance. etc.

This is NOT cooking for pesach in advance or for RH in advance because you have a lot of guests and tons of work to do to get the house pesachdik which is a mitzva of tremendous importance - chometz = kares!!! but this is just having fun. So please call a spade a spade and don't portray it as hiddur mitzva...because I kind of seem to be missing a bit of the mitzva business in all that is being described.

One of my nicest purims was in England where I was invited to the Marble Arch Shul (yeah, I know, United Synagogue and all that or as my youngest dd who was with me at the time said, they are United in everything except that they don't yet sit together...no bashing intended, just a joke) for megillah as I was giving a workshop over that week in London, and the shul had a "purim play" which the kids of the kehilla put on, and a small kiddush afterwards for the kehilla. And my daughter and I, who were all alone in the center of London, were made at home in the small kehilla, and the feeling that everyone had was the miracle of PURIM, of having been saved by Hashem.

So should I say "let's put the PUR back in Purim?"

Aribenj

Fri, Jan 23 2009, 12:40 pm

It's called Chinuch. For my 3.5 year old daughter, it's a fun thing to do and it's something she can relate to. Why wouldn't I make Chagim as fun as possible?

And yes, I put this much effort into Yom Kippur as well. We bake yummy special Yom Kippur Seuda Challos, we make our special yom kippur soup and break the fast with dulce de leche crepes...

And my daughter (and one day my son) LOVE doing this. They look foward to it. You think I do this for myself?? Trust me, I have better things to do...

And just for the record, I make MM's for my kids friends. The rest we usually go through our yeshiva where you pay them like $3 per family you want to send one to and they get one beautiful MM from everyone who wanted to send them a MM. So I am still donating $.

Not that I need to justify myself.

shalhevet

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 1:25 pm

Aribenj wrote:

And yes, I put this much effort into Yom Kippur as well. We bake yummy special Yom Kippur Seuda Challos, we make our special yom kippur soup and break the fast with dulce de leche crepes...

I think you mean erev YK and motzai YK.

freidasima

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 1:42 pm

Aribenj, chinuch is wonderful.
If that is what you are doing, then it's great.
But reading this thread and reading how people are writing that it is their only creative outlet and all the other things, it didn't exactly sound like chinuch...which was the reason for my comments. I did not mean to hurt anyone. I was looking more for it to be a wake up call because of something which I considered very strange and not really Jewish behavior according to what I learned correct Jewish behavior and standards were.

But could be that the Jewish world or at least that one which is abroad, has changed its standards. And I'm the one still living in the middle ages when things were a lot more simple. In all senses.

willow

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 1:56 pm

Aribenj you go girl. I don't know why people have to pick on everything. I think its a beautiful thing (without going overboard of course) if you enjoy it.
You can do cheap and creative things. For some people this is the talents and strengths that H-shem gave them. They enjoy making creative things their children enjoy the process and it provides for a very enjoyable Mitzvah. Whats wrong with that? I am not saying give to every person you know or spend tremendous amounts in order to be the cleverest. Its Purim whats wrong with giving a little it makes people so happy, thought of, and fosters closeness.

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 2:47 pm

freidasima wrote:

I'm amazed that you people have the time, inclination and sometimes even money for this.

well if they do have the time and money - why not? no1s asking you to do it this way.

freidasima wrote:

Anyone ever hear of a paper plate with some hamentaschen, an orange, a couple of slices of cake and a few almonds and raisins?

if ur not into fancy packagiong, thats ur choice, and if I received a paper-plated MM thats fine, but an orange, slice of cake, almonds n raisins? wobbling around on 1 paper plate, wudnt the orange and almonds mush into the cake turning it into crumbs? so maybe Teves is a little advanced for Purim preperations but dafka for ppl who r looking for a bargain the early u start searching for packaging and costumes the more likely u will find a good deal and have time for it 2 be delivered, but I think even ur MM wud need some time, (r u buying the cake or baking it?) and effort put into it.

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 3:00 pm

imokay wrote:

ooh I love purim. my dh says I just buy them premade so I dont drive him crazy.
...When they were b"h 3 they wanted to be king and queen so I did a “royaltea” theme. Costumes are self explanatory, and MM was nice basket with relaxing things in it: “tea” lights and holders, box of tea, box of wafers with picture of tea on it, lemon flavored candies and thing of tea buscuits, all wrapped nicely in collophane. I tied it in with purim, by reminding everyone that even though it’s a fun filled day, take a moment to stop and relax and appreciate the meaning of the day and all we have to be thankful for.

BG - u said ur kids r gonna be queens so maybe u cud borrow this idea for MM - I think its so clever Smile

Raisin

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 3:14 pm

I'm also not into themes, but I enjoy other peoples. Where I live people indeed give a recycled veg container containing a mini mashke, an apple, orange and a hamantashen. and these are not poor people. however b4 rh we get huge fancy fruit baskets and so on.

freidasima, you could apply your q's to all the minhagim of purim. Why was mm instituted - its a waste of money! dressing up - its a waste of money and energy. Why a big seuda - give the money to tzedaka instead!

freidasima

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 3:40 pm

Raisin, you seem to miss the point.
There is a din about mishloach manos, how much and to how many. Same about matonos leevyonim. I never heard about themes or all the things I am reading about here that are just being done for "fun" and not for zedoko or chessed projects.
As for a seuda, it's the same as on shabbos and other yuntif, it's a chiyuv to do what you can. But there is a fine line between a really eidel and beautiful seuda and something which is an opening for gluttony. All depends what you do with it.

What's the difference? Where do you draw the fine line? By using midos. And if people have all that excess creative need and energy? I'm used to using THAT for chessed and zedoko projects in which you can really expend creative energy but the bottom line there is chessed and zedoko and you don't get any credit for it because it is done for the klal and not to say "wow freidasima makes such lucious cakes much better than X down the block" or "wow freidasima makes her kids such incredible costumes, much nicer that Y down the block" but it is all done leshem shomayim with everyone pulling together for a communal cause..., but again, that's the way I was brought up, my kehillas and the way I am used to living...

shalhevet

Sat, Jan 24 2009, 4:00 pm

Mrs. XYZ wrote:

Quote:

So your real issue is the starting so early?

If people are starting so early they must be overdoing it. With the exception of sewing costumes for your children, what on earth takes so long? The only exception is if someone knows the coming weeks will be exceptionally busy (baby, close family wedding) and plans to freeze their seuda/ MMs etc and then forget about it.

Quote:

Not the themes itself?

To me a theme detracts from the idea of Purim. If the emphasis is on Mickey Mouse or Superman or Ten green bottles, where is Purim? It is also a way of finding an excuse for going over the top in gashmius which has nothing to do with the mitzva. Most of the ideas here for themed MM contain several ingredients that are not even halachically MM.

Quote:

Does it also bother you when people start cooking and baking and stocking their freezers in the beginning of the summer for the yomim tovim? We had a thread about that too, did you state your objections there too?

No, because I understand it can be time consuming. especially if you are making 7 YT meals + chol hamoed + Shabboses + guests etc etc. That takes days of cooking and baking, so why leave it to the last minute? On the contrary, more cooking and baking in advance leaves those who do so with more time for teshuva and concentrating on the more spiritual aspects of the YT as well as making food l'koved Shabbos and YT.

Page 4 of 8

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next