Shalom Sesame - Chanukah: The Missing Menorah DVD (Hanukkah Gift Guide 2011)

NOTE: You may notice the different spelling of Hanukkah throughout this post. That's because in translation of the word from Hebrew, many possible spellings emerged and so they all correct.

What is Shalom Sesame?

"What happens when you combine the lovable Sesame Street Muppets with a visit to Israel to learn more about Jewish culture and the Hebrew language? You get Shalom Sesame! Created by Sesame Workshop over 25 years ago, the first edition of Shalom Sesame became the most popular Jewish video series ever. Twelve new episodes were released in 2010, and they have already been enjoyed by millions of families across the United States."

Some of the characters are the same (such as Grover) and some are different as as Oofnik the Grouch.

I was able to review Chanukah: The Missing Menorah, Volume 2 in the Shalom Sesame Series.

"It's time to celebrate Chanukah in Israel! Grover is bringing the latkes, and all is well until Anneliese gets caught up in a game of tag with a chicken and loses her special menorah... Can her friends find the missing menorah in time to celebrate Chanukah?"

Our family celebrate three Jewish holidays a year (Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah.) We also celebrate Christmas. My immediate family doesn't speak Hebrew and we don't go to temple. However I love Chanukah and am glad to share it with my children.

We watched the video together and for the most part they liked seeing other children light a menorah and play dreidel. We did have a hard time understanding some of the children when they were explaining what Hanukkah is about because of their accents and because the words were unfamiliar to my children but they reexplained it in other ways later on so it worked out okay. There was a fair bit of Hebrew too.

My girls: "I don't understand what they are saying."
Me: "That's because they are speaking Hebrew."
Girls: "Aboo?"
Me: " No, HE-BROO, it's another language"
Girls: "But I don't understand what they are saying when they speak in Hebrew."
Me: "You watch Dora and Handy Manny and they speak Spanish."
Girls: "But we know what they are saying."
Me: "That's because you've watched it a lot and you learned what they meant. You can learn some Hebrew too if you keep watching this."

I definitely think watching this video will become a Hanukkah tradition and will help the girls understand the meaning of Hanukkah as they get older and are better able to understand.

Check out the Shalom Sesame website for more information, games, videos, printables and more.

*Disclosure: I received the product(s) mentioned above free of charge by the company or PR representative for evaluation purposes. No other compensation was provided. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.