Hanukkah Episode

Put on your yarmulke
Here comes Hanukkah
So much funukkah
To celebrate Hanukkah!

— Adam Sandler, "The Chanukah Song" (from Saturday Night Live)

We've all seen it happen: around the holidays, a show decides it's time to celebrate, and so comes the Christmas Episode.

But some writers like to switch things up and celebrate a slightly less common December holiday: Hanukkah!

Usually, the series' Jewish character(s) will lead the episode, if such characters exist. To make both sides happy, the episode may double as a Christmas Episode. You can expect a Hanukkah miracle involving something lasting for a miraculously long time. It will always take place on the last night, when all nine candles are lit.

Sub-Trope of Holiday Episode. Compare and contrast Christmas Episode and Everyone Is Christian at Christmas. For more information on Hanukkah, see Jewish Holidays.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• One issue of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold tie-in comic involves Batman teaming up with Ragman to stop some real estate goons threatening a local synagogue around Hanukkah, and Ragman reconnecting with his Jewish heritage

Fan Works

• In chapter 20 of It's The End Of The World As We Know It, Sugarcoat celebrates Hanukkah by playing No Limits Texas Dreidel with her cousins.

Films — Live-Action

• In Fred Claus, Fred drops in on a family celebrating Hanukkah on Christmas Eve Night. He wishes the family a Happy Hanukkah and they offer him some food before he heads back up the chimney.

Literature

• Rebecca Rubin is an American Girl character whose parents and grandparents emigrated from Russia, and is the only Jewish doll in the historical characters line, and the second overall (the first being Lindsay, the 2001 "Girl of the Year"). In her third book, Candlelight for Rebecca, Rebecca is upset when her teacher announces that her class — which includes a couple of other Jewish girls, one of them her best friend — is going to build Christmas centerpieces as an ongoing project. She then all but says that celebrating Christmas is part of being an American. Rebecca expects that her mother and especially her grandmother will be heartbroken and furious, but they ultimately assure her a school assignment is nothing to be ashamed of, and Rebecca gives the centerpiece she made to her neighbor as a Christmas present.
• The Clifford the Big Red Dog series has "Clifford Celebrates Hanukkah", where Clifford and Emily Elizabeth celebrate Hanukkah at a Jewish friend's house.
• Happy Hanukkah, Curious George! sees the eponymous monkey and the Man with the Yellow Hat attending a Hanukkah party.
• In the Sesame Street book "The Count's Hanukkah Countdown", Grover and Count von Count go to a Hanukkah party. The book is also a crossover with a few characters from Rechov Sumsum, one of the show's Israeli co-productions.
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar's 8 Nights of Hanukkah discusses the traditions of Hanukkah while teaching counting to young kids.

Live-Action TV

• Brothers & Sisters: The episode "Light the Lights" is about Paige trying to celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas.
• In A Christmas Story Live, Schwartz's mother bursts into a Hanukkah number when Ralph comes to her house to apologize for using the word he learned from her son.
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Season 1's "My Mom, Greg's Mom, And Josh's Sweet Dance Moves!" is a combined Hanukkah/Christmas episode, in which Rebecca attempts to impress her visiting mother during the week of Hanukkah in hopes of attaining a family heirloom, Greg reconnects with his estranged mother over Christmas Eve dinner, and Josh comes to term with what it means to be an adult during the holidays.
• The Disney Channel Original Movie Full Court Miracle is one of the few DCOMS to focus on Hanukkah. A Jewish preteen wants to be a basketball player, while his parents insist he should become a doctor instead. During the Big Game (which takes place on one of the nights of Hanukkah) at the movie's end, the school generator gradually runs out of fuel and eventually has just enough power to last for a single minute; the Opposing Sports Team of Jerk Jocks tries to manipulate the situation by calling a time out and running out the clock. In a reference to the origins of the holiday, the generator miraculously stays running long enough for the Jewish team to win the game.
• The Even Stevens episode "Heck of a Hanukkah" involves an It's a Wonderful Plot that takes place during Hanukkah, rather than Christmas.
• Friends has "The One with the Holiday Armadillo", where Ross dresses up as an armadillo (the store was out of Santa suits) to teach his son about Hannukah.
• The Goldbergs:
  • Season 3's "A Christmas Story" involves family matriarch Beverly creating "Super Hanukkah" in an attempt to celebrate more like the family's Christian neighbors.
  • Season 5's "We Didn't Start The Fire" has her and the Schwartzes trying to one-up each other in hopes of being the house Erica and Geoff will choose to go to for their celebrations.
  • Season 8's "Hanukkah on the Seas" has the Goldbergs celebrating Hanukkah on a cruise to Canada (not to the Caribbean, as they had hoped), while Erica spends the holiday with her boyfriend's family.
• Nailed It! has Hanukkah episodes in both its holiday seasons, where the bakers make Hanukkah-themed dishes, such as dreidel cake pops and jelly-doughnut menorahs.
• The The Nanny episode "The Hanukkah Story" sees Fran upset when Maxwell (now her husband), Gracie, and C.C. have to travel on the first night of Hanukkah, especially because it will be the first time the family is celebrating that holiday in addition to Christmas. Things get worse when they are stranded in a snowstorm. The origin of Hanukkah is referenced when the car's heating system, which only has enough fuel for one hour, lasts eight instead, allowing Maxwell, Grace, and C.C. to survive until rescue workers find them.
• The O.C.: "The Best Chrismukka Ever" blends both Hanukkah and Christmas (hence "Chrismukka"), and involves the characters celebrating both holidays.

Puppet Shows

• Shari Lewis' Lamb Chop's Play-Along had a special called Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah, produced in the 90's for PBS. In it, Lamb Chop retells the story of the holiday. The viewers also learn the stories behind several Hannukah traditions.
• Sesame Street: Baby Bear celebrates Hanukkah with his family as shown in a special installment of Elmo's World. The Israeli co-production, Shalom Sesame, has a special called "Chanukah: The Missing Menorah".
• The Puzzle Place: The holiday special "Deck the Halls" covers Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, with a segment about Las Posadas too. In the Hanukkah portion of the special, Ben is dismayed to learn that Jody doesn't celebrate Christmas and tries to bring her into the festivities by putting her menorah on the Christmas tree. Jody has to explain to him that Christmas just isn't her holiday and the Hanukkah has its own special traditions.
• Under the Umbrella Tree has the special "The Great Goldberg," where Gloria, Iggy and Jacob meet a Jewish shopkeeper, Mr. Goldberg, who teaches them about Hanukkah. Mr. Goldberg also turns out to be a retired magician, so the puppets and Holly try to convince him to do a magic act at their holiday talent show, but he doubts he can perform the way he used to again, until Jacob reminds him of the Hanukkah story with its message of faith.
• Weinerville had a Hanukkah special where a pair of sentient latke aliens, the Sektals, were fleeing from a tyrant modeled after Antiochus, and enlisted the people of Weinerville to help them.

Web Original

• This piece from McSweeney’s gives a script of a Hallmark Hanukkah movie that's "written by someone who has definitely met a Jew". It simultaneously parodies Hallmark Christmas movies and many people's (re: American Christians) ignorance about Jewish culture and traditions.

Web Videos

• The Nostalgia Critic references this trope directly when reviewing Eight Crazy Nights, expressing both pity for the Jews as well as general disgust that, unlike Christians who have their pick of countless Christmas movies that come in almost any genre, all the Jews have for a mainstream Hanukkah movie is this one starring Adam Sandler.
  Critic: We have Jimmy Stewart finding the will to live again, you have Adam Sandler humping a car. We have Ebenezer Scrooge donating to the cold and hungry, you have deer eating shit. We have Charlie Brown realizing the importance of loving thy neighbor, you have Rob Schneider playing a stereotype so racist that Asians will be praying for the good old days of Mickey Rooney in squinty eyes and buck teeth. I never knew the hardships that your people had to go through. I never knew the turmoil that you had to get past. I never knew the pain that you were suffering through... until I realized that this ass-hat is the cinematic face of your beloved holiday. I'm sorry. I'm just sorry.

Western Animation

• American Dad! has developed its own continuity that extends from one Christmas Episode to the next, and the Smith family have built up a very long and hostile history with Santa Claus. One episode resulted in Santa trying to resurrect an ancient Sumerian god from The Epic of Gilgamesh and take his power for himself, but he was foiled and ultimately died. This led to Roger becoming the next Santa Claus by donning his red coat. However, Roger discovered that Hanukkah had more potential for crazy parties and celebrations, so he starts using his newfound powers to decorate the city with Hanukkah decorations with blue and white colors.
• Angela Anaconda has the title character and her friends try to retrieve Gina's great-grandmother's menorah to celebrate the Maspersons' Bakery Hanukkah party.
• Arthur's Perfect Christmas has a small sub-plot where Francine celebrates Hanukkah with her family, skipping Muffy's fancy Christmas party, because she finds her traditions and family more personal and important.
• Big Mouth: The Christmas Episode "A Very Big Mouth Christmas" has the section "The Little Cummer Boy" center around Andrew's Hanukkah... or rather, how he envies his Christian friends and wishes to be Christian, though he's glad to go back after he realizes Christians frown upon masturbation.
• Blue's Clues & You!: "A Blue's Clues Festival of Lights" features Blue and Josh being invited to Periwinkle's house to celebrate Hanukkah.
• In Clifford's Puppy Days, Flo and Zo celebrate Hanukkah with their owner, Mr. Solomon. "The Big, Big Present / Hanukah Plunder Blunder" is dedicated to this, and it talks about Menorah, latkes, dreidel, and sufganiyot.
• Elena of Avalor: In "Festival of Lights", Elena meets a Latina Jewish princess named Rebecca and learns about Hanukkah.
• Futurama: In "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular", the second segment is devoted to Bender's celebration of "Robanukah," which is loosely based on Hanukkah. Earlier in "Bender's Big Score," the characters are joined by the trio of Robot Santa, the Hanukkah Zombie, and Kwanzaa-bot to fight off the scammers, and the Hanukkah Zombie (voiced by Mark Hamill) gets a song verse.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: In "Festival of Lights", Molly and her family celebrate Hanukkah with Libby. There's a power outage in town, but Libby's family bookstore manages to stay lit via a generator for eight hours; mirroring the real Hanukkah story. In those eight hours the show crams about every trope about Hanukah into ten minutes possible with the requisite dreidel game, attention drawn to the traditional fried food via song, a spoken word poem on the story of Hanukkah, a spelling bee referencing the 16 acceptable spellings of the holiday, someone who drifted from the faith being inspired to reconnect by the menorah, and even a flashback montage of Libby's ancestors fleeing persecution to arrive to America with generations lighting the candles.
• In the Nina's World episode "Nina's Hanukkah Adventure", Nina meets a kid named Jennifer, who teaches Nina and her friends about Hanukkah as they scramble for oil to cook latkes and light the Menorah.
• In the Peg + Cat episode "The Hanukkah Problem", Peg and Cat celebrate Hanukkah with Albert Einstein, who was Jewish in real life.
• In the Puppy Dog Pals episode "The Latke Kerfuffle", Bob wants to make latkes on Hanukkah, so the puppies help gather ingredients.
• The Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja episode "Happy Hanukkah, Howard Weinerman!" is about the Jewish character of Howard learning "the true meaning of Hanukkah."
• Rugrats (1991): The episode "Chanukah" features several characters, mostly the elderly ones, participating in a stage rendition of the Chanukah story. The babies, overhearing Grandpa Boris complaining that his childhood rival doesn't know "the meaning of Chanukah", think the guy is "the meanie of Chanukah" and is out to get Boris.
• South Park: Downplayed in "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics," which mostly consists of the characters singing Christmas songs, but dedicates a segment to the Broflovskis, Stan, and Cartman singing "The Dreidel Song" in counterpoint (except for Gerald, who randomly sings about his love for Courteney Cox).
• Special Agent Oso: "The Living Holiday Lights" talks about other holidays besides Hanukkah, but special focus is placed on Hanukkah when Oso heads to Israel to help a boy set up a menorah.
• In the Super Why! episode "Judith's Happy Chanukah", we learn that Red Riding Hood is Jewish, and the Super Readers jump into a book to learn more about Hanukkah.

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