Santa Claus and Hanukkah Harry

Last night I stopped in to check on my mother's house which has stood empty since her death.  My mother's house is the same house where I grew up.  It is in a post war suburban plan of well built albeit cookie cutter houses that were built in 1954.  These houses appealed to the industrial middle class vets who bought a brand new house with a VA loans.  Of the 32 houses on my mother's street, there are only three remaining original pilgrims who moved there in November of 1954.  My mother was the fourth until her death in 2009.  I suppose you could call me the 4th as the house will soon be mine when I complete the estate (which generally requires an adult--a status that I have seemed to flee since I retired), although I can hardly be considered one of the originals as I have lived my entire adult life elsewhere.  I guess I could stake a claim on grass cutting.  I have cut the grass at that place since I was 10, except for my years in the military.  


Anyhow...I noticed one of the three originals had a menorah in her front window. Judging from the Christmas lights, she is the only Jewish person left on the street. She has to be in her late 80s possibly pushing 90.  It was the first time I have seen a menorah in a very a long time and it reminded of when I was a kid back in the 50s.  The neighborhood then was about half Jewish.  It made for an interesting situation during the winter Holidays. 

Sextant believes in Santa!  Nany!  Nany!

The Jewish kids all made fun of us about Santa Claus which put us in an untenable position. Yeah, they were probably right, there probably was no Santa, but who can afford to take that chance. If you don't believe he may not come.  Public statements of disbelief were dangerous.  Hey the guy (if he exists) keeps a naughty and nice list.  Going around saying you didn't believe in Santa while secretly crossing your finger in your mittens was probably not going to aid your cause in getting that cool Schwinn bike or that Red Rider BB gun. They had us over a barrel, but we retaliated with Hanukkah Harry! What? Indeed Hanukkah Harry!


Hanukkah doesn't start on a particular day in the Gregorian calendar like Christmas does.  Here is a brief description of Hanukkah from Wikipedia:

"Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה‎, Tiberian: Ḥănukkāh, usually spelled חנוכה pronounced [χanuˈka] in Modern Hebrew, also romanized as Chanukah, Chanukkah, or Chanuka), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of theMaccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.

The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a unique candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah orHanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. The typical Menorah consists of eight branches with an additional raised branch. The extra light is called a shamash (Hebrew: שמש, "attendant" or "sexton")^[1] and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest. The purpose of theshamash is to have a light available for use, as using the Hanukkah lights themselves is forbidden."

Menorah

Specifically, the menorah commemorates the miracle of one day's supply of oil burning for eight days, again from Wikipedia:

"Hanukkah is described in the Talmud. The Gemara, in tractate Shabbat 21, focuses on Shabbat candles and moves to Hanukkah candles and says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready)."

With the flexibility of Hanukkah on the calendar, the Jewish kids usually had their new bikes and gifts that they received from their parents (rather than a mythical being) several weeks before Christmas.  This of course engendered envy in us Christian kids who had to wait for the last week of December.   "Well wait till you see what Santa brings us in a couple weeks. Ha!" So then that starts it "There is no Santa, you stupid babies. Sextant & Billy believes in Santa!"  "Don't stand too close to the fire place, you might get hit by Santa's butt."  "I bet you leave cookies for Santa, Sextant you big baby!"   "Santa, Santa, and Rudolf the red nosed reindeer.  Ha Ha Ha." 


Well they kind of had us.  You are really on dangerous territory saying anything bad about Santa, but really how many of us ever had seen Santa?  So the taunting went on and suddenly Billy then pipes up "Well yeah what about Hanukkah Harry?" I looked at Billy in disbelief! Who the hell is Hanukkah Harry? So then it starts back and forth they are screaming Santa Clause at us and we were screaming Hanukka Harry at them. "Santa eats boogers!" "Yeah well Hanukkah Harry leaves borscht farts!" (One kid was always gassy and he blamed it on having to eat borscht.)  Somehow we got away with this artifice.  I mean Hanukkah Harry, c'mon who ever heard of Hanukkah Harry?  It was something Billy invented on the spot to retaliate with and yet it worked!  I think the reason it worked was that these things were just mock battles of kids having a good time teasing each other and had nothing to do with reality or a search for the truth.  Actually it gave us some power to retaliate and kept the teasing fest going with some sense of equal competition.  Otherwise the Jewish kids were right.  We believed in something that was probably BS, because we were afraid not to believe in it.  So even though Hanukkah Harry was a pure fabrication on Billy's part it lent to everyone's enjoyment of these teasing fests. No body really got mad and there were enough big kids on both sides that the thing could have been reduced to a blood fest but it never did. It was just teasing back and forth. 


Finally our big day came, and I used to kind of feel sorry for the Jewish kids then. Their holiday had come and went and we had this cornucopia of new presents. Well we all made out like bandits, Jewish and Christian.  The 50s were a magical time to be a kid.  I still have trouble believing that Hanukkah Harry flew, but like I say nothing was based on fact, it was a bunch of kids, different in some manner, but basically the same having a hell of good time making fun of each other.  It is a shame that the adults in the world have to take their religious differences so seriously.  We could have taught them some thing about living in peace and genuinely liking each other for being kids in the neighborhood.  Not Jewish, or Catholic, or Protestant, just kids that were out to have a hell of good time with each other. 




EDIT 12-30-2011:  I am going to find Billy and take NBC to court on copyright infringement.  In December of 1989, Saturday Night Live ran an episode The Night Hanukkah Harry Saved Christmas.   Billy's invention Hanukkah Harry preceded this episode by at least 32 years.  As being a co-founder of the concept of Hanukkah Harry, I believe that NBC should provide a huge cash settlement for stealing our concept without our knowledge and permission.  It is my firm belief that NBC sought to avoid paying a royalty fee to Billy and I.  They profited from the improper use of intellectual property that belongs to we the plaintiffs in this upcoming suit. 

The Lifted Logo

This is not the first time NBC has been sued over copyright infringement.  In 1976 a PBS affiliate in Nebraska sued NBC for using its logo.  NBC settled out of court by bestowing the affiliate with equipment and cash worth $900,000.  Billy and I will settle for a similar payment and transfer the copyright of Hanukkah Harry to NBC. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah_Harry


You can read the episode transcript here:


http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89iharry.phtml


Regarding NBC previous copyright infringement with the logo:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_logos






Image Credits:


Menorah:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah


Santa: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html


NBC Logo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_logos