The Festival of Lights is quickly approaching and besides calculating how many calories are in a box of sufganiot (holiday jelly doughnuts) and spinning dreidels, one of the longstanding holiday traditions enjoyed by children is the giving of 'Hannukah gelt' (Yiddish for money).
Parents and grandparents traditionally give children symbolic sums of money on each or some of the holiday's eight nights, but in recent years the tradition has been swapped for more Christmas-oriented gifts and toy stores are stocking up for the trend.
| Hanukkah Gelt |
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| Hanukkah gelt: Haredim give more / Yehudit Yahav |
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New survey reveals: 61 percent of Israelis will give Hanukkah gifts to their loved ones. Most will give money |
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A survey conducted by Leumi Bank indicates that 74 percent of households give Hannukah gelt to children during the holiday, with average gift prices ranging between NIS 90 and 200 (USD 21 and 50, respectively) - depending on the age of the relatives in question and the nature of their relation with the child.
Israeli Christmas sales are also on the rise, as the majority of Russian immigrants celebrate the holiday and traditionally exchange more expensive gifts and toys.
And so the overlapping holidays and the now well rooted tradition of also noting holidays indigenous to other religions - namely Christian ones – are a joyus time not only for children praying for a new iPod but also for toy stores and chains who stand to bank a considerable amount of 'gelt'.
How much gelt? Projected sales predict an estimated total sum of NIS 180 million (USD 42 million) for toy sales alone. No less than three million driedels are expected to spin off shelves and into shopping carts – and that's just small latkes as many parents may opt to visit the local electronic department store in search for video games, personal computers and digital music players for their offspring.
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| Toys R Us. 'Sales to increase by 50 percent' |
But technological advances can also be found even in the most traditional of places, as simple wooden dreidels are increasingly replaced by sophisticated laser dreidels powered with light, color and sound special effects that would put to shame any Hollywood post-production studio.
Dreidel sales alone this year are expected to bring in NIS 8 million (USD 1 million).
Avi Katz, CEO of the Toy-Village chain and chairman of the toy division of the Federation of Israeli Chamber of Commerce, says that sales for 2006 are expected to outdo last year's figures by over 30 percent. Katz attributes the disparity to the proximity of 2005's Hanukkah to Sukkot and Rosh HaShana.
Katz's own chain of stores is substantially bulking up towards the holiday, offering a wider selection of merchandise in a wider range of prices. Prices for a single dreidel for instance can range anywhere from NIS 0.50 to 49.90 (USD 0.1 to 12). Larger gifts like the popular foosball tables can reach NIS 500 (USD 120).
Toys R Us Marketing director Anat Nativ says that December sales are expected to show a 50 percent increase compared to the rest of the year. Most shoppers will swarm the stores during the first two weeks of the month said Nativ, adding that during the holiday itself more than 200,000 shoppers are expected to visit the toy empire's stores.
The marketing game is indeed in full swing by December, with chains and manufacturers/importers coordinating the launching of new games and toys, usually the more expensive ones, to match the immediate pre-holiday period, usually accompanied by massive national campaigns. Toys R Us for example have invested USD 1 million in the chain's holiday toy catalog.
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