How We Do… Chanukah Presents

Compiled by Rochel Burstyn

The Yiddishe Gelt supplement published in Mishpacha’s Succos package triggered a lot of discussion and feedback and left a taste for more. The conversation continues with this new column, which will be featured monthly in this space.

Where do you save?

Where do you splurge?

What’s a non-negotiable expense and what can you forgo?

We spoke to a selection of frum families and asked them to share their Spending Accounts.

What are their priorities, and how are their principles reflected in their fiscal choices?

Take a look at their spending to get a view of their values. Maybe you’ll find yourself too.

Curious about how other people spend on a particular area of frum life?

Do you want to share your spending accounts in the next Yiddishe Gelt installment?

Send in your suggestions for items to cover and/or offer yourself as a respondent at gelt@mishpacha.com

Yechiel and Shifra Jacobson

Our family minhag is Chanukah gelt, not gifts. A few years ago, one of our oldest kids, who has special needs and is in public school, told us she felt resentful that all her peers were getting gifts and she wasn’t. That attitude trickled down to the younger ones and soon everyone was clamoring for Chanukah gifts. We felt it wasn’t worth the battle, so we started letting our kids pick out a gift in the range of $25 each. We tell them very clearly that it’s not really our minhag, but we’re doing it to make them happy. They appreciate it.

Where I splurged, where I saved

If a kid really wants a particular item, I’m willing to spend a little more as long as they don’t tell their siblings. I spend less on the younger kids who don’t understand or care and are happy with any new toy.

The best piece of advice I got from others with experience

“Why make a fuss over it?” We took the middle of the road. We could have insisted on sticking with gelt, or we could have gone overboard with our spending, but we felt $25 per kid was reasonable.

Brachi Silver

My kids get gifts from my parents and in-laws and some aunts and uncles. I try not to shower them with more because we have too much stuff and they don’t need it, but some years I’ll have each of them pick out a gift for a sibling. I try to keep it in the range of $25.