Sorry, but Aunt Chana’s tablescapes and Zeidy’s dreidel game and even the milky delicacies can’t compete with the party my parents pull off

S

poiler alert: the Chanukah party is not fun.

Even though I know my cousins by now. Even with Aunt Shevi squishing on the sofa beside me “for a chat,” and Yaakov kidding around with the uncles.

Why is he so much more at ease than I am? Am I doing something wrong?

I feel like I should be having fun, there’s food and music and even a tablescape. Aunt Chana followed the instructions step-by-step from one of the magazines.

But even the personalized napkin holders and themed cocktail cups filled with some sort of milky mousse with edible gold glitter (yeah, Aunt Chana kinda goes all the way with these things) aren’t enough to stop my thoughts from drifting to the real Chanukah party, back home.

I picture my parents’ house in India, the smell of frying — doughnuts and cheese blintzes, latkes and fries. Yeah, Ima goes all out, and sure, we have some salads, pizza, pastas for the real food, but it’s the Chanukah goodies that draw the crowds.

Tablescapes? We usually go out to the marketplace, buy a few meters of some exotic fabric, drape it over the table and presto, color scheme. I guess we have the real thing — exotic, authentic. Not like here, where everything’s imitation, Chinese style, Indian style.

Uncle Yossi bangs on the table and launches into some grammen, and then Zeidy gets busy organizing a game of dreidel, which no one seems interested in joining.