A CHANUKAH FAIRY TALE

Once upon a time, there was a Nonny Bear and a Papa Bear. They had three little grandcubs that they loved very much. 

One day, Nonny Bear looked at the calendar. "Oh, dear!" she said. "Chanukah is coming very quickly indeed!" 

Papa Bear jumped up from his comfy chair. "Really? Then we must go to the magical Amazon Forest and look for many, many toys for each of the cubs, and for each of the eight nights!" 

Nonny Bear smiled at him. "Well, they are very small cubs," she said. "The oldest isn't even two! They don't know about the eight nights of Chanukah. So why don't we get each of them one very special gift instead?" 

"You are very smart, Nonny Bear" said Papa Bear. "We will do that." And off they went to the Amazon Forest to see what they could find. 

After much searching, Nonny and Papa Bear picked out a marvelous gift for each cub. The oldest got a little teepee so he could pretend that he was an explorer and stop playing in the big cardboard box his daddy's office chair came in. The girl cub got a developmentally appropriate activity center so she could become good at technology and math and crush little boy cubs when it came to science someday. The littlest cub got magical stacking cubes with many colors and shapes and sounds, even though his main focus still was keeping his head from hitting the floor during tummy time. 

A few days later, Nonny Bear looked at the gifts and sighed. "Three things really aren't very many, are they?" 

"No, they are not," said Papa Bear. "And even though the cubs are small, it might still be good to teach them about the eight nights of Chunukah." 

"And we don't have to buy big presents," said Nonny Bear. "We can go to Dollar Store!" 

"Or Five Below!" cheered Papa Bear. And off they went. 

When they got home again, the Bears looked at the Styrofoam swords and plywood puzzles and the many, many other cheap toys they had bought. 

"These presents don't look very special," said Papa Bear. 

"No, they don't," agreed Nonny Bear. "Should we upgrade to Target?" 

"Oh, yes!" said Papa Bear. 

And off they went again!

Soon they came home with even more toys. And books, because everyone knows that books are very good things. And some really adorable clothes, because there were some that had cute little Bear ears on the caps and little Bear-paw slippers and how could they NOT buy them? 

"This is good," said Nonny Bear. 

"Yes. This is very good!" agreed Papa Bear. But, deep in their hearts, neither of the Bears thought they had bought NEARLY enough presents for their very special grandcubs. So each of them secretly snuck out and bought a few more. 

Then one evening Nonny Bear announced, "It's time to wrap the Chanukah presents!"

"Hooray!" said Papa Bear. So he went to the garage and the closets and the basement and brought all the presents to Nonny Bear to wrap. There were many, many, MANY presents. In fact, there was a whole mountain of presents! 

"The cubs' parents are going to kill us," said Nonny Bear. 

"I don't care," said Papa Bear. "They can't stop us." 

So Chanukah came, and the gifts were delivered, and the cubs were happy and laughing. And Nonny and Papa Bear were happier still! As for the cubs' parents, they just shook their heads and smiled. Because really, what else could they do? 

So from the Bear family to all of you, Happy Holidays! May your days be filled with love and laughter. (And lots of presents for the little ones.)