As much as we love dreidels, we never thought a dreidel could be cute. But then, last week, we came across an adorable dreidel plush that had our hearts going “squeeeeeee!”
Hanukkah is coming up on November 28 this year and the folks at Squishable, the popular plush toy company, are taking a stab at the Hanukkah holiday merch market — and boy, have they done well. We’re obsessed — obsessed! — with their mini dreidel, which retails at a fairly affordable $20. This fluffy dreidel is light blue with royal blue glinty eyes, a lovely little smile and sweet little pink blushing cheeks. It’s so cute!
Whoever was in charge of marketing this cute little baby has done their homework — even rewriting the iconic “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” song to match the soft toy (“We have a Mini Dreidel/We made it out of…fur!”). There’s also a warning for potential buyers to “cuddle with caution before you lose all your gelt to that aunt who always seems to land on Gimel.”
Finally! It is such a joy to see Hanukkah merch done right. This plushie is cute, unique and it knows its target audience — every letter of the dreidel is embroidered on this toy legibly and beautifully and in what appears to be the right order. (I know, this seems pretty basic but you’d be surprised at how many Hanukkah products get this wrong!). While this dreidel isn’t exactly spinnable, it is cuddle-able, which is almost as good.
Of course, there have been many attempts to make Jewish artifacts into soft plushie dolls — but the problem is, people tend to forget to make them really adorable. There is a plush lulav for Sukkot, a plush Torah scroll, and yes, there’s also this perhaps too happy Hanukkah menorah plush, but this dreidel takes the cake (or rather, takes the sufganiyah?) when it comes to cuteness!
While we’re at it — we’d love more cute Jewish merch! A squishy challah with a sweet little punim would definitely be a welcome addition to my kids’ Judaica (and toy) collection. Please get on it, Squishable!
