Dreidel

The letters on the four sides of the dreidel are the first letters of the words in the sentence; "A great miracle happened here."

During the feast of Hanukkah it is customary to play with a four sided dreidel.

Contrary to popular legend, the four letters on the dreidel stand for the Yiddish words "gants" (all), "halb" (half), "shtel ayn" (put in), and "nisht" (not).

I have a little dreidel. I made it out of clay. / And when it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play. / Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay. / Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, then dreidel I shall play.

The dreidel is a spinning toy, painstakingly fashioned out of plastic polymer by Jewish craftsmen in Vietnam. Used for tabletop gambling games during Hanukkah, the dreidel often ends up on the floor and sometimes in the dog's small intestine.

Erickson shared images on CNN iReport that show mixed holiday decorations in their Falmouth, Massachusetts, home, from a menorah and advent calendar to stockings bearing the phrase “shalom” and plates decorated with dreidels on a red plaid table cloth. […] Like the Kopelmans, they have a Christmas tree with dreidel ornaments and a menorah, which they light each night.

Students from the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah School danced in dreidel costumes at a menorah lighting in Detroit on Thursday.

We do not spend our days huddled in smoke-filled rooms plotting world domination while Jared Kushner plays dreidel in the back with Noam Chomsky and George Soros sneaks the last latke.