What you prefer to receive as mishloach manos

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  • #619066
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    A lot of people make fancy themes, but maybe it’s better to just give what people want to get.

    #1211360
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    Maybe some people want to get fancy themes. Or maybe you can get away with spending less money if you make a theme.

    #1211361
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    one year we gave a roll, 4 oz package of deli and a soda.

    #1211362
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Yeah, but I would rather get a kugel and an apple as a gift than a pile of round hard candies painted to look like marbles and glued into a shape to create a “marble sculpture” for someone’s Greek theme.

    #1211363
    yehudayona
    Participant

    It’s better the increase the matanos l’evyonim and minimize the mishloach manos. Most of the stuff we get is stuff we don’t want.

    #1211364
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    “Or maybe you can get away with spending less money if you make a theme.” (LU)

    LU: So wise! Such a great point.

    For example, Party Store X has a clearance on tropical-ocean themed party supplies.

    So Mishpacha J saves $20 by using tropical-ocean goodie bags and seashell noisemakers in their mishloach manos. The rest of their treats fit into the theme.

    Plus Mishpacha J gave out 3 extra mishloach manos this year! Yay.

    #1211365
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    LB – actually, my point was that you can get away with giving something small, cheap, and nebby if it fits some kind of theme, like in RY’s example above where all they gave was hard candies. It would be much harder to just give someone hard candies for mishloach manos if it didn’t fit a theme.

    I think the ideal is to give mishloach manos to a lot of people but to try not to spend too much money on each one. If you do something cute, it’s easier to get away with small and cheap.

    The point of mishloach manos is to increase rayus (friendship). It shouldn’t be the size or quality of the gift but the thought behind it.

    #1211366
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Thank you LU for explaining.

    Hmm I don’t know if I have seen themed mishloach manos in action.

    So RebYidd23 was being totally serious.

    #1211367
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Does anyone ever give out boxes of Girl Scout Cookies?

    That’s a more expensive way to make friends.

    #1211368
    baisyaakovliberal
    Participant

    Hm…I honestly don’t really eat much from mishloach manos.

    The only thing I really eat is chocolate.

    I really wish people would tone it down a bit. It’s not like people are eating everything they get. There’s lots of baal tashchis (monetary and food) going on.

    #1211369
    Miriam377
    Participant

    Real food.

    #1211370
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    What about floating macaroni picture frames that you can boil or use?

    The pieces were glued with a paste of simple flour and water.

    #1211371
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    LB: Girl Scout cookies that have a hashgacha are generally dairy non-cholov yisroel.

    #1211372
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    I know. I guess giving our Girl Scout cookies depends on whether one keeps Cholov Yisroel first and if not then whether or not one’s friends and neighbors do keep it.

    Because giving out Treifoil cookies can also be a great way to lose friends.

    Spelling error intentional

    #1211373
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    I don’t look to impress friends and neighbors nor do they look to impress us. We receive milk and donuts. Milk and cookies, herring and crackers, various snacks with a soda. We overlook that all one has to give is two food items. For years I have asked my wife to do chicken soup with lokshen.

    #1211374
    Miriam377
    Participant

    lightbright – as long as there is a hechsher, I can always pass it on. I received a box of cookies with no hechsher from a parent as a tip and let the school know that it shouldn’t happen.

    #1211375
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    I always thought that MM were made of sweet treats.

    Esp hamentaschens and a small glass bottle of Kedem grape juice (which is rather expensive.

    If someone gives a can of fish or quart of milk, does that person become the Raisin Lady* of Purim?

    *Like that one lady in that house over there who always gives a box of raisins on Halloween.

    ….Actually, little boxes of raisins is a great idea! Also, maybe a few shiny nickels for tzedakah to make it a gift that keeps giving.

    #1211376
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    If someone travels a lot, one can keep a couple of the food items from an airplane meal.

    Those are fun treats.

    #1211377
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Themes tend to be more expensive.

    #1211378
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    “Themes tend to be more expensive.”

    It depends who’s doing the theme and why. In my circles, if someone does a theme (which is not particularly common to begin with), they are either trying to save money or be cute or both.

    #1211379
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    You can def save money. Also get the pieces in bulk at Costco.

    Here’s a healthy theme: Lara bar, bottle of water, toothbrush.

    Just made that one up B”H 🙂

    #1211380
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Here’s a hygiene theme:

    Dental floss, travel size shampoo, sugarless mints or gum

    #1211381
    yehudayona
    Participant

    LB, there have to be two kinds of food. Water doesn’t count (not everyone knows this). Toothbrushes, floss, and shampoo certainly don’t count.

    #1211382
    WinnieThePooh
    Participant

    LB, keep in mind mishloach manos needs to be 2 food items, so your healthy theme and hygiene theme would not qualify for the mitzva. (I am not sure, but I think that water may not count.) The rest is cute, but the food needs to be there. The coins give to matanos l’evyonim.

    I always do simple or cute themes, along the lines of what Lilmod was saying- this way I can give 2-3 small items and it can still look nice. My goals for mishloach manos are 1) light and portable – since we will have to schlep around the neighborhood holding many of them at once 2) can be prepared and packaged in advance- which means it is harder to give “real” food that needs to be stored in the fridge 3) not too time-consuming to prepare and 4) makes people happy. Usually, they come out to just a few dollars per package.

    #1211383
    Nechomah
    Participant

    From what I understand, the food needs to be ready to eat, not something that needs to be prepared, so I think that the spaghetti idea is also out. I could be wrong, so someone could correct me because I see layouts in magazines with jars of soup ingredients that you just need to put in a pot and add water, or cookie recipe that you just need to add a few small ingredients, or such things, and I’m never sure if that is allowed, but I thought it wasn’t.

    I had a friend who made some kind of tray that had places for a few small round cups (think ketchup or salad dressing from a take-out restaurant) and she put a few different kind of shmear salads in them and had crackers in the middle. The whole thing was shaped like an artist’s palate and her family was dressed up as artists. That is what is meant by a theme, and I think this is a pretty inexpensive way to go.

    #1211384
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    If it’s still normal, it’s not a fancy theme. An example of a fancy theme is when you make your kids dress up as famous artists and then you spend hours making a canvas out of bread, paint it with edible paint, and then make paintbrushes out of pretzels and carefully shredded licorice, relabel a bottle of wine as paint thinner and wrap it up in an easel.

    #1211385
    huju
    Participant

    Three pints of Haagen Daz.

    #1211386
    golfer
    Participant

    2 types of good quality chocolate.

    TYIA

    #1211387
    MDG
    Participant

    I prefer to receive nothing. I eat Chalav yisrael and Yashan. That’s a near impossibility to expect in my little OOT community. Furthermore, I’m not interested in eating too much junk food.

    #1211388
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Oh. Two types of foods and not water. Good to know.

    MDG: Agreed.

    I wonder if you can get a heter to pass on receiving MM.

    #1211389
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    “I wonder if you can get a heter to pass on receiving MM.”

    I get the peanut butter cups.

    #1211390
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    May Olam Habah be filled with peanut butter cups!

    #1211391
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    LB – I though MM meant m&m’s. That’s why I mentioned peanut butter cups. I just realized it’s mishloach manos.

    Olam Haba is beyond peanut butter cups. In OH, we won’t understand why we liked peanut butter cups (although we will appreciate the fact that it helped us be ovdei Hashem!)

    #1211393
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Btw: That makes a lot more sense. I was wondering if maybe you’d get a heter for only accepting peanut butter cups. Lol

    #1211394
    rafaelhope
    Member

    Don’t feel obligated to get a gift basket stuffed with candies and chocolate (although that’s kind of the “expectation”). IMHO there’s something nice about gifting a classy, minimal gift box, for example a nice bottle of Israeli wine and olive oil such as this one.

    But feel free to gift what the people want. These days you can find almost anything that comes in a gift basket, or you can make it yourself.

    #1211395
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    What’s better?

    Sardines Skinned and Boned

    Sardines in Skins with Bones

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