‘Twas the week before Purim…

(updated 2/20/23)

How are your Purim preparations coming? Do you have costumes? Shaloch manos idea?

My favorite part of Purim is opening our shaloch manos. I love to see all the creative ideas my friends came up with. However, it is not always so easy to decide on our own idea each year. For the past several years we have matched our costumes to our shaloch manos, but we have not always done this.

When deciding on your shaloch manos (mishloach manot) idea, you have a few ways to choose:

• Pick a theme:
  1. Meal time – breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon tea, coffee break, Happy Hour
  2. Job – police, pirate, royalty, secret agent, doctor/nurse
  3. Movie or TV show – Star Wars, Frozen, Peter Pan, superhero
  4. Place – carnival, nautical or beach, McDonald’s, movies, spa, farm, coffee shop, pizza shop
  5. Country or Cuisine – Chinese, Spanish, Mexican, Israeli, Irish, French, Italian, Moroccan, International (give 3 versions of the same food), airplane food, Ukraine
  6. Toy/Game – Candyland, Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, several travel games, jokes
  7. Type of food – sour, cherries, apples, pizza, fitness, s’mores, chocolate, ice cream sundae in a box, salad in a jar, elegant treats/gold standard, ready-to-go meal, sushi, honey
  8. Make your own – cookies in a jar, explosion (soda with mentos)
  9. Drink and food pairs – beer and nuts, cocoa and cookies, refried beans and chips, crystal light mix with water bottle and granola bar
  10. Shaloch manos man – there are lots of different ways to make one
  11. Animal – food, container and miscellaneous related to a specific animal, i.e. bear, cat, rabbit, etc.
  12. Character – Where’s Waldo, Baby Shark, Dr. Seuss, Pac-Man, Robin Hood
  13. Hobbies – photography, racing, running, dancing of various styles
  14. Event – elections, Black-tie affair, birthday, baseball game, carnival
  15. Color – use foods that all have the same color, black and white, red/white/blue, rainbow, red/white
  16. Time period – costumes and foods around a specific time like Pilgrims, Renaissance, French Revolution, great presidents, Wild West/Cowboys, Speakeasy, etc.’
  17. Holiday – Four mitzvot of Purim, Love, etc.
• Find a recipe you like and figure out what to pair it with.
• Find a container and pick items to go with that.
• Match your costumes to your shaloch manos. Check out these posts for ideas:
  • • Coordinated costumes and shaloch manos 2020
    • Coordinated costumes and shaloch manos 2019
    • Coordinated costumes and shaloch manos 2017

Some ideas we have done in the past are:

• Banana theme: Banana bread and a banana
• Oatmeal Florentine cookies and chocolate candy
• Homemade caramel popcorn
• Apple theme: Apple muffins and an apple
• Butterscotch brownies and cookie bark
• Salad toppers theme: Homemade croutons, cucumber, and carrots
• Stand-up theme: Chocolate covered large stick pretzels, a Clif rope, and peppermints
• On-the-go theme: water bottle, Crystal Light packet, and a granola bar (2013 post)
• Apple theme: apple, apple laffy taffy, and apple cereal bars (2014 post)
• Chocolate theme: a hot cup, hot cocoa mix, a few wafer cookies, and a package of Sixlets (2015 post)
• Poppy-seed cake and chocolate Hershey Treasures (2016 post)
• Berry theme: berry babka muffins and a fruit roll up (2017 post)
• Work of art theme: chevron packaged mints, nonpareils, homemade pinwheel cookies, and sparkling flavored water (2018 post)
• Cat theme: Cat-shaped cookies, fish crackers, Dum Dums, cat pencil, and a cat bag (2019 post)
• Pac-man theme: Pac-man character rice krispy treats, sparkling water, Laffy Taffy candies, Sixlets, and a black dotted bag (2020 post)
• “Add a little sparkle to your Purim” – sparkling water, ring pops, Cosmic brownies, and popping candy in a gold dotted bag (2021 post)

A few places to get more great ideas:

• My past posts on Purim
• Kosher on a Budget – This is my favorite blog. She does a great job at providing tips of all kinds and finding timely deals! Check out her posts on Purim.
• Daily Cheapskate – Check out this blog’s posts on Purim. She has some great ideas!
• Jewish Life Organized – Another great Jewish website. Full of amazing tips for all the holidays! I don’t think the author has any recent posts, but there are plenty of great older ones!
• Organized Jewish Home – This blog also has some great tips but has not posted recently. Check out her past posts, too!
• Pinterest – There are tons of articles and great ideas there!
• Google Images – This is a quick way to see a lot of ideas at once, but if you want details  you have to click several times to get to the article.

I would love to see or hear about your great ideas! Please comment!