Dressing up a a Family
From the time our children were small up until Bar/Bas Mitzvah age or so, we made it a point to develop Yiddishe themes for the family’s Purim costumes, where each of us had an essential (‘costume’) role. We felt that while there’s nothing wrong with a child dressing up as say, Batman or as some other secular figure (e.g., a baseball player), Purim created an opportunity to have fun specifically in a Jewish way. Weeks and weeks in advance of Purim each year, we set to work on something Torah-dig that called for the participation of everyone in our family of four (i.e., we the parents, and our boy and girl twins). On the local scene we were applauded for our mostly successful efforts each time. One year we were a succah -- a walking one! When we would arrive at a house to deliver shalach monos, we’d poise ourselves in front of the house and do our ‘assembly’ thing. On that occasion, each of us had a custom-fitted cardboard succah ‘wall’ strapped to his/her back. As we drew close into ‘succah formation’ (forming a square), we placed a look-alike schach piece of cardboard on top, and there we were!