PARIS: The place smelled like cinnamon all the time, and there was a fire in the fireplace, and a ton of presents. I mean, hundreds of presents. I’m looking at this mound of gifts, and I’m thinking, ‘Eight days of Hanukkah . . . who was the skinflint who thought up that deal?’
RORY: Don’t the eight days symbolize something?
PARIS: Yes, they symbolize eight days of ripping off the little kids who can’t have a Hanukkah bush.
The eight days of Hanukkah honour the eight days that one small portion of oil miraculously lasted during the cleansing and reconsecrating of the Jewish Temple after it had been defiled. It is traditional to light candles, pray, and sing songs during Hanukkah, as well as eating foods fried in oil. Gift-giving isn’t a traditional part of Hanukkah, although children are often given money, special gold coins, or chocolate coins.
PARIS: One year, I asked my mother if we could get a Hanukkah bush. She made me watch Shoah the rest of the week.
A Hanukkah bush is a bush or tree (real or artificial) that some Jewish families in North America display in their homes for the duration of Hanukkah. It may, for all intents and purposes, be a Christmas tree with Jewish-themed ornaments.
It is a bone of contention between Jews as to whether it is a distinctly Jewish symbol, or whether it is simply a variation of a Christmas tree. Many rabbis discourage them. The phrase “Hanukkah bush” is not serious, and generally meant to be a tongue in cheek way to say that a Jewish family is following some pleasant secular Christmas traditions without celebrating Christmas itself.
The documentary film Shoah, previously discussed. Paris’ mother obviously takes a fairly hard line approach to Hanukkah bushes.
PARIS: Everything was red and silver and there was eggnog … It’s disgusting … But disgusting in a really great way.
Eggnog is a rich, sweet drink, traditionally made with milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and whipped egg whites (which gives it a frothy texture, and its name). Distilled spirits such as brandy, rum, whisky or bourbon are often a key ingredient. Throughout North America and some European countries, eggnog is traditionally consumed over the Christmas season.
PARIS: I met his parents … He bought me a ticket, and I took the train to Philadelphia, and he met me at the station, and I spent Christmas with him and his family … It was perfect. They had a Christmas tree twelve feet tall … And they had tiny wreaths hanging from every doorknob, and mistletoe and candles everywhere.
Paris has never celebrated Christmas (she’s Jewish), and her parents always go out of town for the holidays, leaving her alone with her nanny. This miserable time of year for her is transformed into a veritable Hallmark card come to life when Jamie invites her to spend Christmas with his family in Philadelphia. She loves everything about Christmas, and is virtually floating on air after the holidays.
Philadelphia has been mentioned several times in Gilmore Girls. Paris would have quite a long train trip to visit Jamie – it’s four and a half hours by train from Hartford to Philadelphia, with a change at New Haven.
[Luke and Jess walk out of the diner; Jess is carrying a garbage bag] ….
LORELAI: Hi, Saint Nick.
Saint Nicholas of Myra (270-343), a bishop in the early Christian church of Greek descent, living in Myra in Asia Minor (now Demre in Turkey). Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of (among other things) children and students, and his feast day is December 6.
The saint’s legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional Christian icon of Santa Claus, through the Dutch figure Sinterklaas. On December 6, his feast day is celebrated with gift-giving, and the saint is portrayed as an elderly, serious man with long white hair and a beard, wearing red vestments over a white bishop’s robe.
Saint Nick is an English translation of Sinterklaas, and the American Santa Claus and Christmas traditions which arose in the 19th century seem to be a nostalgic revival of earlier Dutch folklore from immigrants to New York. Santa Claus is called Saint Nick in the Christmas poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, previously discussed.
Lorelai calls Jess “Saint Nick” because he is carrying a garbage bag, which Lorelai likens to Santa’s sack of presents. This is the second time that Lorelai has sarcastically referred to Jess as Santa Claus or Saint Nick – the first time was to accuse him of stealing Rory’s bracelet. Using the reference again seems to be a veiled barb, and a reminder to Jess that she is watching him.
Sweet potatoes are often called “yams” in North America. Candied sweet potatoes are a side dish sweetened with brown sugar, marshmallows, maple syrup, molasses, orange juice, candied chestnuts, or other sweet ingredients. It is often served at Thanksgiving.
RORY: He actually likes it when we come for Thanksgiving. All these years and we never knew.
LORELAI: Hm, he’s the Grinch and we’re Cindy Lou Who.
Another reference to the 2000 Christmas filmHow the Grinch Stole Christmas. Cindy Lou Who (played by Taylor Momsen) is a little girl from the Christmas-loving town of Whoville while the Grinch is a grumpy Christmas-hater who learns to love the holiday with the help of Cindy Lou (showing that he was really good-hearted all along).
LOUISE: I’m having [Thanksgiving] dinner with my dad.
MADELINE: Isn’t he still in jail?
LOUISE: Yes, but his company donated some treadmills for the inmates so he swung a special trailer for dinner that they’re gonna set up for us in the parking lot. We have it for about two hours and then one of the Manson girls gets us.
In the episode “Back in the Saddle”, Louise mentioned that her father was due in court, on mysterious charges (she didn’t bother finding out what he had been arrested for). Now it’s seven months later, and Louise’s father is undertaking his sentence – for whatever it was. Madeline refers to it as “jail”, rather than “prison”, possibly suggesting a shorter, lighter sentence (although sometimes people use the word jail for both jail and prison, so that’s not certain at all).
It does sound as if Louise’s father is in a low or medium security facility, since he is permitted to spend his Thanksgiving dinner in a trailer in the parking lot with his daughter (and possibly other family members, it seems unlikely only Louise would go and see him). These trailers are a reward for good behaviour given to model prisoners, so Louise’s father is clearly well-behaved – even the donation of treadmills to the prison would not be enough on its own. Connecticut is one of only four states that allow extended visits like this (the others are California, New York, and Washington).
Louise says the trailer then goes to “one of the Manson girls”, referring to the female members of the Manson family who were convicted for their crimes. In real life, they were incarcerated in California, and in high security prisons, so this could not have really happened. (Squeaky Fromme was in a high security mental treatment facility in Texas).
Interestingly, there is a state prison in Cheshire, Connecticut called the Manson Youth Institution, for men under the age of 21. Louise can’t be referring to that either, as they are young men, not women, and they are not permitted visits such as she describes.
It is just possible that Louise’s father is being held at the federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut [pictured], a medium and low security prison and satellite prison camp which has facilities for both male and female inmates – so if Louise’s dad’s trailer wasn’t going to a “Manson girl”, it could feasibly be going to a female prisoner, at least. The facility in Danbury has often featured in pop culture, including Orange is the New Black.
EMILY: Your father and I are going out of town the next day and we’ll be gone all of December, including Christmas, so it’s the last chance for the family to be together for the rest of the year.
Emily and Richard supposedly throw a dinner party two weeks before Christmas every year, before they leave for their winter vacation. They seem to have cancelled it this year, leaving for their vacation straight after Thanksgiving, so perhaps they are in bad moods over the Yale incident as well.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 