Fivel the Forgotten Reindeer
Everyone knows about Santa's eight reindeer,
We've all sung that song and know all of their names,
And the ninth one, that Rudolph,
With the bright shiny nose,
But this poem is not about any of those.
There was also a tenth I'd like to tell you about,
And why from the story he is always left out.
He was Fivel, the Jewish reindeer,
And he never got to pull the sleigh.
Each time he volunteered to,
Santa smirked and said, "A Jew? No way!"
That was clearly discrimination,
But the North Pole's not the USA,
And the reindeer didn't have a union,
And still don't to this very day.
Still, Fivel kept on applying,
He even tried tying a menorah to his head.
But that clever trick didn't help one bit
Because he just couldn't keep those candles lit.
Then his rabbi reminded Fivel
Of something he had failed to contemplate:
He might be too orthodoxy
To ever be Rudolph's proxy,
But Santa's nine Christmas reindeer
Shine just one night a year,
Whereas Hanukkah goes on for eight.
Author's note: Dear readers, some of you may be familiar with author Jeff Geller's charming Christmas story about a similar character named "Hershel". But please rest assured that, as far as I can determine, apart from being of the same species, and possibly attending the same synagogue, my "Fivel" is not, knowingly, related to Mr. Geller's creation. Fivel (pr. Feye-vuhl) has various meanings in Yiddish, but the connotation I prefer is "light" or "candle".
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