10 Ideas for Your Seder

As a single mother of an enthusiastic crew, I totally appreciate this right-on-target video!! I actually wrote down 6 of the ideas! By the way, are you related to Rebitzen Lori Palatnick? The accent (and inflection) sounds so similar!

Dear Rabbi Zeldman, Your idea #6 - to tune into Aish.com - after the Seder is already progressing? You surely don't mean that people should descrate the holiday. For sure the numbers got out of order. Please tell them to look into Aish.com earlier in the day-before they eat their good meal and take their naps.

We create puzzles for the kids. We print off pictures of the pyramids, parting of the red sea, maps of the journey and they are called slaves and are commanded by pharoah (my husband) to put the puzzles together!! It keeps them busy but they also see where the exodus took place and how the journey begun abd where it ended

My wife finds it very easy to put a chicken in the oven, it makes for a great Erve Yom Tov meal. Our younger children (who cannot read) are in charge of the reading order, while the older ones and the guests read. Ten plagues, each plague told over by someone else as a live news report. " I am standing at..." (tell them to have it ready before hand) Food coloring for Blood... We also found it to be helpful to have a food table in the other room if you have lots of non observant guests who might want a bite. it should be kept small and lite, to not become the second Seder table... :)

What Rav Zeldman said about feeding everyone before the meal is super important in our house...unfed family members turn into dragons around here, and we must fend them off! One solution we found (by accident, almost!) is to follow the custom that each man and boy (and little girls, too) get their own seder plate. But then we go a little off the tradition: hile the grown-ups just look at the symbols, we let the kids actually eat them. We let them eat the zaroa...some people might not like that idea...we use celery, which they like, for the karpas; hardboiled egg; charoset. It might not be so "Orthodox", but their bellies don't get rumbly, and they also don't have to interrupt for food to be brought to them during the haggadah. On erev Yom tov, we feed everyone lots of fruits, nuts, veggies, maybe some potato, egg, or tuna salads. Nothing that will cause indigestion in adults or require too much prep for mom. IY"H we will all enjoy a cheerful and meaningful seder this year!