Stranded on an iceberg on his way to America, Simon remembers his mother's parting words and lights the first candle on his menorah while praying for a miracle, which soon arrives in the form of a friendly polar bear.

"On the eighth night of Chanukah, Grandma Minka reads aloud a story about the meaning of the holiday to Tommy, Chuckie, Lil, Phil, and Angelica. The babies imagine themselves as the characters in the story, but then Grandma stops reading to make latkes, and the ending is left unknown. Soon they're all off to the synagogue, where Grandpa Boris is acting in the Chanukah play. The kids, misunderstanding the phrase "the meaning of Chanukah," believe that...

Teens Hannah and Noah, who each have different ideas of how to spend Hanukkah, team up to save the last Jewish remnant in small-town Texas.