Eight Ways To Celebrate Thanksgivukkah in Chocolate

I recently wrote a blog about Thanksgivukkah, and though I normally do not write more than one blog per topic Thanksgivukkah is so much fun since it takes my favorite American holiday Thanksgiving and mixes it with my favorite holiday from my childhood Chanukah.

So being the case I came up with a list of the Eight Ways To Celebrate Thanksgivukkah in Chocolate in honor of the eight days of Chanukah.

And the list is ....

1. Give your mail carrier a Thanksgivukkah lollipop, even if he/she is not Jewish you'll put a smile on his/her face. 
2. Give your kids teacher's and office staff a Thanksgivukkah lollipop.
3. Pass Thanksgivukkah lollipops around the office they be a hit.
4. Use Thanksgivukkah lollipops for the winner of  the game of dreidel (we also have chocolate dreidels).
5. Do a kind deed and visit a Senior home and pass out the Thanksgivukkah lollipops to the residents you will sweeten their day (Just make sure they are not on a sugar restricted diet).
6. Use our Chocolate Thanksgivukkah  Menorah to celebrate the day (the chocolate should only melt a little around the candle. 
7. Use Thanksgivukkah lollipops as place cards at the Thanksgiving Table
8. Finally after you have eaten your fill or turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, have a Thanksgivukkah Semi Sweet Chocolate Lollipop to end the day on a sweet note. 

Have a sweet Thanksgivukkah

Thanksgivukkah

You may ask, what is Thanksgivukkah? It is when Thanksgiving and Chanukah fall on the same day. Did you know that… no day of Chanukah has ever fallen during Thanksgiving in our lifetime. Additionally this will not happen again in our lifetime or that of our children and grandchildren.

“Since Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863, no day of Chanukah has fallen on the 4th Thursday in November. But Thanksgiving wasn’t always on the 4th Thursday in November: originally, it was on the last Thursday in November (which could be either the 4th or 5th Thursday, depending on how many Thursdays were in November). The change happened under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, starting in 1939. (The motivation was to start the Christmas shopping season a week earlier, to help stimulate the economy. Can you imagine a time when the Christmas shopping season never started before Thanksgiving?) The original range for Thanksgiving was November 24-30; the current range is November 22-28.

And sure enough, there were two Thanksgivukkahs in the late 19th century, both on the 5th Thursday in November. Thursday, November 29, 1888, was the 1st day of Chanukah, and Thursday, November 30, 1899 was the 4th day of Chanukah.”
http://jewschool.com/2013/01/17/30051/thanksgivukkah-faq/

 

So in honor of this once in a lifetime event we created a line of Thanksgivukkah Chocolates.

The Life of the candy man is sure sweet happy early  Thanksgivukkah.

A Spooky Post

So every year I have lots of competition on Halloween,  everyone is passing out candy. But for those who want gourmet treats to give to the kids in the neighborhood or as corporate gifts the candy man is able to up the game here are some sweet and spooky gift ideas.....




Happy Halloween

The Life of the Man is sure sweet and spooky too sometimes.

Have a sweet day!

And the winner is.....

Last year the Evanston Chamber of commerce had the inaugural Burger War.

We entered and with the help of our raving fans won the Award in the Creativity category. This year the Chamber expanded the competition to include with the Burger War the Salad Skirmish.

We love to put our creative skills on display so we entered the competition.  We competed against some of the top restaurants in town. I knew we could not win for the healthiest salad, but I hoped that we would win the Creative Category.

Well, after a month plus of voting the results were announce tonight at the Evanston Mash up.  We did not win the Creative category but we did win the Presentation Category.

So to my talented Chocolatiers I say great job. To the many who voted for our salad I say thank you for showing your support.

To the rest of you I say chocolate really is a vegetable just don't tell my kids that I said that.

The Life of the Candy man is sweet.

Have a sweet day!

Happy 9 Years

 

Its hard to believe that 9 years ago today my wife and I bought Illinois Nut. Since then  we have made many changes, received some great press locally, nationally and even internationally. Additionally we have won awards for our chocolates both on taste and creativity and even won an award for marketing along the way.

But none of this would have been possible without you our customers. So to all of you I say thank you for your past business and for your continued business. Because of you I can continue to say "Have a sweet day!"

The life of the candy man is sweet!

Have a sweet day!

PS --- please help us win the latest contest that we have entered the Evanston Salad Skirmish

http://www.leapfrogonline.com/hamburger-war-2013

You can vote once a day every day until the conclusion of the contest. 

The 2013 Salad Skirmish

Last year we entered the Evanston Chamber Burger War, and I am proud to say that our chocolate burger and fries won the creativity category.

So this year when the chamber added the Salad Skirmish I said we were in. So here are the details. 

Voting began  Wed. August 7 and ends Friday, Sept. 13

 To vote you can either click the button on our website www.RaisingTheCandybar.com which will bring you the voting page or go directly to http://www.leapfrogonline.com/hamburger-war-2013

You can vote once a day so please help the candy man by voting. 

Have a sweet day and follow the Chicago tradition of voting early and often.

Pucker Powder Party Pack

Some of our best ideas come from some of our customers, and our newest product the Pucker  Powder Party Pack is one of them.

Here is how this latest offering came to be.

Last week a customer came into the store and asked. "...do you do birthday parties in peoples houses?"
I was ready to say no, but she kept on talking that she needed something cute for her kids party and wished she could use the pucker powder machine for the party.

That is when my brain kicked in. I explained that we had never done it before but it was a great idea.

I told her she could be the first person to do this. So after a little bit of time working on packaging we have come up with our  latest offering the Pucker Powder Party Pack .

Now you too can have a Pucker Powder party at home -- be sure to put down a drop cloth since we can't help you clean up any mess.

Have a sweet day!

The Candy Man becomes a Transformer

I must admit growing up I used to watch the cartoon  the Transformers and now as an adult I look forward to the movies.

So where is the candy man going with this?

The other day while working out I was watching the news and they were talking about how they were casting extras for the next Transformer movie.  While I have had my fun in front of the camera for various News programs, my wife and staff will tell you that I should keep my day job.

But part of my day job is marketing and branding. So I thought why not bring a giftbasket to the casting deparment in hopes that they use our store or candy van and transform either of them into stars.



So I called my friends at the hotel where the casting call was, (who says networking does not work)  and asked if she could get me into to drop off the basket. With the offer of a trade for chocoalte the answer was yes.

Lynda my manager suggested drressing up as a Transformer to make the delivery. So off after letting my fingers do the walking I was off to the costume store in July.

Now here is where the fun begins.   I get to the hotel and after talking to the casting department the staff asked If I would work the line and take pictures for their facebook page. Of course I was happy to accomodate them since they accomodated me. Then more and more people wanted to take their picture with the candyman / Transformer

And then a reporter from Skokie Patch asked me to do an interview hopefully it gets posted and then a photograpgher from the Chicgao Tribune arrived one can only hope that gets published too. All along I am passing out cards and coupons.

All in a fun filled Friday morning.

The life of the candy man is sure sweet.

Have a sweet day!

PS I almost forgot my manager wanted to get in on the fun too when I returned to the store....

PSS -- An update the interview did not make it live but I made the  Chicago Tribune online too bad they did not put the compnay name along with my image, atleast they spelled my name correctly.

 http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/chi-071913-transformer-4-casting-call-pictures,0,2447905.photogallery  David Levine, center, wears a Transformers costume as he takes photos in line Friday, July 19, 2013 for Paramount Pictures' casting call for extras for Michael Bay's 'Transformers 4.