Mama Doni's Jewish Holiday Party

MAMA DONI:
Have you found yourself wondering what you do with the gelt you win while playing Dreidel? Or maybe you've wondered what Chanukah, Passover, and Shabbat is all about. If so then watching Mama Doni's Jewish Holiday Party would be a good start to finding out the answers to you're questions. On this DVD/CD combo, Mama Doni gives a singing example and explination on some Jewish holidays and some of the fun that can be had with them. Such as how to make a matzo pizza when you're not allowed to eat bread or a easy fun food to make called a latke. While it might sound like an educational DVD, which it is, but it's one that's been done with song, dance, and a fun catchy way that makes it anything other than a educational DVD.

JEWISH HOLIDAY PARTY AND CD:
Seeing the cover to the DVD I expected this to be a comedy about some of the Jewish holidays. It kind of is but not really. What this is foremost is an educational DVD on some of the Jewish holidays and what happens on them but it's all done in a very fun way with lots of singing. Sure it's funny, sure it made me laugh, which is why it could kind of be considered in a very small way a comedic education video. So here's what this video does, it talks about things like playing the game Dreidel where Mama Doni has won the big prize of gelt but she wants to go spend it. In the song she goes to different locations looking to spend her prize but is turned away until she finds out at the end what the gelt is. It's a funny song, it's done like a comedy style song, but it's also educational because it teaches what gelt is, how she got it, and she does this by making it fun. Before watching this I had no idea what a gelt was, I've ate them, most kids have in fact since it's just a chocolate coin, but like I said I didn't know before and now I do.

That's what this DVD is, a now I know video about some of the Jewish holidays. There are different things she teaches and she does do them all with songs. There's different styles of songs being played with different instruments being used by Eric Lindberg and all of them are good. These songs are catchy, the lyrics are fun, and they have quirky beats to them that are infectous. I would rank this as one of the best ways that I've learned something about Chanukah, Passover, and Shabbat and it's because Mama Doni makes it fun to watch and learn. Mama Doni has such energy and life in her that it's hard not to feel happy just from watching her. Even if she is acting it's an act that makes me beleive she really, really loves what she is talking about and singing about. Because of that love and joy it made me pay more attention to her and want to know what she was talking about. This will make for a good way to teach kids about these holidays while also giving them some fun songs to sing along with.

The CD that comes with the DVD features the songs from the videos and like the video, they are fun to listen to. Mama Doni has a good voice that is fitting for the fun, upbeat tempos that she sings to. There are some good melodies to the songs, even the country sound in some of them I enjoyed, and they all have something to teach. Being that the songs are done by just her and Eric Lindberg they have a good structure and sound to them that feels like there should be more people playing the songs. Each of the songs are fun to listen to with catchy beats that are almost impossible not to sing along with.