In 1989, comedian Jon Lovitz donned a blue and white fur hat in the role of Hanukkah Harry on “Saturday Night Live.” In the skit’s setup, Santa had taken ill, so Harry stepped in to assist his old friend, delivering practical gifts like socks and trousers to good little gentile girls and boys.

Hanukkah Harry bears little resemblance to another fictional Holiday of Lights apparition who makes an annual visit to Clayton. That would be Hanukkah Joe, one of the weirder family Hanukkah traditions you’re likely to encounter. Hanukkah Joe is an invisible mensch who magically knows exactly what former Clayton Mayor Harold Sanger wants in the way of Hanukkah gifts.

This Sanger family tradition includes a not-so-secret component. Sanger is really Hanukkah Joe. Over the previous 12 months, he buys items for himself, then wraps them and stores them for the holiday. 

A couple of years ago, over the course of the holiday’s eight nights, Hanukkah Joe delivered Sanger an apple corer, tractor tires, a pair of gloves, a flashlight, a drone and a metal detector to use on the beach. Curiously, every item was on Sanger’s wish list.

Diane Sanger, Harold’s wife, said, “He doesn’t buy things like underwear or socks.” The tradition grew out of the family’s annual Hanukkah gift exchange where Harold Sanger inevitably received things he didn’t need or want.

“When the kids got old enough to give me gifts, if I didn’t need them, I’d return them,” Sanger said. “I wasn’t happy that they were spending the little money they had on gifts for me. So many years ago, I started the tradition of buying myself eight presents, accumulated during the year, as I found things that I liked. I wrapped them up and put a sticker on them saying they were for me from Hanukkah Joe.”

Before the Sanger family Hanukkah gathering and gift exchange, “Joe” hauls out the gifts and puts them on a table alongside other presents. 

“When the whole family is here, the kids come in and unwrap their gifts and when it’s my turn — and I’m last — they get all my presents and I act surprised and say, ‘It’s just what I wanted!’ 

“The little ones don’t know that I’m pretending. The older ones have finally realized there’s not a Hanukkah Joe. This has been going on for at least 15 years, and I have bought myself some really, really cool stuff.”