Show Me Your Sukkah
by Emily Raij
The Magness Family
Last year was the third time the Magness family of Lake Nona set up a sukkah in their backyard.
“Each year, I’ve refined the plan a little bit more to try and make it a little more stable and prettier,” says David. “I have the same basic structure each year.”
That structure is eight feet tall, five feet square on the bottom, and composed of two-inch-thick PVC pipe that is heavy enough to stand up well and not topple over in the wind. David brought a drawing of his proposed sukkah to a hardware store, and an employee helped find enough pipes to build it. Back at home, David used a circular saw to cut the pipes down to size and ordered corner pieces on Amazon. Six pieces of store-bought wood lattice form the roof, which David hooks together and to the PVC pipes with zip ties. More zip ties are used to attach king-size white sheets to the top and bottom PVC pipes and create walls.
“Make sure the walls don’t close all the way,” suggests David, “so it’s not a windsock. Wind needs to blow through.”
The Magness family sukkah ends up being big enough to fit two chairs inside. Adam and Meredith make decorations to hang from the roof, such as paper chains, pictures of fruit and gourds, and balls (like soccer balls or basketballs) wrapped in colored construction paper with green paper stems. Then, the top is decorated with palm fronds.
“I took the kids on a hunt all around the neighborhood for palm fronds,” says David. The family hit the jackpot when they discovered a neighbor had just cut down a tree. “We pulled out the branches with new leaves. Adam was so excited, and we just filled our trunk!”
The kids like playing inside the sukkah and reading PJ Library books about Sukkot. In previous years, the Magnesses purchased a lulav and etrog from their synagogue, Temple Israel, to shake inside and say prayers.
When it’s time to tear down, a designated ceiling shelf in the family’s garage holds all the equipment to be used again the following year. David gets faster at setting up his sukkah each time.
“The first year it took two hours to put together, but last year only took 20 minutes!” he says with pride.
The family is putting in a pool this year, so they need to find a new spot for the sukkah. But David feels confident in the plan and highly recommends zip ties to other sukkah builders.
The Satill Family
Brad, Roberta, Jaydon (10), and Talia (8)
Last year was the first time the Satills put up a sukkah in their Lake Mary backyard. They usually travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to celebrate Sukkot with 25-30 family members.
“Last year we couldn’t, so we said, ‘You know what? We’re going to put up our own sukkah,’” says Roberta.
The Satills did just that with a kit they purchased online.
Sukkot is especially meaningful for Roberta because she lost her sister to cancer a few years ago, and Sukkot was her favorite holiday.
“She passed two days before Sukkot,” Roberta remembers. “We couldn’t sit shiva because of Sukkot, couldn’t mourn, and had to go into a celebration holiday. And in her honor, we continued the tradition.”
Even though the sukkah-in-a-box came with everything the Satills needed, it still took some prep and planning.
“We put the curtains on inside-out and backwards at first,” laughs Roberta. “So plan it out before you actually go on the ladder and put it up!”
There were also extra trips to the hardware store to buy plywood to hold the roof down. The family added market lights inside for a nice glow during dinner, which they enjoyed with other families who were comfortable eating outside during the pandemic. For one family that wasn’t ready to eat with them, the Satills did a mitzvah and offered their sukkah for lunch while they were gone.
The Satill family enjoys how joyous and fun Sukkot is, and now that they have a sukkah, they plan to continue putting it up if they can’t make it to Philly. They’ll shake the lulav and etrog, eat inside, and decorate it with lemons again like they did last year.
“We’ve continued making lemonade out of lemons,” says Roberta.
The Raij Family
Andrew, Emily, Tilly (11), and Adam (7)
In Winter Park, the Raij family will be putting up their DIY sukkah in the backyard for the third year.
Andrew tweaked a PVC pipe plan he found online and then purchased materials from a hardware store. He was able to buy some pieces already cut to size and then did some of his own cutting for the rest of the 10-foot-by-10-foot sukkah. The kids enjoyed using the remnants to play, and Andrew even cut smaller pieces to prop up patio furniture, so nothing has gone to waste.
The first year, the Raij family used plastic shower curtains on hooks attached to the pipes for the walls, but those were too flimsy and blew around a lot. Last year, they found a canvas and mesh tent with a removable roof that was the perfect size to fit over the pipe structure and form much sturdier walls. The roof, however, remains a work in progress.
“This last year, we tried to use twine tied across the top to form kind of a slat roof and then threw green stuff on top,” says Andrew. “We went through our yard with the kids and picked up branches and leaves and big palm fronds to sit on top of the roof, but it didn’t really work. All the greenery was on the ground the next morning. The problem with the twine was that it stretched, so I think we want something more rigid.”
Despite the rickety roof, the Raijs enjoyed eating meals inside their sukkah with neighbors and grandparents a couple of years ago. They really leaned into the harvest theme and made a vegetarian lentil stew for dinner, courtesy of celebrity chef Ina Garten. The kids especially enjoyed shaking their lulav and etrog from Temple Israel after Rabbi Neely taught them the correct order. And everyone is ready to tackle the roof.
“This year that roof is going to stay on!” says Andrew.
It just goes to show, your sukkah doesn’t have to be perfect to have a perfect Sukkot.