My Printed Wall Calendar
Some of you may remember a column I wrote a couple of years ago about being a bit of a Hebrew calendar geek. I admit it—I always like to see which days of the secular calendar the Jewish holidays will land on, whether they’ll fall on weekdays or weekends, and just how early or late Rosh HaShanah, Chanukah, or Pesach will come around that year.
But what you might not know is that I also love my good old-fashioned printed wall calendar. Every September, I look forward to getting a fresh one, flipping through the pages, and starting to fill in dates, reminders, and appointments.
A big thank you to Chabad of Stamford, which faithfully sends me their large wall calendar every year. That’s the one I always end up using. Sure, I receive a dozen other calendars in the mail from organizations we support, but the Chabad calendar is my favorite—it has the local Stamford Shabbat candle-lighting times, and its size leaves plenty of room to write notes.
That doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned technology. Outlook is my go-to scheduling method for business appointments, and I certainly appreciate those handy 15-minute pop-up reminders before a Zoom call. But for family life—doctor’s visits, birthdays, Shabbat meals, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and social gatherings—our wall calendar, hanging on the bulletin board, is still the hub of our household.
So why, in this increasingly digital world, do I still cling to my printed calendar?
For starters, it gives me instant visibility. I can see the entire month at a glance without having to swipe or click. That makes it easier to plan ahead and avoids scheduling overload.
Second, I can jot things down quickly—circling a date, scribbling a note, or even color-coding with pens and highlighters. (And I’ll admit, writing things by hand helps me remember them better than typing.)
Third, a wall calendar is a shared family tool. Anyone walking by can check it without needing to log into an app.
And finally, it becomes a keepsake of sorts. Each calendar turns into a record of the year—complete with notes, doodles, and scribbles that tell their own little story.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Jewish non-profits love sending calendars to their donors, and some of them are quite beautiful. For me, though, practicality always wins out over glossy photos.
The calendar business itself is surprisingly large. Secular calendars flood stores in December, and if you combine retail sales with the promotional calendars that companies and organizations give away, the number produced in the United States reaches into the tens of millions. Altogether, Americans spend more than a billion dollars a year on calendars!
One of the first things I do when I get our new calendar is mark the minor fast days—like Asara b’Tevet and Shiva Asar b’Tammuz. That’s because of one unforgettable (and embarrassing) experience. Years ago, I arranged a business lunch at a kosher restaurant in New York with a colleague flying in from Chicago. That morning, I realized I realized I had scheduled our lunch on Shiva Asar b’Tammuz! Too late to cancel. So, I showed up …and explained to my colleague that although the food was kosher, I wouldn’t be eating because it was a fast day. If she didn’t already think I was a little eccentric, she certainly did after that meeting! Ever since, I make sure those fast days are circled in bold on our wall calendar.
But that wasn’t my most embarrassing calendar mix-up. Not even close. A year or two after Sharon and I were married, we were invited to a July 4th weekend wedding. July 4th fell on a Monday that year, and I had written “Wedding – 4 PM, Brooklyn” on the calendar, but on Sunday, July 3rd.
So, off we went on Sunday, dressed for the occasion. We arrived at the synagogue, saw a couple of familiar faces—but quickly realized that everyone else looked like complete strangers. When we spotted the bride, it all clicked. Wrong wedding! After checking with the attendant, we discovered that our friends’ wedding was scheduled for the following night at the very same shul.
Slightly mortified but already dressed to the nines, Sharon and I salvaged the evening with dinner at a local kosher burger joint—where we were undoubtedly the best-dressed couple in the place! Of course, we returned the next night for the actual wedding, and the story has become one of our favorite laughs with those friends.
Thankfully, most of the time our trusty wall calendar has kept me organized and on track. But those little missteps reminded me that even a system you love only works if you use it carefully. And for me, the wall calendar remains not just a tool, but a small source of joy each year.