Tradition—the kind passed down through generations—has always been important to Wendy Hefter.

She now carries that love of continuity into her Pikesville neighborhood, where her Chanukah House has become an annual holiday destination.

Every year, starting two weeks before the first night of Chanukah, Hefter and her husband, David, turn their home into a hub for holiday cheer. They surround it with hundreds of decorations, including lights, inflatables and fun characters, like Spider-Man and Winnie-the-Pooh, dressed in their Chanukah best.

The idea came from two places. The first was memories the couple has of visiting another house in Baltimore that had decorated for Chanukah for more than 25 years. The other was after their youngest daughter was married and they attended her Sheva Brachot (a special blessing recited for a Jewish bride and groom) dinners in Houston. Her new in-laws showed her the area, including the Meyerland Hanukkah House in Houston. The Hefters decided that their house could become the area's premier location to celebrated the Festival of Lights.

Wendy comes from a fourth-generation TU family. Her grandparents, Helen Ann Patz Chernak and Sidney Nathan Chernak, graduated from the Maryland State Normal School in the early 1930s. Her mother, Judith “Judy” Abramowitz Esterson Chernak, attended State Teachers College at Towson in the 1950s. Wendy graduated when it was named Towson State University, and her daughters, Stephanie ’10 and Amy ’11, graduated from TU. 

She partially attributes the success of the Chanukah House of Pikesville to her education and experiences at TU and being part of the campus’ chapter of the American Marketing Association.

“It’s been really fun to see the excitement and reactions from many people who remember the original Chanukah House and now bring their own children or grandchildren,” Hefter says. “This year we even received a handwritten note from someone in the community. It was the cutest thing that simply said, ‘Thank you so much, we love watching the display go up.’ David and I really get a lot of of joy out of it, and so does the community.”

Pictured above: TU President Mark Ginsberg, left, Wendy Hefter and her husband, David.