No Miracle On The Island This Year

. . . and no one feels gelt-y about it:

In the search for the thematic tchotchkes that herald the holiday season, it’s an annual lament on Staten Island that Hanukkah decorations get only a slim section of retailers’ shelf space.

But this year, cries about the scarcity of toy dreidels and blue-and-white napkins amid the dancing Santas and porcelain reindeer have grown even louder.

With the Jewish holiday coming much earlier than Christmas — it starts Tuesday — there have been anecdotal reports from across the Island of struggles to locate Hanukkah greeting cards, wrapping paper and other doodads to brighten up celebrations of the festival of lights.

“I have been trying to buy decorations for a while, there’s very, very little around,” said George Laufer, who every year decorates his daughter’s medical office, his home and nearby Congregation Ohel Abraham, where he is president. “It makes me very upset; especially when they say, ‘We haven’t gotten it in yet.’ If they’re telling us they have nothing, they’re not going to get it — Hanukkah is on Tuesday.”

Laufer said he walked out of several stores in frustration last week after combing through aisles of tree ornaments, felt stockings and wreaths, only to find puny Hanukkah displays hidden like afterthoughts, in cardboard boxes, in the back.