I own a small retail business that sells Hanukkah products. The supply chain crisis has caused chaos for my business and threatened to ruin the holidays.

• I run a small Judaica business that sells themed products for holidays like Hanukkah.
• The supply chain crisis has caused major delays in production and shipping for my products.
• We are cutting it really close to the holiday season this year.
• Rabbi Yael Buechler is the founder of MidrashManicures.com.

While some may celebrate Christmas in July, as a rabbi and small business owner, I've been celebrating Hanukkah in July: The entire month is dedicated to stocking and cataloging all the new products that my small Judaica business will launch during the next holiday season.

But this past July did not have that festive feel. Our Hanukkah items had yet to arrive in the US, and some of our products had yet to be produced. Thus I was faced with the supply-chain equivalent of "How the Grinch Stole Hanukkah." This year, Hanukkah is unusually early, beginning November 28, compounding the problem.

Delay after delay in production

My business has been working with factories in China and Japan for the past several years to make a variety of holiday products, from Hanukkah nail decals to Hanukkah leggings. As a result, I've learned to navigate the frequent cycles of Chinese and Japanese holidays when production is halted. (Each year, China observes seven public holidays, while Japan celebrates 16). When I don't hear from a supplier, it usually means they're on holiday. But this year there seemed to be longer email response times, as well as long delays in production of our merchandise.

For example, we submitted payment for production of our new Hanukkah headbands in May, assuming they would be shipped toward the end of June or early July, at the latest. After not hearing from the supplier for several weeks, I received the following note in August: "Sorry for no[t] updating…We were locked in for days, because of the epidemic in Nanjing."

Another supplier wrote in September: "Due to the current national policy of staggered peak power consumption, many enterprises can only work 2-3 days a week…" The supplier was based in Guangdong, a province of China, which started to implement power consumption rules in order to alleviate pressure on the supply of electricity to the area. There had been many electricity shortages, apparently due to a recent heat wave as well as increased demand for production in local factories.

In addition to huge delays in production, my small business has had to deal with tremendous increases in the overall cost of shipping. In May, our headband supplier apologetically told us she would have to raise the price of each headband - which included production and shipping. "Hope you can understand the international shipping situation," she wrote. "The virus has caused a huge increase [in] cost"

It was the same with our new kids' Hanukkah aprons. I increased the number we would be ordering by 50%, which typically results in a reduced price-per-item. This time, the supplier wrote back saying she would be unable to lower the cost given that "the price of international freight has risen sharply recently." At this point, we have chosen not to push the added shipping costs along to consumers, but that might change if freight prices continue to rise.

We could all use a holiday miracle

After the goods were finally produced and packaged (in September!), I chose expedited shipping by air. In a typical year, this shipping method would take 3 to 4 days from China to New York. This year, I watched the tracking information online as the shipments just "sat" with no indication when they would leave China. In the end, it took over two weeks for our new headbands and aprons to arrive in the US - with only 8 weeks until Hanukkah.

When I asked why the shipping was so delayed, one supplier responded: "Many flights were cancelled due to the typhoon in our country… Now they will reschedule… I'll let you know as soon as I know more." Never a dull moment.

Given that our Hanukkah items arrived so close to the holiday, it was tougher to place them with local and online Judaica retailers - especially the new products. We usually mail samples to stores in July, which obviously couldn't happen this year.

In the meantime, I'm at work on our next big venture: children's matza pajamas. Even though Passover doesn't begin until April 2022, I am concerned that the pajamas may not arrive in time for the beginning of the year. Because our new Hanukkah items were smaller in size, we shipped by air. But these matza pajamas will arrive in 25 cartons, so shipping by sea seems the most cost-effective option - even with continued rising costs.

Many freight forwarders, who coordinate shipping, continue to warn me about problems on the other end - at American ports. One representative who recently gave us a quote on freight remarked, "USA seaports still [have] heavy congestion problems, most of the containers will [be] waiting around one month to get out from the seaport." This one month is on top of the 30- to 45-day journey at sea.

With photos of traffic at the ports continuing to make the front pages of daily newspapers - and a growing number of memes and hashtags mocking empty shelves flooding social media - it seems there is no end in sight to the supply chain mess.

Given the current situation, I may need to start planning for Hanukkah when the holiday actually takes place (so long, Hanukkah in July!), in hopes that our products will arrive for the following Hanukkah. As a small business owner, I feel like we could all use a holiday supply chain miracle.