Of all the Jewish holidays to celebrate at around the same time as Christmas, I feel that as parents, we’re pretty lucky that Hanukkah is the one.
Now yes, Hanukkah is absolutely not the Jewish Christmas, and it is not the most major Jewish holiday of all. For sure! But it is, in many ways, one of the most kid-friendly Jewish holidays, which helps a little with the Christmas envy — there’s fire, there’s fried food, there’s spinning tops, there’s presents… Hanukkah gives a lot to the kid-forward experience just in its very existence.
Still, I’m always looking to up my Hanukkah game, so I’ve reached out to some experts and put together a list of all the resources I’m using this Hanukkah. There’s a thin line between overdoing it for both yourself and your kids and striking that perfect balance of enough festivities and special moments, so pick and choose the rituals and traditions that mean the most to you and have fun!
Start Your Holiday With a Hanukkah Box
“I love to kick off the Hanukkah/holiday season by giving my kids Hanukkah-themed gifts,” Marisa Morrison Stein, founder of the oh-so-colorful craft studio Neon Tea Party shared with Kveller over e-mail. “I’ll usually cut the tabs off of a cardboard box and cover the outside in Hanukkah wrapping paper. Then I’ll fill the box with festive pajamas, Hanukkah-themed clothing items they can wear to parties, Hanukkah crafts/activity kits that we can do together on the weekends leading up to Hanukkah, and some Hanukkah-themed treats like giant gelt!”
Hanukkah Crafts From a Craft Master
“We love to decorate our home for Hanukkah. We hang up blue and white pom pom garlands, crocheted Stars of David, metallic tinsel, decorative dreidels, and put out all of our Chanukiyot in anticipation,” Stein told us. “As Hanukkah gets closer, we love to decorate wooden dreidels, bead Hanukkah bracelets, and bake Hanukkah sugar cookies! I still have the same set of Hanukkah cookie cutters I used as a kid, so it’s become an extra special tradition to get to use them every year with my kids.”
“I recently taught my 4-year-old daughter Sofie how to make pom poms, which she really enjoyed. I’m excited to make some Hanukkah pom poms with her this year and turn them into gift toppers and garlands that we can hang up for years to come!”
Make TV Time About Hanukkah
One of your kids’ favorite shows might already have a Hanukkah episode for you to watch, from Mickey Mouse to “Spidey and His Amazing Friends.” And you can always go back to the best of all time, the “A Rugrats Chanukah.” Get special Hanukkah treats and make a fun movie and game night out of it by playing The Meanie of Hanukkah after your watch party.
Lean Into Your Kids’ Love of Food and Try New Latke Recipes
I don’t know about you, but the easiest way to my kids’ hearts is through their stomachs. They just love food, and they love being in the kitchen. Last Hanukkah, we loved making hot dog latkes and pickle latkes and experimenting with all different types of toppings. This year, we’re hoping to add some pea fritters to our repertoire — my kids’ current favorite legume — and some chocolate chip gelt cookies. You can find more Hanukkah recipes to try as a family in Kveller’s Guide to Hanukkah.
Spice Up Your Menorah Game
One day on a trip, Laurel Snyder and her family were stranded without a menorah during Hanukkah. The solution they found was a banukkiah — making a banana into a hanukkiah! They’ve been lighting a banana yearly ever since. The banukkiah is now part of Snyder’s “The Book of Candles: Eight Poems for Hanukkah,” a book of nightly poems for Hanukkah which makes for a beautiful, moody read each night.
Some kids adore nothing more than adding in a little silliness to holiday celebrations, so I love the idea of introducing your own banukkiah to the holiday table, or even finding different, silly menorahs to make together from (non-flammable!) things you have at home: fruit, veg, actual sufganiyot, rocks from a hike, a loaf of bread? The world is your oyster… mushroom (to stay Kosher, of course).
Some kids get particularly excited about lighting a menorah they’ve made themselves; we have a list of 12 DIY menorahs you can make at home ahead of Hanukkah!
Create Connection: Switch Out Gifts for Experiences
When I asked Snyder how she makes Hanukkah meaningful in her home, aside from the bannukiyah, I found her answer oh-so-illuminating.
“The big turning point for Hanukkah at our house came the year that I lost my temper with Atlanta traffic, and decided to stop trying to schlep places for parties and events,” the award-winning author told us over e-mail. “Hanukkah had begun to feel like a checklist of food I had to make and people we had to see and places we had to go, and so that year I decided we would just stay home for all eight nights and light the candles as a family. Because of dreidel, that evolved into an eight-night run of board games (complete with Catan, family D&D, etc.), and my kids loved it so much! No phones or laptops for the grownups. No homework while the candles burned. Eight nights of just spending time together.”
“That same year,” Snyder added, “I also rethought what a ‘gift’ looked like, and I simply bought a stack of postcards and wrote a ‘gift’ on each of them for each kid, an experience that cost little to nothing. One postcard said something like, ‘Go to school an hour late so you can have breakfast out with Mom,’ and another read, ‘Stay up as late as you want on a school night.’ Stuff like that. I spent no money, and the kids loved it!”
Share Your Love for Hanukkah Music
You can’t do Hanukkah without music. My favorite playlist is this Apple Hanukkah playlist, but our friends at Hey Alma also have an excellent Hanukkah playlist for you to play nightly.
Listen to a Hanukkah Podcast
If you’re traveling this Hanukkah season, why not put a fun Hanukkah podcast on? Try Story Pirates’ “The Hanukkah Ghost,” have Josh Peck read you “The Hanukkah Hotel” or listen to this episode of Ear Snacks about Hanukkah and how candles work. And of course, PJ Library has a kid-friendly version of the Hanukkah story on their podcast. Get your kids in a bedtime mood with Koala Moon’s Hanukah for Prickles.
The Hanukkah Books Must-Haves
- “Hershel and Hanukkah Goblins” by Eric Kimmel — Delicious chills and shtetl vibe, don’t sleep on this one.
- “The Parakeet Named Dreidel” by Isaac Bashevis Singer — This children’s story ought to be made into a rom-com.
- “When Mindy Saved Hanukkah” by Eric Kimmel — The sweetest, most adorable illustrations of Jewish munchkins who live in a Lower East Side synagogue.
- “The Flying Latke” by Arthur Yorinks and “Meet the Latkes” by Alan Silberberg — Absurdist humor is our jam.
“I have a separate pile of books that speak to the feeling of being the only Jewish kid in your class (or the only Jewish kid who doesn’t also celebrate Christmas), something that happens often to my kids,” Steinhardt told Kveller. “Books like “The Only One Club” remind them that there are kids all over the country, and the world, experiencing this. It’s part of being Jewish, and, frankly, it’s a flex to get to be an ambassador for your people.”
Share Hanukkah With Your Local Community — Jewish and Not Jewish
One of my kids’ favorite thing about Hanukkah is having a yearly party and inviting both their Jewish and non-Jewish friends. They feel such joy sharing their holiday with others. Both Marisa Morrison Stein and Rachel Steindhardt shared how important sharing Hanukkah with their community is.
For Rachel, that means bringing Hanukkah to her kids’ school and letting them choose a book to read. If that appeals to you, we have a list of great activities to bring to your kids’ class for Hanukkah!
Finally: Shop for Some of These Fun Recommendations
Sometimes, you wanna buy your kids some cute stuff for Hanukkah. Here are a few of our recommendations, if you haven’t already gone wild on our Hanukkah gift guides including Hanukkah pajamas, menorahs, Hanukkah advent calendars, best of Hanukkah Target merch and best of Hanukkah Anthropologie merch. Sorry / you’re welcome.
All of our recommendations are independently selected by Kveller’s editorial team. We may earn a commission if you buy something through one of our affiliate links.
Hanukkah Games
This unique dreidel is so fun to play.
Neon Tea Party Recs
Once you make a pom pom, you can keep and reuse them for years.
More Crafts
Books Rachel Recommends
More Books
Get your kid a book where they travel back to the times of the Maccabees and get to be the hero.
Laurel Snyder's new Hanukkah book has a gorgeous poem and delightful fact for each night of Hanukkah.
More Fun Stuff
This adorable sticker and certificate kit will help your incorporate tzedakkah into your holiday celebration. Used code Kveller20 for 20% off.
We love a Hanukkah family pedicure night! Use code Kveller20 for 20% off.
My kids love making shapes and letters with these Hanukkah fidgets.
You can use one of these funny cards for Laurel's "gift postcards" to promise your kid a fun future experience.
Download our guide which is full of even more tips, tricks and ideas for kids' gifts and activities.
