Festival of Lights: The Best Hanukkah Activities for Kids
Whether you celebrate Hanukkah in your home already and are looking for some fresh ideas - or if you don’t traditionally celebrate, but would like to share the holiday traditions with your little ones, Marion of @MyJewishMommyLife provides inspiration with these tips:
The lights of Hanukkah shine brightly for eight whole nights… which means there’s lots of time for special Hanukkah crafts and activities to do with your kids!
In our home we begin each holiday by making and decorating our own menorahs, we make delicious sweet treats and if we’re very lucky, we enjoy these special holiday nights and remember them always as precious time together.
Here are some of our favorite ideas to try in your home:
Almost anything can become a menorah! Technically for it to be kosher all eight candle holders have to be at the same height, and technically if you’re going to light it you might want to avoid plastic - but for a DIY project anything goes! We’ve used trucks, and lined up Hot Wheels cars before. I also love alphabet blocks with my kid’s names on them. Just glue on some nuts from the hardware store and you’re good to go!
Last year for Hanukkah my boys and I made ‘menorahsaurauses’ using some of their old dinosaur toys. We spray painted them gold and decorated them with blue glitter and then added the hardware nuts using a hot glue gun (I took over that job!) I couldn’t believe how fun these were and the boys loved displaying them all holiday long.
Another favorite in our home is making a menorah by tracing the kids hands. It’s such a beautiful way to remember how little they were and how much they grow year to year. You can paint the palm of their hand before placing it on the paper or just let them color it in. This year we used our Skillmatics Dot It! Stickers to decorate each finger to look like a candle and put a little light on top of each one. It’s super cute and great for kids who don’t want to get too messy. This type of sticker work is also something we do a lot of in our home because it helps work those fingers for early writing skills muscles and dexterity.
Edible Dreidel Desserts
One thing my kids never let me forget to do each Hanukkah is to make these delicious edible dreidel treats. I’ve actually been making them since I was a little girl and have such fond memories of enjoying them in my own preschool class. You just need a marshmallow, a Hershey kiss chocolate for the bottom and either a pretzel rod or piece of licorice for the top. You can use melted chocolate to stick everything together and decorate them with sprinkles too. This is a great idea for dessert on the first night of Hanukkah.
For more information follow Marion on Instagram @myjewishmommylife. She is the writer and content creator for her 'MyJewishMommyLife' YouTube channel and Instagram page. Marion shares her experiences as a mama of three little boys living a meaning-FULL Jewish family life.
