Like many of you, we are an interfaith family – with a rare opportunity this year to weave together our traditions. Hanukkah begins on December 22. When we gather this year, we hope to be together for several nights of Hanukkah, including Christmas. But we want to downplay the gifts. SO – we will follow my daughter’s lead and create themed nights, as they do when they are home for Hanukkah. Games night. Books night. Outside exploring night. And while we have all decided to limit gifts to one per child, we want them to understand the pleasure of giving to others, too. My hope … [Read more...]
Fave Food Fun for Hanukkah - Beyond Doughnuts
Want ideas for quick-to-make, kid-friendly Hanukkah food that is not fried in oil? Here are three of my favorites: #1 Hanukkah pancakes If you have large Hanukkah cookie cutters, you can make your usual pancake batter – we make cottage cheese pancakes – and cut them into dreidel, Jewish star, and shield shapes. When the kids are six and up, they can help cut the shapes. #2 Pretzel rod candles My daughter made these cute pretzel rod candles a few years back. Delish and easy to make. Here’s what she did: Dipped pretzels into melted chocolate (melted in Mason jars in a slow … [Read more...]
3+ Weeks Till Hanukkah
I am devoting the last few blog posts until Hanukkah to a few of my favorite super easy things to do with the kiddoes. #1 Make edible dreidels It’s an activity and a dessert! Ingredients: small pretzel sticks, marshmallows, Hershey’s ® Kisses, and some kind of frosting (like tubes of blue frosting). Break off a piece of pretzel stick for the dreidel handle and jab it into one end of the marshmallow. Dab some frosting “glue” on the other end of the marshmallow. Apply the flat side of the Hershey’s Kiss to the frosting. Write a Nun, Gimel, Hey and Shin around the marshmallow in … [Read more...]
Early Hanukkah But Not Quite Thanksgivvukah
Remember a few years back when Thanksgiving and Hanukkah actually overlapped? This year, we have a *whole* week between. But it’s worth imagining how we can use the long Thanksgiving weekend to get a head start on planning and decorating to celebrate Hanukkah. For our family, as sad as I am to acknowledge this, we probably won’t be able to get together with the out-of-towners during Hanukkah. So creating some Hanukkah moments over T-Day weekend will have to be enough. What can you cook double for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah? For me, it’s a big batch of homemade applesauce. Our … [Read more...]
New Hanukkah Books For Your Home
So what new (and newish) Hanukkah books are out that might need to find a place in your home library? I previewed these three and recommend them all. Grover’s Eight Nights of Light Written by Jodie Shepherd, illustrated by Joe Mathieu, this paperback was published in September 2017. (It’s also available as a Kindle, but then you wouldn't get all the goodies inside.) According to Amazon, it’s for ages 3-7. I was prepared to be skeptical. But they had me from the beginning. Before I even looked at the story, I discovered two pages of stickers (I love stickers!), Hanukkah gift cards, … [Read more...]
