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 (plan) is to borrow the kids for a few hours each afternoon to help them come up with gifts to give their parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
I will offer two art options:
Homemade Hanukkah Cards
They can make homemade Hanukkah cards to give their fam using any of the art supplies I like to keep handy:
- glitter glue
- shiny stick-on letters
- stickers
- markers
- colored pencils
- bits of wrapping paper
If they want to start with a blank canvas, they can choose from some of the large sheets of thick paper I have or use any of our stash of construction paper.
Or if they prefer to color in Hanukkah designs, I will give them pages from the Happy Hanukkah Art & Activity Pak, like the menorah featured on this page or any of the other pictures of doughnuts, a cute elephant with a dreidel on his nose, colorful dreidels, presents, and much more.
Hanukkah Banner
Alternatively, they can work on a downloadable banner in our Happy Hanukkah Art & Activity Pak that stretches six feet when it’s all decorated and hung from a doorway.
Because there are so many pages, each child can choose a few letters and decorate to his/her heart’s content. No one is too young or too old to participate in this. If a three-year-old decorates the HA page with bright squiggles, it will look charming next to the older child’s careful renderng of her PP page. It’s the whole that creates the spectacle.
When the individual letters are all designed, we will ask the tall grownups to hang it up with ribbon – and this banner will flutter over us the whole time we are together.
To get your Happy Hanukkah Art & Activity Pak, just click on the red button.
With thanks to Miss E who designed the awesome menorah at the top of this post - adding a happy face to the shamash. What a great touch!
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