10 Creative Ways to Celebrate Hanukkah

It’s Hanukkah time! I’ve been promising to share some Reggio inspired Hanukkah ideas as well as some straight up Hanukkah crafts. Here you go! 10 creative ideas to bring the joy this Hanukkah season. Have fun!

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1. Hanukkiah Tracing – We LOVE transparency paper. It’s like tracing paper, but more awesome because it’s clear and plastic and sharpies just sort of glide right over it. Take a picture or better yet, have your child take a picture of your family Hanukkiahs, print them out and trace them on transparency paper. Kids love to find the lines and create works of art that is their own, but also ends up looking pretty true to the original. This is great for all ages. Oh, and if you have a light table, doing it on the light table is super fun and adds to the whole miracle of lights theme : )

2. Jewish Stick Symbols – Go on a nature walk and collect some sticks. Paint them with paint and glitter, wrap them with yarn, cover them with washi tape, whatever you want, and then glue them into Jewish symbols. Try a star of David, a dreidel or even a Hanukkiah.

3. Make a Hanukkah Activity Tray – Ok, this is pretty awesome and can be done in a lot of ways. I set this up while my girls were sleeping and they woke up to it with crazy squeals of delight. I included 5 different activities on each tray which I’ll list below.

4. Make Dreidel Wall Art from your child’s art – Take your child’s art that’s just sitting around and cut it into dreidel shapes and glue it onto a frame. Read the full post here.

5. Make a Hanukkiah – There are tons of ways to do this. You can collect wood bits, buy them online (these wood spools would be fun) or at your local craft store, supply some glue and you’re all set. Just put nuts on top of the wood when you’re done to fit the candles. My girls love this. Click over here to see the GORGEOUS Hanukkiahs we made at preschool.

6. Play ART Dreidel – Change the rules to the classic dreidel game. Get out some dreidels, paper and markers. Gimmel means draw a head. Nun means draw eyes. Shin means draw a mouth. Etc. The first person to draw a face wins.

7. Make a Recycled Dreidel Garland – Cut out dreidels from old shopping bags and decorate them. Click here to see the full post.

8. Make Dreidel Paper Dolls – Fold a paper strip like a fan back and forth. Draw a dreidel in the center and then two little stems on either side of the dreidel. Cut out the dreidel and open. You will have a paper dreidel chain like the one below. Decorate it with paint, googley eyes, glitter, crayons, markers, anything you have around the house.

9. Washi Tape Dreidel Art – Make a dreidel from washi tape on a piece of watercolor paper. Paint and color inside it. Peel the tape off and you’ll have a super cool dreidel. You can cut it out too and string it up. Just put two whole punches in the stem and weave string through it. You can make a bunch if you have friends over for decorations.

10. Make a dreidel pop up card – Here’s a tutorial from one of my favorite blogs, BabbleDabbleDo, on how to make a whole pop up book. You can follow the same steps and just make one card too.

There are tons of ways to make Hanukkah creative and fun. Hope you feel inspired. What are some of your favorite activities? I’d love to hear them in the comments below. Until then, have fun and Happy Hanukkah! Meri

14 Comments

Jeanette Nyberg on December 13, 2014 at 11:28 am

These are AWESOME! I didn’t even know what a hanukkiah was until 2 minutes ago, and now I want to make everything in this post. My kids will think we are Jewish by the end of the weekend. 🙂

Meri Cherry on December 13, 2014 at 3:03 pm

Yay!!! Thanks Jeanette! And love the idea of you guys doing Hanukkah crafts this week. HA! Have fun!
Reply

Ana on December 14, 2014 at 4:59 am

The menorah is so colorful and lovely! Fantastic round-up!

Meri Cherry on December 14, 2014 at 8:17 am

Thanks Buddy. xoxo
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Gina on December 14, 2014 at 11:14 pm

Absolutely fantastic. I knew if it were you, it would be but this is so full of color, thought, creativity and love, it’s fantastic, Meri. I, too, want to make all of these! The menorah is just an invitation to play! Fantastic!

Meri Cherry on December 15, 2014 at 7:42 am

Thanks Gina!!! Love all your kind words. xoxoxo
Reply

Meredith @ Homegrown Friends on December 16, 2014 at 1:12 pm

Sharing now Meri!

gina on January 7, 2015 at 10:16 am

that photo is just enchanted!

Meri Cherry on January 7, 2015 at 11:16 am

Thank you my dear friend.
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Gabrielle Weil on October 8, 2016 at 4:55 am

Hi, love the ideas and especially the activity trays but you mentioned :”I included 5 different activities on each tray which I’ll list below.”
I don’t see the list…am I missing something?
Please send me info on the list of activities per tray for this,
Thank you!

Meri Cherry on October 10, 2016 at 8:22 pm

Hi Gabrielle, Glad you like the ideas. The five ideas are the ones listed : ) Numbers, 5, 6, etc. Hope that helps. Thanks! Meri
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Rivka on November 30, 2016 at 10:24 pm

Thank you so much for this post! I usually do a Chanuka day camp because all the jewish schools here have off most of Chanuka. I am always scouring the internet for ideas, and last year had a hard time- This year should be a breeze thanks to all your simple yet adorable ideas!

Meri Cherry on December 7, 2016 at 7:55 pm

Terrific! I’m so glad. Happy Hanukkah!
Reply

Nik Strik on December 20, 2016 at 7:03 am

These are great. Thank you. We also do the Jewish Stick Symbols, but with pretzels. Cover with chocolate and let cool for snack