The Ultimate Guide To Celebrating Happy Hanukkah With Your Family

Hanukkah is one of the most enjoyable holidays in Jewish culture..  One of its additional names is “the holiday of Lights” , because according to the legend a great miracle took place in the Jewish community in Roman times.   Against all odds enough oil remained to illuminate the menorah for eight days. This has become the symbol of the holiday and in its honor, we celebrate Hanukkah for eight days. Every day we light another candle in the menorah and tell the story of the heroism of the Maccabees  sing Hanukkah songs and eat donuts(sufganiyot) and pancakes (levivot) 

In this post, readers are given some tips and recommendations on how to decorate the house or kindergarten with holiday symbols  what accessories are commonly used and songs to sing with the children and family.

Hanukkah decorations for home and kindergarten

Even without dedicated decorations for the home or kindergarten  the Hanukkah accessories are colorful and interesting and for those who light candles every night during the holiday, the candles paint a pleasant light.

You can also do more and decorate the house with colorful decorations with holiday symbols that contribute to a festive and positive feeling in the room  a bit like turning the holiday into an eight-day party.

To purchase accessories for Hanukkah decoration, click here

You can also buy complementary accessories such as tablecloths with holiday symbols and festive colors, and put them on the table on which the menorah stands and create a perfect holiday atmosphere. 

Hanukkah accessories

The Hanukkah story tells of the oil jug that had enough oil in it to light the menorah for eight days  but a jug is not one of the common accessories of the holiday  however, themenorah (Hanukkiya) and Hanukkah candles are necessary accessories in every home and kindergarten because every day we light another candle until  on the eighth day,the whole menorah is lit. Iit is customary to let the children make the traditional blessing for lighting the candles and light the candles accompanied by an adult becausealthough the combination of children and live fire can be dangerous it can also be very educational.

The dreidel (spinning top) is a common Hanukkah Accessory and Hanukkah game, on the sides of traditional Hanukkah dreidels it is  customary to inscribe the first letters of the phrase” a great miracle happened here " on each side of the dreidel ( in Hebrew of course)

the phrase” a great miracle happened here " on each side of the dreidel ( in Hebrew of course)

A well-known game that is suitable for all ages with the dreidls (spinning tops) is for each child to spin spinning tops together and see which spinning top spins the longest before it fallsChildren love it and from our experience, they always want to repeat the game over and over again.

Traditional Hanukkah food

On Hanukkah, it is customary to eat two traditional dishes, one sweet and one salty ( Although it is customary to decorate the salty one with sugar, then it tastes less salty, the one thing both of these dishes have is that they are both deep-fried and not recommended for those who keep a diet, The traditional Hanukkah donut (sufganiyah ) was for years filled with jam surprise insideand every child would wait to reach this jam filling.

In recent years, the donut has also been upgraded and today you can find Hanukkah donuts with various fillings such as chocolate and cream.

Our recommendation is to go to the bakery closest to your home and buy enough donuts for the whole family, but if you want to make them yourself here is a link to a video for making traditional donuts

The second dish is potato pancakes (levivot) or by its traditional name “latkes” , with a well-made batter of gratedd potatoes and finely chopped onions and spices  deep-frying makes this dish delicious and crunchy, but it comes with a warning: “one leviva -pancake is never enough”!  There is always a desire for more. And if you did not have enough sweetness from the sufganiyot then it is sometimes customary to sprinkle some sugar on the levivot- pancakes so that we have an even sweeter holiday.         

Songs for Hanukkah

Like most Jewish holidays, many holiday songs have written over the years, some of them are folk songs of unknown origin and passed down by word of mouth and throughout history, and some songs have been written by contemporary composers such as Matti Caspi, Dudu Elharar, Naomi Shemer and more.

To make your choice easier., we're attaching a link to Spotify with the holiday songs here  just click on the link and let the music play while you light candles  and if you feel like it, you are welcome to join in the singing in the chorus. 

Link to the playlist 

We hope this post has given  you a few ideas, and we'd love to stay in touch with you  we invite you to join our community, ask question. , give ideas, speak your mind when it comes to education for toddlers.

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Happy Hanukkah