Hanukkah crafts: Draidels, Menorahs and more

Now that its solidly Kislev Hanukkah is just around the corner. As you can see we’ve started with a simple craft- decorating wooden dreidel bases. I love how the girls did them and I have to say they were a huge hit with the three year old crowd. They are pretty common here and not expensive (you can be in touch if you are looking for them.)

This is a lovely clay hanukkah lamp project in the shape of buildings.

I wanted to add some more educational type stuff in addition to the crafty type stuff. The Bnei Akiva Hadracha site has a nice activity related to Who is a Hero which is appropriate for this time of year. It is easily adaptable to a family environment or meal discussion.

Martha Stewart has a very simple dreidel placecard project (basically a 3D paper dreidel.)

We are in the middle of making a handprint menorah. I wanted to make a menorah with my daughter out of clay that was within her scope of dexterity. I remembered that in some areas of Morocco, Hanukkah lamps were made out of stone with common oil areas and then wicks were inserted in slits at the front. Something along the lines of this lamp from the Israel museum collection (check out their IMAGINE database for other interesting examples including a beaded Hanukkah lamp.) We tried to do something similar by using the palm area as the oil repository and we’ll float wicks in the fingers. We havent gotten to paint or fire it yet but we enjoyed making it.

Then there are the projects from last year- i think we’ll try and make some felt latkes or sufganiyot for the gan or maybe as a giveaway. Another project idea is to make Maoz Tzur booklets like the one I have in the shop (see post for more information here.) We have a few other projects we’d like to do before Hanukkah but its been pretty busy and I’m not sure we’ll get to it.