Whether Hanukkah presents are doled out on one, two or eight nights is simply a matter of choice for individual families.  In fact, Jewish tradition does not say anything about Hanukkah presents, rather suggests that gelt (or coins) should be given on Hanukkah as incentive for children to pursue their studies.

The story is told that in the 2^nd century BCE, under the rule of the Assyrians, a large portion of the Jewish population had become Hellenized, assimilating into the Greco-Syrian culture, and abandoning the study of Torah and all things Jewish.  After the Maccabean victory, Judaean leaders were tasked with re-educating these Hellenized Jews.  It is said that coins may have been distributed as an incentive to encourage the pursuit of Jewish education.

Later on, in the 12^th century, Maimonides, one of the wisest of Jewish commentators, added his two cents on this link between material incentive and the pursuit of learning.  In Maimonides’ view, children need a little bribery as encouragement to pursue their Jewish studies.  He advocated dishing out nuts, figs and sugar to young children so that learning might feel sweeter, until the day when knowledge could be appreciated for its own sake.

As it turns out, the word “Hanukkah” is closely associated with the Hebrew word “chinuch” or education.  While I still cling to the notion that my children might develop a love of learning without a need for monetary or sugar based incentive, the theme of education is one that I cherish.  In our house, it is reflected in Hanukkah celebrations through family discussion about the Hanukkah story and its meaning.  In addition, while we, like many North American Jews, have fully succumbed to the commercial influences of Christmas (with gelt long ago replaced by presents) we always include a well chosen Hanukkah themed book or two amongst our children’s gifts.

Finally, the giving of Hanukkah gelt or gifts also presents a wonderful opportunity for a teaching moment about tzedakah.   Having older kids share some of their gelt with a charity of their choice or encouraging younger ones to donate to a toy drive delivers a valuable lesson with tangible meaning that children of all ages can understand.

Hanukkah Fortune Teller

Dreidl (game instructions and a bit of dreidl trivia)

Maccabee Freeze Tag

Pin the Gimel on the Dreidl

Edible Hanukkiah

Candy Dreidls

Check in regularly as more Hanukkah ideas will be posted soon.

A Mysterious Visitor

Jacob and Sarah in Latkaland

The Lunchkins of Latkaland

Latkaland Battle Scene

Jacob spins the golden dreidl

Judith’s town is besieged by Assyrians, led by the cruel General Holofernes, a heartless man who shows no mercy for his victims – women and children included.  Starving and thirsty, having abandoned all hope, the townspeople are ready to surrender.  Judith, however, is a woman to be reckoned with.  Accompanied by her maidservant, she approaches the enemy camp and persuades the guards she has information that will help the Assyrians capture the town.  Having talked her way into the camp, she is taken to meet General Holofernes.  (I should mention at this point that Judith is an exquisitely beautiful woman.) 

On meeting Judith, Holofernes is beguiled by her beauty.  Shortly after this beguiling, Judith manages to feed Holofernes substantial food and drink.  One account actually has Judith feeding Holofernes a large quantity of cheese, which makes him very thirsty.  He then imbibes a whole lot of wine in order to slake his thirst.  However the story is told, Holofernes ends up in a hazy, drunken stupor, allowing Judith to take his sword and cut off his head.  Then, cool as a cucumber, Judith leaves the camp, returns to her town, and tells the town leaders what has transpired.

The townspeople, spirits renewed by Judith’s good tidings, launch an attack on the Assyrians.  The Assyrians, shocked at finding themselves with no commander (or at least, with a headless commander), flee for their lives.  Judith saves the day!

In addition to being associated with Hanukkah, this story has inspired artists through the ages.  My personal favourite is the Judith by Artemesia Gentilleschi that is found in the Uffizi.  In my view, it takes a female artist to really do this story justice on canvas…but now I’m moving too far from our Hanukkah topic.

A grownup should definitely help with this recipe – especially when the latkes have to be fried in lots and lots of boiling hot oil!

Ingredients

4-5 Potatoland (or russet) potatoes, peeled

1 small onion, peeled

2 eggs

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp salt

Lots of vegetable oil for frying

Directions: 

Grate the potato and the onion.  Your grownup helper can use the grating attachment on a food processor for this step – it’s much faster.

Squeeze as much liquid out of the potato-onion mixture as you can.  The Lunchkins use two different methods:

Put the mixture in a clean dishtowel, fold the sides up and twist them together (so you have a sort of bag), then squeeze; OR

Put the mixture in a bowl.  Take handfuls out of the bowl and squeeze over the sink, then put the squeezed stuff into a second bowl.  Grownup helpers might not like this method, but the Lunchkins think it’s quite a lot of fun.

Beat the eggs lightly in a small bowl.  Then add the flour and salt.  Add this mixture to the squeezed potato-onion mixture and mix it all together with a wooden spoon – or your hands, if you prefer.

Now for the real grownup part, so grownup helpers, pay attention!  Heat at least a half inch of oil in a large heavy skillet.  It will be hot enough to fry your latkes when you drop in a bit of batter, and the batter sizzles right away.

Gently drop heaped tablespoons of  potato mixture into the hot oil and flatten with the back of a spoon.  Fry for about 3 minutes on each side, or until deliciously golden and crispy.

Remove the cooked latkes from the pan and drain on paper towels.  As any Lunchkin will tell you, there’s nothing worse than a greasy latka!

Serve your latkes with apple sauce, sour cream or a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar…or just eat them plain.

ENJOY!!!!

For 1 puppet, you will need:

a styrofoam ball

a popsicle stick

a styrofoam cup

a pair of googly eyes

a bit of yarn (for hair)

a couple of pipecleaners (one sparkly)

glue

Optional:  fabric scraps, ribbon, cardboard scraps

1.  Put some glue on the end of the popsicle stick and push it into the styrofoam ball.  If it won’t go, have a grown up make a small slit in the ball using a scissor.  Now you have the Hanukkah (or other) puppet head.

2.  Decorate your head.  Glue on the googly eyes (or draw your own version) and draw a nose and mouth.  Glue on some yarn for hair.  If you’d like, add a felt kippah or a foil helmet.

3.  Decorate the styrofoam cup, which will be the puppet body.  You can cover the cup with glue and wrap fabric around it (as we did in the picture) or colour it with markers and add some stickers.  If you are using fabric, have a grownup figure out where the pipecleaner arms will go, and make two small cuts in the fabric before glueing it onto the cup.  You can also add a cape or ribbon or other decorations…it’s up to you.

4.  Push a pipecleaner through the cup (and the holes in the fabric).  Now your puppet has arms.   Trim the pipecleaner so that the arms are the right length – but remember to leave room to bend the ends into hands.

5.  Make a sword out of the glittery pipecleaner (use about 1/3 of the pipecleaner) and a shield out of the cardboard if you’d like.  You can attach the shield to your puppet by punching two small holes through the cardboard and pushing the pipecleaner hand through. 

6.  Cut a small slit in the top of the cup, and push the popsicle stick through so that the head sits on top of the cup.  Your puppet will be able to move it’s head from side to side and up and down (with your help, of course!).    Make these with friends for Hanukkah – and make up your own Hanukkah puppet show.

 A long, long time ago (almost 2,200 years), a wicked Greek-Syrian king named Antiochus became ruler over the Jews.  Jerusalem, with its holy Temple, was part of his domain. 

 Antiochus was very cruel to the Jews.  He filled the Temple with pagan idols and ordered the Jews to bow down to them.  He declared that the Jews could not follow their own customs, or pray to God.  Anyone caught breaking Antiochus’ rules would immediately be put to death.

 A brave young man named Judah rallied the Jews to fight back. He and his brothers led a small band of Jewish fighters against the might of Antiochus’s army.  The Jewish rebels hid in caves in the mountains and attacked the Syrian army at every possible opportunity.  The fighters became known as the Maccabees from the Hebrew word for hammer, because of the way that they hammered at their enemies.

 Although the Maccabees were greatly outnumbered by Antiochus’s army, they fought bravely, recapturing Jerusalem and reclaiming the Temple.  Their victory over the Syrians was truly a triumph of will and courage. 

 When the Maccabees entered the holy Temple, they destroyed Antiochus’s pagan idols.  They scrubbed and cleaned, until every last trace of the Greek-Syrian ruler was gone.  Then it was time to light the Temple’s seven-branched menorah that was kept burning day and night with holy oil.  But when the Maccabees searched for oil to light the flames, all that could be found was one tiny jar – enough to burn for only a day.  Miraculously, however, that small jar lasted for eight days, giving the Jews enough time to make more.

 The holiday of Hanukkah celebrates two miracles, the extraordinary victory of the Maccabees over the cruel and mighty king, and the miracle of the small jar of oil that burned for eight days and nights.   For each of the eight days of Hanukkah, Jews light a candle in a special eight branched menorah.  Other Hanukkah traditions include eating delicious foods fried in oil like potato latkes (pancakes) and jelly donuts, and playing the game of dreidl with its four Hebrew letters that stand for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham and mean “A Great Miracle Happened There”.

What is a dreidl?

A dreidl is a four-sided spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side. The letters, nun, gimel, hey and shin, stand for the words Nes gadol hayah sham – A great miracle happened there.
In Israel, the sham is replaced with a peh, and the word sham is replaced with po to say A great miracle happened here, as the Hanukkah miracles took place in what is now the State of Israel.

Why is the game played on Hanukkah?

Some say that the game was played during the time of the Maccabees. Under the rule of King Antiochus, the Greek-Syrian king, Jews would be severely punished if they studied Torah or prayed to God. Religious Jews would keep a dreidl on hand when they gathered to study or pray, and if the King’s soldiers came to check on them, the Jews would pretend they were simply playing a game of dreidl.

Others believe that the game of dreidl was created to help children remember the miracles of Hanukkah.

(And others believe that the game was adopted for Hanukkah from a 16th century European gambling game.)

The Dreidl Game – Directions:

This game is most fun with 3 or more people. You can use pennies, Hanukkah gelt, smarties, or whatever you’d like as playing pieces.

1.Divide the playing pieces equally amongst the players. Each player puts a playing piece into the middle to make the pot.

2.Youngest player spins the dreidl first. If it lands on:

Gimel – the player takes the whole pot. Then each player puts in a playing piece to replace the pot.

Hey – the player takes half the pot.

Nun – the player takes nothing.

Shin – the player puts in a playing piece.

3. Once the player’s turn is complete, the next player spins. Players are knocked out of the game when they lose all of their playing pieces. The last player to remain is the winner.

The Dreidl Song

There are numerous dreidl songs, but amongst the best known is I had a Little Dreidl. Here are the lyrics.

I had a little dreidl,
I made it out of clay,
And when it’s dry and ready,
Then dreidl I will play.

CHORUS
Oh dreidl, dreidl, dreid,
I made it out of clay,
And when it’s dry and ready,
Then dreidl I will play.

Now continue the song, making up your own verses, like the samples below. Be as silly as you’d like.

I had a little dreidl,
I made it out of mud,
But when I tried to spin it,
It fell down with a thud.

CHORUS
I had a little dreidl,
I made it out of glue,
But when I tried to spin it,
It stuck right to my shoe.

Now you continue…

You can find more Hanukkah songs and find more song links at www.hebrewsongs.com/chanukah.htm

Ingredients
(for one menorah)

5 two-bite brownies (you can make your own, if you’d like, using your favourite brownie recipe and a mini-muffin tin)
6 sandwich cookies
9 small orange jelly beans (or red – these are your flames, so you choose)
Icing (store-bought is fine, or you can just make a paste with icing sugar and a few drops of milk or water)
9 toothpicks
A cardboard rectangle – about 11 inches by 3 inches (this can be cut from a shoe box, or any other box)
Tin foil – enough to completely cover the cardboard so that your menorah base is silver

1.Using icing as glue, stick the five sandwich cookies to your tinfoil base. You can place them in a row, or curve them – your choice.

2.Decide which cookie will hold your shamash (centre or at one side). Then icing glue an extra cookie onto your shamash cookie so that the shamash will be elevated.

3.Icing glue a two-bite brownie onto each sandwich cookie. These are your candle holders.

4.Stick a toothpick into each jelly bean. These are your candles. Then put one toothpick candle into your shamash candle holder and two into each of the other candle holders.

5.Take a moment to admire your lovely menorah before you and your friends gobble it up!