18 Festive Hanukkah Crafts and Recipes for Kids

DIY Dreidels

Put your own spin on these brilliant dreidel decorations! Open one each night to reveal a special family activity.

What You'll Need: Dreidel template, scissors, pencil, cardstock, black marker, wood craft stick, tape, ribbon.

What To Do: Print the dreidel template, cut it out, and trace it onto eight pieces of colored cardstock. Assemble following the directions on the template (you'll need a black marker, wood craft stick, and tape). Before closing the dreidels, have each kid write a family activity idea on a slip of paper (no peeking!) and tuck it into a dreidel, then add your own surprise ideas to the rest. Hang with ribbon.

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Sand Art Menorah and Candles

Your child can use their favorite colors to make this DIY menorah, which they can safely keep in their room for years to come.

What You'll Need: Small glass jars, one large glass jar, funnel, colored sand, scissors, silver straws, yellow grosgrain ribbon.

To Make the Sand Art: Start with eight small glass jars, plus one larger one (we used spice jars). Using a funnel, help your child pour colored sand into the jars, one color at a time. Alternate the colors and the amount you add. To slant a layer, tilt the jar as you pour; for a flat layer, tap the jar after pouring.

To Make the Candles: Trim nine silver straws to your desired height (ours were 4 inches tall). Cut nine 3-inch-long pieces of ½-inch-wide yellow grosgrain ribbon. Knot each in the middle, push into the straw, and trim the ends. When you're ready to "light" your menorah, press the straw candle gently into the sand.

To Store: Remove candles, pack with cotton balls, and screw on caps. Keep upright.

Eight Crazy Cookies

Count down the eight nights of Hanukkah with these festive cookies.

What You'll Need: Sugar cookies, white icing, blue edible color markers, plastic bag, and blue ribbon.

What To Do: Whip up a batch of your favorite cookie dough and use a knife or a cookie cutter to make the numbers 1 through 8 and some extra stars of David. Once the cookies are baked and cooled, cover the tops with white icing and let dry. Finish off by adding extra designs with a blue edible color marker, and then gather then in a plastic bag tied with a festive bow.

Visit Prudent Baby for more details on Eight Crazy Cookies.

Dreidel Wrapping Paper

DIY your own wrapping paper for your eight Hanukkah gifts.

What You'll Need: Foam food trays, scissors, blue paint, pen, roller, white art paper.

What To Do: Cut plastic foam food trays into four blocks to use as stamps. On the back of each block, draw the outline of a dreidel with a ballpoint pen, pressing hard. Draw backwards Hebrew symbols within each dreidel (symbols will be reversed when stamped). Add lines to fill in the extra space surrounding dreidel. Using a roller, roll paint over the plastic foam blocks, and press image onto white art paper. Let paint dry completely before you wrap the gift, and top with a matching bow.

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DIY Stacked Candles

With a simple process and kid-friendly steps, you can transform a bag of wax and colorful crayons into pretty candles. These instructions make about three or four crafts for Hanukkah.

What You'll Need: Soy wax flakes (available on Amazon or in craft stores), wide-mouth half-pint Mason jar, crayon, fine microplane grater, wooden skewers, silicone mold (we like this oval eight-cavity one), tabbed candlewicks.

What To Do:

1. Add ¼ cup wax flakes to Mason jar. Microwave for about 60 seconds, or until wax is liquefied. Remove the paper from one crayon and grate into the wax. Stir well with a skewer. Pour into one cup of the mold, filling about ½ inch.

2. Add 2 Tbs. more wax to jar and melt for 30 to 45 seconds in microwave, or until it's liquid. Let cool for about a minute. Pour into another cup of the mold, filling about ½ inch. Repeat diluting, melting wax, and filling cups until the mold is filled.

3. When wax begins to solidify and turn opaque, poke the flat side of a skewer through the center and remove. (This will happen at different speeds for each cup you poured, so keep an eye on them as they're hardening. Set a timer for about ten minutes so you don't miss the window.) Let cool completely, popping the mold into the fridge for faster results.

4. Carefully remove wax squares from mold. Use the pointy end of a skewer, twisting carefully, to open up any holes if needed. Repeat steps 1 to 4 to make eight lighter layers.

5. For each candle, thread 4 to 5 layers onto a wick. Trim wick to ½ inch.

By Amy Palanjian from FamilyFun

Happy Hanukkah Brownies

Celebrate the season with this easy technique for dressing up a batch of brownies. Cut a pan of your favorite brownies into dreidel shapes. Spread the dreidels with colored frosting, then use white hard-drying icing to embellish them as shown. Finish the dreidels with a pretzel stick handle.

Originally published in the December/January 2014 issue of FamilyFun magazine

Menorah Craft

Make this no-flame menorah for a kid-friendly Hanukkah craft.

What You'll Need: Wooden spools, number stickers, acrylic paints in different shades of blue, sponge brushes, pencil, rubber band, colored pencils, yellow eraser pencil toppers.

What To Do: Line up and label the sides of eight spools from 1 to 8 with number stickers, and add one larger spool to the center. To make it easier to paint a spool, wrap a rubber band around a pencil a third of the way down and insert it into the spool. Use a sponge brush to dab paint on the spool. Let dry completely and remove the sticker. Line spools up in numerical order from right to left, with the taller spool in the middle or on the left. Insert a colored pencil into a spool each night and "light" by capping with an eraser.

Paper Tops

Use materials you have laying around the house to make a version of this traditional Jewish toy.

What You'll Need: Toothpick, construction paper, scissors, glue.

What To Do: Cut 1/4 inch wide strips of colorful construction paper. Glue the edge of the paper to the toothpicks a little bit above the tapered edge and let dry. Roll the paper tightly around the toothpick, and secure the end with glue. Glue on another strip and continue rolling until your disc is about 1 inch thick. Push the paper downwards, toward the toothpick point, with your thumb to create a bowl shape.

Potato Latkes

Stack up your potato pancakes to give each of your guests a leaning tower of latkes.

What You'll Need: 10 russet potatoes, 4 yellow onions, peeled and halved, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup matzoh meal, Canola oil, Kosher salt, sour cream, and apple sauce.

What To Do: Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Using the food processor, shred the potatoes and onions together. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and place shredded potatoes and onions into the bowl. Stir in the matzoh meal and season generously with salt and pepper. Then, heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Using an ice cream scoop, drop the latke batter in the oil and flatten gently with a spatula. Cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Serve hot, with apple "smash" and sour cream on the side.

• Recipe for Classic Hanukkah Latkes

Acorn Spinners

Take advantage of nature and turn these winter acorns into a fun, festive craft for Hanukkah.

What You'll Need: Acorn shells, modeling clay in different colors, matches.

What To Do: Shape a small piece of the modeling clay into an elongated ball, and stuff the clay into the acorn shell, giving it a little shape at the top. Place a match in the center of the modeling clay and let it dry.

Dreidel Straws

Spin the dreidel and sip through some decorative dreidel straws.

What You'll Need: Straws, blue felt, scissors, glue.

What To Do: Cut dreidel shapes from blue felt, and then cut two slits in the middle to thread the straw through. Secure the felt to the straw with a small dab of glue and add to your drinks.

Visit Creative Jewish Mom for more details on Dreidel Straws.

Felt Latkes

Make a few latkes that will last all Hanukkah long with these fantastic felt creations.

What You'll Need: Felt or other fabric, stuffing, thread, needle, pancake flipper, glue.

What To Do: Fold over the brown felt and then cut out two identical roundish shapes to make your "latke." Layer your stuffing between the two pieces, and then top-stitch in a circular spiral pattern from outside to inside. Glue the latke onto a pancake flipper or spatula.

Visit Birkat Chaverim Blog for more details on Felt Latkes

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Hanukkah Countdown Calendar

Recycle your old magazines into this super-fun wall-hanging decoration. It's definitely an eye-catching Hanukkah craft!

What You'll Need: Magazines, scissors, streamers, envelopes, glue.

What To Do: Cut out blue and white scraps from magazines, and then cut out numbers, rectangles, and six-sided stars. Glue the numbers, 1 through 8, onto the rectangles—and add all the decorations to the streamers however you like. Attach the envelopes to the streamers, and then tuck a piece of chocolate into each envelope. Let your kids open an envelope each day during Hanukkah.

Visit Forty-Two Roads for more details on Hanukkah Countdown Calendar.

Pom Pom Garland

Use the traditional colors of Hanukkah, blue and white, to make this garland.

What You'll Need: Blue and white fleece, scissors, pins, thread, yarn or rope.

What To Do: Cut the blue and white fleece into similar sized strips, about 2 inches thick and 12 inches long. Then make small cuts all the way up the long side of the fleece strips, leaving about a centimeter or less in the middle uncut. Starting from one of the ends, tightly roll the fleece (like a sushi roll) and stick a pin in to hold it at the end. Grab some thread and tie it around the center, double knot it, and then knot it around your yarn or rope to hang.

Visit Prudent Baby for more details on Pom Pom Garland.

Hanukkah Greetings

Celebrate the Festival of Lights by brightening your friends' and family's day with this DIY greeting card.

What You'll Need: White cardstock, magazines or scraps of wrapping paper, glue, scissors.

What To Do: Cut out scraps from recycled magazines or extra pieces of wrapping paper, and then help your kids glue a nine-candle menorah to white cardstock. Fold the cardstock in half, and add yellow flames to the tops of the candles. Write a message inside and give to your friends and family as a Hanukkah greeting card.

Visit Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish for more details on Hanukkah Greetings.

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Marshmallow Dreidels

Give your kids a little salty-sweet chocolate treat with these edible marshmallow dreidels.

What You'll Need: Jumbo marshmallows, stick pretzels, Nutella Hazelnut spread, chocolate candy kisses, cake decorating gel.

What To Do: Push a pretzel into the flat side of the marshmallow. Use the Nutella as "glue" to attach the kiss to the flat end of the marshmallow. Then pipe on one of the four Hebrew dreidel letters onto the surface of the marshmallow with blue cake decorating gel, and let them dry for a few hours.

Visit The Shiksa in the Kitchen for more details on Marshmallow Dreidels.

Popsicle Stick Decorations

This easy craft for Hanukkah is great for even your littlest ones.

What You'll Need: Popsicle sticks, acrylic paint, paintbrush, yellow construction paper, scissors, hot glue gun.

What To Do: Arrange your popsicle sticks into festive Hanukkah decorations like a dreidel or a menorah. Paint the sticks, and then use a hot glue gun to attach the sticks to form the shapes. For the menorah, cut flames from construction paper and glue them to the tops of the menorah candles.

Visit Creative Jewish Mom for more details on Popsicle Stick Decorations.

Apple Smash

Serve your own chunky-style apple "smash" with your latkes.

What You'll Need: 4 Golden Delicious apples (peeled, cored, and cut into bite-size pieces), 1/2 cup apple juice, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

What To Do: Place the first four ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Smash with a potato masher. Then, spoon into serving bowls and sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Makes 6 servings. Find the full recipe here.