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Hanukkah Party Planning Guide
All the party supplies, recipes & tips you'll need to throw a fantastic Hanukkah party for kids or adults
Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights, is a wonderful celebration of family, faith, and traditions. The history of this holiday dates back to more than 2,000 years ago when the Jewish freedom fighters, the Maccabees, recaptured Jerusalem and the Jewish people were able to return to their city to rededicate their Temple. The miracle that is celebrated is that the small amount of oil found in the temple burned for eight days instead of only one, which basically gave the priest they sent out on an "oil run" that they knew was no daytrip, enough time to get back before the "eternal" light went out! It is because of this that the celebration continues for eight days and is known as the Festival of Lights.
Here's are our suggestions to help you throw a memorable, significant, fun gathering for your friends and family, and some ideas to help you create a wonderfully festive atmosphere for your Hanukkah get-together!
Invitations
& Decorating
For your invitations, we offer a bright and lively pattern called Bright
Dreidel that is great for a party that includes guests of all ages.
If you wish to send a more formal, printed invitation, we have many to choose from but we suggest our Versailles Invitation in silver to prepare the guests for an elegant affair this holiday season!
Probably the most important single item to have on hand for a Hanukkah celebration is the Menorah. You could use one as a centerpiece for your holiday table, or scatter a collection of them around the house to create an ambience of candlelight for a larger party. Some of the menorahs we feature on our site are truly works of art, so check them out. Barring a new miracle for the modern era, the key to making your menorah lights last longer is to use beeswax candles, which burn WAY WAY longer (and cleaner) than the cheap petroleum-based wax Hanukkah candles you can get in most local supermarkets or drugstores.
For this holiday, as for most holidays, you'll want to set a beautiful table.
Place some dreidels down the center of your table
for a youthful touch of whimsy, perhaps surrounding some beautiful
flowers.
Place a bag of gelt, the chocolate money in small
mesh bags that is very popular this season at each
table setting, then attach a placecard to it with a ribbon.
Decorate your house with streamers, confetti, balloons, etc, using the traditional Hanukkah colos of blue, white, and silver. Our party supply affiliates have many beautiful options for you to choose from, as well as some lovely party invitations to start your guest off in a festive frame of mind.
Party Activities
Ask each guest to come prepared to share an inspiring story of a miracle that has touched them in a special way in the past year. Giving guests the opportunity to prepare will make this a very special activity - encourage them to bring photographs or any other props that would be appropriate to their story. You might even want to record the stories on video tape, or on a tape cassette recorder.
Choose your favorite board or card games, and then set up several small card tables around a room. Play the traditional Hanukkah dreidel game first, and when everyone's all spinned out, guests can rotate to other tables, and choose their favorite games. You can even award prizes or party favors for the "winners"
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Not traditional, but awfully fun PINATAS you bet... fill
with Kosher
chocolate gelt
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Instead
of a traditional "Cookie Exchange", have
a latke exchange! Ask everyone make their favorite latke
recipe (enough for everyone that will be attending the
party), and then at the end, share everyone's favorite recipe! Latkes
are best cooked fresh anyway, so what I like to do for my parties
is sign up friends who I know won't burn the kitchen down to either
come a little early to help with prep, or take 1 hr latkes cooking
shifts (2 on duty at a time) throughout the party, which gives me
time to mingle with my guests! And the guest cooks have a total blast.
It's a great way for people who don't know each other that well to
interact, and get first dibs on the new latke flavors emerging from
the oven, so much so, that it's often hard to get people to leave
the kitchen!!!! I've had my party for so long now, I get advance
sign-ups for kitchen duty!!! It's hilarious, and something I highly
recommend.
Involve all your guests in experiencing the Music of Hanukkah. Print out the words on a song sheet so even your non-Jewish friends can join in singing all the traditional blessings. For a special treat, invite a Cantor into your home to sing for you, or have a friend who plays guitar learn a song or two and lead a holiday sing-along. Or, if your friends are really lovely people (truly!) but just not all that musically gifted, try out some of our recommended Hanukkah CDs for some background music for your party that's sure to set just the right mood.
For kids, you may want to involve them in some coloring or craft activities, or in a group activity of watching a Hanukkah Video or DVD.
And lastly, don't let your pet feel left out. Even though Fido can't have so many latkes o matter how much he thinks he wants them and tries to convince your guests you never EVER feed him EVER, he CAN have a Hannukah toy, and celebrate the season right alongside his family.
Food Ideas
Fast & Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays
In addition to great
menus for every Jewish holiday, Sorosky includes a short history of the occasion,
the appropriate blessings, decorations and centerpieces, and essential
religious items and foods--in short, everything you need to know and
have to make your holiday meal a success. What's more, she provides
a game plan for organizing your time in the kitchen and getting everything
on the table at the right time and temperature. As an added bonus,
Sorosky includes "Extra Points": special projects for children,
invitation ideas, or special decorations to lift your celebration above
the ordinary.
More Jewish Holiday Cooking & Entertaining Books
It's all about the latkes, baby!
But for kids parties, and for host and hostess gifts for you to bring to a Hanukkah party you might be attending, we've also got some Kosher Chocolate Gelt as well as festive some Gourmet & Novelty Party Packs.
Favors
Felt
Menorah Bag
You may want to send your guests home with a small token gift that speaks volumes about what they mean to you and how much you appreciate that they came to your gathering. Our party supply affiliates have many inexpensive, but fun, options for you to choose from.
Gifts
In the US, Hanukah has taken on a bit of commercialization just like Christmas has, and most parents who can afford it will generally buy gifts for their children on this holiday, some extravegant, some not; some one present for each day, some one present for the Holiday, and some people just give their kids money. Many adults forgo gifts for other adult family members, and instead choose to send each other cards. To help you find the right thing to send, we've put together the following sections to point you in the right direction.
