Chanukah traditions

Mozone00

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 8:19 pm

Hi all!

I'm a gi'eret and my husband is Ba'al t'chuvah so holidays for us are newish. We have children now and want to start doing traditions neither of us grew up with.

What are some tradition's you all do on chanukah, I.e., songs, menorah placements, gifting, what you eat and when's your meal, etc.

Thanks in advance! (P.s. I don't do many decoration's but my rabbi did okay them.)

thunderstorm

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 8:33 pm

Lighting the menorah, I make latkes one night, we have doughnuts for dessert all 8 nights, we play dreidel and everyone gets to keep the money they are left with. My mother used to give us 8 cheap gifts one each night, I just give my kids one present on the first night . But they tend to get presents from relatives on other nights . My mother is a BT and my father a get, but my father was very close to the family he lived by he was a Ben bay it by them and we refer to them as our Bobby and zaidy aNd they always made a grand Chanukah party every year. We also celebrated Chanukah with my mothers non frum family. My uncle keeps my mothers kosher keilim when she comes and we had beautiful Chanukah parties there with the highlight being a "present exchange". I started my own tradition last year and plan on continuing, I had all my siblings and their kids sleep over for a grand shabbos Chanukah. We had a really beautiful shabbos . I would suggest joining a close friends Chanukah party or you host one for your friends as it seems like you may not have family to join you

working hard

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 9:18 pm

After lighting Menorah we give out "menorah treats" to my kids. As they get older that will change to gelt - Money. We do not give our children gifts on purpose on Chanukah. Gelt is a minhag you find mentioned early on in Jewish sources. Gifts only came much later. They do get gifts from other people. I do give gifts to teachers, therapists...
We have Chanukah parties together with family or friends on some nights. We play driedel as a family after lighting the Menorah. My husband dances with the kids after we light each night.
I serve latkes once, donuts once, fried french fries once, maybe french toast, depending on the year.

amother

Black

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 9:24 pm

We started this tradition because we wanted to do something special for our very young children. They didn't really like latkas and while they enjoyed the donuts we did one of the nights, I didn't want to buy them every night. They are in elementary school now and still enjoy it very much.

we play hot & cold with Chanukah chocolate coins. The first night we hide one coin, until the 8th night when they get 8 chocolate coins to find. Its always a hustle and bustle who will hide for who and then shouting hotter hotter and it makes for a lot of fun and warm memories. We don't have much family to celebrate with and it made for a festive party atmosphere even though it was "just" us.

pause

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 10:04 pm

Our schedule is the same every night. DH comes home from ma'ariv, lights immediately, sings and dances with kids, and in the half-hour he sits by the menorah, I finish up supper prep. Then we sit down together to eat.

Every night I make one special Chanuka food or dessert (potato latkes, cheese latkes, donuts, pudding, etc,) and one night I make a family party for my dh and kids. I set the table with matching paper goods, hang posters, and serve a beautiful supper. Then we do the gifts. When my kids were younger we just played dreidel and when you got a gimmel, you opened your gift. Lately we've been doing a treasure hunt with clues (age-appropriate) which turns it into a full-fledged activity.

I believe that we should be giving money rather than gifts. But because at other family Chanuka parties, they get gifts from all the grandmothers and cousins, I feel like why should they be getting less from their parents? (and yes, money is less valuable to kids than gifts)

seeker

Sun, Nov 13 2016, 10:07 pm

I think the traditions that end up being the most treasured are your own family's unique habits that make you bonded to each other more than to the anonymous everyone who does the traditional traditions. Don't know if that makes sense. Sometimes things just evolve.

We make sure to get together with my sibling who lives the closest to us and all their kids. We have a sort of collective birthday celebration at the same time because between both our families there are a number of birthdays around that season. I always take a picture of the kids in front of the menorahs after lighting them on a random day and on the last day (then again, we also always had a traditional erev rosh hashanah and sukkos picture and I totally missed those this year Sad

I think it's nice to have an album of the same things each year to watch how we've grown. Maybe I'll fake the RH one now...does that count?!) We always play dreidel.

I'd like to start some more things now. Maybe a decorating the house tradition. Whatever the kids make will do, just something to make it festive. And I'd like to add in something that involves spreading the joy to others, maybe I'll see if there's anything going on for the elderly in our community that we can participate in. I think my kids are old enough and they are used to being around elderly people because of relatives (I would wait until they're older or have more exposure before going to an event with an unfamiliar population)

animeme

Mon, Nov 14 2016, 7:41 am

I hang the kids' school projects on the walls around where we light the menorahs, and we may others that we hang as well. The Torah Tots website has nice coloring sheet print outs. We also hang some things in the windows, as part of publicizing the miracle.

At least one night, we do a big family dreidel game. One night, we give the kids books. We try to spend time by the menorah with the kids after it's lit, or have a big family meal at the dining room table (unusual for the weekday) and we can see the candles from the table. We also sometimes have the kids' pictures under a plastic tablecloth- they like that.

We like to do one gift of a kit/project that we can all work on together. And we try to do one family day trip. Sometimes that's a Barnes and Noble or toy store run so the kids can buy with the get we give them.

amother

Linen

Mon, Nov 14 2016, 7:58 am

pause wrote:

Our schedule is the same every night. DH comes home from ma'ariv, lights immediately, sings and dances with kids, and in the half-hour he sits by the menorah, I finish up supper prep.

Your evening sounds really nice. I was a little surprised that you cook while the candles are burning. In our home, and most that I know (MO, if that matters) women don't work during this time.

At least on the first night, we try to have over someone who would otherwise be lighting alone. We do have presents, but they are small, usually a game or toy that can be used right away.

sky

Mon, Nov 14 2016, 10:08 am

We don't have minhag that women don't work while the candles are burning (so I could cook, do laundry, etc) - but it is common.

We try to make different things each night.
- Donuts (I find baking them much easier) and then decorate with a bunch of icings and sprinkles. if fry then fill with a medicine syringe and custard.
- Sugar cookies cut like menorah, driedel.
- Latkes, everyone peels and grates.

My DH comes home from work very late, so many times I light with my kids (only the boys light) and we all sing songs after.

I find little things make my kids excited - like chanuka plates or napkins to serve the latkes.