How to make chanukah exciting?

amother

Cadetblue

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 7:31 am

amother OP wrote:

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I see it's all a matter of perspective.
I must be emotionally ok with it and then my kids will have a great time.
Seems like we can have a nice time with just my kids but I must work on myself to be ok with it. And not just complain and kvetch that we have no parties. And everyone has so many... And no one invites us....(don't even have anyone to invite us)

Honestly I don’t enjoy the family parties at all. They start late, there’s pressure to get everyone dressed and out, they’re noisy and chaotic, kids are kvetchy and off schedule… I love our relaxed nights at home a lot more.

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 7:39 am

How about doing Chanukah around the world? Each night choose a different country and decorate the table with flags and things or animals from that country. Serve traditional foods from that place.

amother

Lemon

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 11:54 am

We don’t have family nearby. We enjoy our cozy evenings together with special food, and time for chatting, playing games, looking at old photos…. Sometimes we invite people over too.

amother

Cappuccino

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 3:52 pm

We do something special every night after lighting menorah:
One night donuts
One night chocolate coins
One night latkas
One night presents
One night play dreidel
One night make chanuka cookies
One night a chanuka party in our house just with our family with Chanukah paper goods and pizza sushi fries or sesame chicken and Frank’s n blanks
One night decorate donuts
Except Friday night we don’t do anything because right after lighting menorah it’s time to light shabbos candles and we have something special for shabbos chanuka like roast or minute steaks

newmother

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 4:42 pm

nicole81 wrote:

Here's what I do, as it's usually just us;

I make a big batch of sufganiyot before chanukah and freeze the raw, risen circles. Before lighting I take enough circles out for the family to let thaw and then make them fresh while the kids set up the table with donut decorating items, toppings, and frostings. Every night we have a mini sufganiyot party.

I also usually get a new game for the family that we play on some night.

I make a Kahoot with questions about chanukah, random facts, and funny questions about family members.

Can you please share your recipe for sufganiyot?
Thanks!

amother

Tangerine

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 4:57 pm

amother OP wrote:

I don't want to get depressed. We have no friends and family. No parties every night... Don't want it to be lonely for my kids. Want them to have good memories of chanukah, despite my loneliness.
How can I make it special?

Same same. But chanuka is a good time here. We decorate the living with amazing savings chanuka decorations. Set up a table with a chanuka tablecloth and paper goods and dreidels, coins etc. We light together, read and play near the menora, go to the chabad event, invite a couple of older single neighbors for latkes, play dreidel, and go on a little family outing one of the days. Love chanuka.

amother

Babyblue

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 6:02 pm

We don't have any family nearby and our community has a very family centered Chanukah. Everyone is at extended family parties every night. My kids are young (4 kids, oldest is 5) so it's a bit easier to have easy fun Smile

Every night after Menorah we do a special activity. Here are some things we've done:
Cookie baking
Cookie decorating
Paint party
Giant blow up dreidel for a dreidel game
Make puppets and a Chanukah puppet show
Pizza making
Donut shop and choose donuts

One night we go to a public menorah lighting and have a cozy latke supper in pajamas, one night we have a neighborhood party and on Sunday of Chanukah we take a family trip usually to visit an elderly uncle about an hour or so away and bring latkes with us.

We also do little things, have Chanukah paper goods for supper and Chanukah napkins on the shabbos table, decorate our envelopes for Chanukah gelt, have chocolate coins just because, and really try to enjoy Chanukah as a family

amother

Petunia

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 7:47 pm

Know the game that you wrap st with newspaper over and over until its a huge ball? you pass it around while the music goes, and when the music stops the kid that has the 'ball' gets to unwrap the top sheet.

A friend of mine did something adorable. she took an empty sheital head - Elipornies Head! and wrapped it into a huge ball! The kids had the best laugh that night Very Happy

amother

Hotpink

Sun, Dec 11 2022, 1:40 pm

I think you can create an atmosphere that will feel exciting. Play Chanukah music in your house. Get some inexpensive decorations and paper goods to dress things up. Use a blue and white theme on your table. Get some inexpensive blue, white and silver balloons or inexpensive white and blue flowers from the grocery store. Put some chocolate gelt on the table as an accent.

Dance with your baby after candlelighting.
Serve dairy foods and latkes or splurge on a fun platter of Sushi shaped like a Chanukiah. Enjoy some sufganiyot.

Buy some inexpensive gifts and let your baby rip open the paper. Maybe you and your dh can exchange some gifts as well such as a great book or a manicure or a massage. Or keep it to gelt and put some money aside for an experience you can enjoy together. I think it's having a special thing to look forward to that will make it fun for you.

Find a single parent family, a student, or an elderly neighbor and surprise them with a cookie platter or even invite them to join you for dinner.

LovesHashem

Sun, Dec 11 2022, 2:01 pm

See I have family so I do have parties but I like to take a few nights to just enjoy our little immediate family, and we do lots of the stuff people mentioned here.

I'm looking forward to chanukah so much and I'm really just excited about making cookies and latkes and decorating and lighting with hubby and the kids. The chanukah parties for family will be fun but it's loud and noisy and many people and the kids will be off schedule. I'm not super looking forward to them.

The only part of chanukah parties I look forward to is not having to cook 😂 so it's really all about perspective.