Have you seen what’s in the Chanukah aisle of your local grocery?? (Asking seriously. I successfully avoided that aisle with kids until one solo trip when it was safe for me to check it out.)

OMG the amount of Chanukah themed toys, candies, crafts and general junk you can buy today. The consumerism this holiday has generated is astounding and kind of impressive.

But you don’t need themed paper plates, window decorations or matching family pajamas. (It’s me, I love that stuff.) You also don’t need to decorate cookies or make Pinterest-y crafts. (Not me at all! Though we actually made mini doughnuts… in an easy peasy electric machine.)

You could do all that. Or none of that. You get to decide what Chanukah looks like and feels like in your home.

I’ve been thinking about this recently - thinking about what values and messages I really want to impart, and then how to work backwards and incorporate them into everyday life. (Topic for another email?)

Anyways, if you…

-are freaking out that time is ticking candles are burning and you haven’t “done anything for Chanukah”...

- want to get in a last hurrah…

-just want to be reminded that you can celebrate without spending money…

Here you go:

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Free, no-prep, do-it-tonight Chanukah activities:

• Put plastic dreidels in the bath
• Actually play dreidel (other than real coins or chocolate coins, some ideas of things in your house to use: chocolate chips, jelly beans, raisins, beans, nuts, pieces from board games like Connect Four)
• Print Chanukah images for the kids to color, and make a gallery wall in your house (WalderEducation.org has free printables)
• No printer? Draw your own images or cut a paper into a dreidel shape to decorate
• Play Chanukah music. My kids think this Rabbi B song is hilarious. (Benny Friedman’s album is great)
• Do math with the Chanukah candles. I’m holding 1 and you’re holding 1, how many is that? How many candles are left in the box? How many do we need tonight? If you need 8 and already have 3, how many more should you take? How many has each person used in total over the whole Chanukah?

And guess what… you can do all this after Chanukah is over, too. Even after it ends on the calendar, you can keep the Chanukah books out. If anything, now that your child has experienced it, they will have a better understanding of what they’ve learned in school or what they see in the illustrations. They can match the songs to what they see in the home.

Happy rest of Chanukah!