The special way my family celebrates Hanukkah is by engaging in family-focused activities each night after the Hanukkah meal and lighting of the candles. Choosing to focus on activities the entire family can enjoy AND taking the time to actually do these activities helps us have a holiday that’s filled with light and brightness.
In order to adequately plan these family-focused activities each Hanukkah, I use my Hanukkah Family-Focused Planner each year. It lets me plan activities and meals to make Hanukkah full of family fun and tasty food. If you’d like a free printable of the Hanukkah Family-Focused Planner, just sign up below!
Update: Thanks to everyone’s comments and emails for new ideas to incorporate in this unusual year! We’ve updated this article with our finalized plan and are happy to share some traditional to us family-focused activities, as well as some new ones we’re trying this year. Hope you are inspired for ways to connect with your own family during the Festival of Lights!
Night 1: Open Presents
We always open all our presents the first night of Hanukkah. This strategy means the rest of the week the kids can look forward to the activities we do together instead of asking when we get to open presents. It also lets us use some of the Hanukkah gifts in our activity nights.
If you want to learn more about our Hanukkah Gift Strategy, check out our post on it here!
Night 2: Family Game Night
You can’t celebrate Hanukkah without playing dreidel! We bring out all our dreidels and gelt and enjoy playing together. But we also pull out our favorite family games and play those as well. A family game is also one of our gift categories each Hanukkah so we love getting the chance to play the new game for the first time during family game night.
Night 3: Popcorn & Movie Night
Hanukkah is definitely not the only time we do a family movie night but it still always feels special. We choose a movie we haven’t seen before that will work for the entire family. We make popcorn and all snuggle up on the couch together under blankets and watch the movie together.
Night 4: Craft Night
Another Hanukkah gift category we have is something to create. Usually this has to do with arts and crafts. We have held a craft night during multiple Hanukkahs where the kids get to explore their new arts and crafts and/or we work on a family project together.
Night 5: (PJ)Library & Ice Cream Night
A double special treat. In previous years, my kids always loved grabbing fun new books from the library and following it with a tasty treat. Thanks to a fabulous Instagram follower’s suggestion, we are now doing (PJ)Library & Ice Cream Sundae Night. We will read different PJ Library books and enjoy a tasty ice cream sundae bar. Most likely in our pajamas. Really, this sounds amazing!
Night 6: Make, Eat, & Give
I love the look of the Hanukkah Party Mix by RinOutLoud so decided we would dedicate a night to creating the adorable little candles and assembling some of the party mix. After assembling, we can of course eat our share. But we will also pack up little bags of it to share with friends and teachers. It’s an easy and delicious way to incorporate some tangible giving during the holiday, in addition to our dedicated tzedakah discussions and giving.
Night 7: Pamper Night
For our Pamper Night I’m planning on foot soaks and pedicures, hair brushing, face masks if people are up for it and whatever else sounds relaxing!
Night 8: Hot Cocoa & Home Movies
After our amazing trip to Iceland last summer (oh my gosh, was summer 2019 really only a year ago?! It feels like ages!) I made a movie on iMovie of our favorite still photos and video clips. The kids LOVE this movie and have asked to watch it again and again.
For this Hanukkah family-focus activity night, I plan to make a movie of the best 2020 video clips I have. I’m excited to reminisce with the kids about all the wonderful, silly, and fun times we had this year.
Before we snuggle on the couch for some home movie watching, we will first indulge in a delicious hot chocolate bar. Have you seen the hot cocoa bombs floating around? They look amazing! Looks like you can purchase pre-made ones or try making your own, like with iamafoodblog‘s recipe. Delish!
For 2021: Synagogue Hanukkah Night
Usually our synagogue invites families and friends to sign up one night during Hanukkah to host the menorah lighting. My family usually signs up to host on behalf of the young families and gather with the other families with young children one Hanukkah night. All families bring latkes and other foods. We eat, play dreidel, sing songs, light the menorah and watch the kids run around. It’s not quite a pure family-focus night since it’s not just our family, but it’s still focused on being together and celebrating the holiday together so it totally counts.
Of course the synagogue is not doing family-sponsored menorah lightings this year. We will miss seeing our synagogue friends this year but look forward to lighting the menorah with them again next year!
What family-focused activities would make Hanukkah special to you and your family? What are some of your favorite activities to experience together? Comment below!
For our Hanukkah 2020 resources, crafts and activities, check out our Hanukkah Round Up 2020 page!
Chag Sameach!!
And for general information about Hanukkah, check out these amazing resources:
