Scented Nature Mason Jar Hanukkiah

I always love incorporating nature into our arts and crafts, and I absolutely LOVE how the light of the hanukkiah fills our house, family, and world with more light and hope, so I was very excited to combine these two loves to create a Scented Nature Mason Jar Hanukkiah! And yes, I added some smelly goodness because I love filling my house with smells that make me feel good too!

I’ll be honest, I don’t like to make new hanukkiot every year. Our family tradition is for each of us to have our own hanukkiah that we light each night. If we make new hanukkiot every year our house would be overflowing with hanukkiot! But when I thought of what types of activities would I like to incorporate with oil this Hanukkah, I immediately thought how amazing it would be to create our own oil hanukkiah. All our other hanukkiot are candle based, but, as we know, the story of the Maccabees tells of the oil menorah and the miracle of the oil. I thought this would be a special hands-on craft to bring that miracle to life … and yes, to light!

What You’ll Need

9 Mason jars
Olive oil
Nature items
Essential oil in the scent of your choice
Floating wicks

Putting It Together

Gather nature items that feel beautiful and special to you. We spent a few different park adventures gathering mini pinecones, bark, greenery, and berries.
Invite your children to add these nature items to their mason jars. Do not pack the items in too tightly, as we want to be able to see them.
Once the nature items are in the mason jars as desired, pour olive oil into the jars until you reach the neck of the jar. This is a great task for a child to do–just pour some oil into a smaller pitcher that is easier for them to maneuver.
Squeeze a few drops of essential oil into the olive oil in the jars.
Add your floating wick. The kids were already really impressed that the wicks floated!
When you’re ready for a test drive, or on Hanukkah, light your Scented Nature Mason Jar Hanukkiah! In our test drive, my oldest was very excited to use the lighter and lit all 9 wicks. For the real deal on Hanukkah, I plan to light the first jar, our “shamash jar,” then use a match or even a candle to light from that jar and then light the other eight.
Screw the mason jar lids back on the jars when you are not using them to contain the smell so it doesn’t dissipate before Hanukkah!
Enjoy the beautiful lights and scent filling your house, your hearts, and our world!

Finished & Loving It!

This Scented Nature Mason Jar Hanukkiah craft was such a beautiful way to add some nature into our house and holiday, as well as discuss the importance of oil to the holiday of Hanukkah. The kids really enjoyed being active participants in all aspects of the craft. In fact, they loved it so much that we decided that we would make more of the mason jars to give as gifts to their teachers (don’t worry, not a full hanukkiah set of nine, just one per teacher to bring some light into their lives!)!

If your kids are anything like mine, they absolutely love collecting nature items. Like ALL THE TIME! So it took no encouragement at all for them to fill my purse with all these nature goodies while we were out and about.

Filling up nine mason jars, even the smaller size, does end up using a lot of nature items, especially if they are small items. We had collected two normal sized pinecones but the kids didn’t end up wanting to use them! So they filled our jars with small items and we quickly cleared our tray and our stash. But remember, the jars do not need to be packed! As soon as you add the oil, however many nature items are in the jar will look, and be, absolutely perfect.

The kids were really excited to have the opportunity to pour the olive oil into the jars. I used our small pitcher that has been so helpful with many pouring activities. Pouring activities are such a wonderful focus, concentration, and gross motor practice. We used almost an entire Costco-sized jug of olive oil for these nine mason jars.

We used eucalyptus essential oil because I just love the fresh smell of it, especially in this season when we are surrounded by so much sickness. You just need a few drops and instantly you will start smelling your chosen scent release into your house.

And when you light the wicks … there is just so much power in light, isn’t there? My twelve year old felt really proud of himself to do our test lighting (you can see the lighting in our reel on Instagram!). And once he lit all nine jars, we turned off all the lights and just stood there, mesmerized by the beauty of it.

Nature, scent, light … so much of the things we love filling us up. It truly gives me hope, which is what I always feel during Hanukkah. Just as our history has darkness and struggle, and our current times definitely do as well, we can bring the light, be the light, spread the light in so many ways. This Scented Nature Mason Jar Hanukkiah is just one small way of showing the light to your children and letting them be a part of it.