I've been wanting to make a Hanukkah "advent calender" of sorts. We celebrate Hanukkah not because we're Jewish, but because it's a fun holiday - you know - Eight Crazy Nights!! Kenny, Coco, LaLa, and Avi started celebrating it a few years ago, too! It's nice to slow the whole gift giving thing down a bit; you space out the gifts rather than throwing a whole pile at someone all at once. It helps kids, especially, to slow down and really appreciate and focus on the individual gifts that they receive. So, here is the banner I made:
The flames are velcro so Mira can "light" the candles of the menorah each night of Hanukkah without worrying about burns or dripping wax all over the place.
Here is a close-up with all the flames in place.
There are eight pockets to hold gelt and any other little gifts to exchange each night. They each have a symbol of Hanukkah on them: an oil lamp, Nun side of the dreidel, skillet with latkes, Shin side of the dreidel, Gimel side of the dreidel, the Star of David, Hei side of the dreidel, and gelt!
Here is our Christmas tree behind the fortress that keeps out prying fingers! Mira is VERY interested in the tree and presents. She has already reached through to half-way unwrap a gift and yank some decorations off the tree. I kept it super-simple this year and only put up my snowflake ornaments. You can also see our Menorrah on the mantel with the dreidals. Stockings are hung, but I don't like them. They are all mis-matchy still and none are really very pretty. Next year, the whole family will definitely have beautiful, coordinating stockings, but...to make or to buy, ahh, that is the question!
As an after-thought, I realized Mira should have her own tree. But, since she is such a terror to the big tree, I didn't think it was a good idea to put a tree with ornaments in her room. We'll save that for next year or the next when she can help pick out ornaments, decorate, and resist tearing it to shreds! For now, we'll stick to this pretty ribbon tree; if she pulls this one apart, I can re-glue it or just toss it!
We have minimal decorations outside, so I didn't include photos of that. I think that's just about all our decorations. I know, very bland at our house! Oh, we do have the mistletoe hung! Mira has already learned that when we're standing under it, it's time to pucker up, baby!! We just love those free kisses!!!
How to play the Dreidel Game
(taken from Wikipedia.com)
Each player begins with an equal number of game pieces (usually 10-15). The game pieces can be any object, such as pennies, raisins, or chocolate coins.
At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game piece into the center "pot". In addition, every time the pot is empty and sometimes if it has one game piece left, every player puts one in the pot.
Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. Depending on which side is facing up when it stops spinning, they give or take game pieces from the pot:
a) If nun (נ) is facing up, the player does nothing.
b) If gimmel (ג) is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.
c) If hei (ה) is facing up, the player gets half of the pieces in the pot. (If there is an odd number, they get half of the total plus one)
d) If shin (ש) is facing up, the player adds a game piece to the pot.
If the player is out of pieces, they are either "out" or may ask another player for a "loan."
Happy Holidays!!
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