I love it when Hanukkah comes early in December and doesn't have to share the spotlight with another holiday..no offense to Thanksgiving or Christmas. It's just nice to have some room to breathe. I was raised Jewish, in a mixed-faith family, so we always had a little bit of everything going on in our house. We had a menorah and a Christmas tree...potato latkes, Christmas ham...Santa even made appearances. Suffice to say, every year I have a slight holiday identity crisis that comes from hitting this kind of childhood holiday jackpot. :)
Hanukkah, for those who don't know, is not a religious holiday. It is a celebration of light and hope and just happens to occur around the same time as Christmas. It is no more like Christmas than say...Groundhog Day. Historically, Jews have never really been into decorating for it. We like to keep things simple...place our menorah in a window if possible, but that's about the extent of it.
That being said, I do enjoy making special decorations for the holiday. It makes me feel good to personalize our celebration and share crafty moments with my daughter. I enjoy spending time preparing for the holiday and getting in the spirit. I also like using the projects as a way to teach my daughter about the customs and traditions that we celebrate each year.
Clever Hanukkah crafts can be hard to come by, which is ultimately what drove me to distraction this year as I surfed Pinterest for hours trying to come up with clever ways to celebrate and decorate for Hanukkah without going over the top. (Ok, I guess that makes me sound a bit insane...) My goal was not to convert Christmas crafts to blue and white, but to capture the essence of the holiday...which to me is about light, love, family, fried food and miracles.
As a result, I've come up with some holiday ideas of my own that I'm excited to share. For the next eight days, I will be sharing new Hanukkah projects and crafts that I have created along with a few treasured family recipes. The ideas are simple, eco-friendly and guaranteed to help fill up your Handmade Hanukkah board on Pinterest!! {wink wink.} Ready for me to stop jabbering and get to it?? OK!
Here is the official Handmade Hanukkah lineup. As I post each project or recipe, I'll come back here and add the link. That way, you'll have a one-stop shop of delicious, eco-crafty Hanukkah goodness. I know this is coming a tad late to be useful this year, but hopefully, it will inspire you for next year.
DAY 1:
DAY 2:
DAY 3:DAY 4:
DAY 5: Eco Crafty Goodness
DAY 6: Mind Blowingly Awsome Food Craft
DAY 7: Eco Crafty Goodness
DAY 8: Wild Card
To wrap up this post, I'm going to share a Ladino Hanukkah song called Ocho Kandelikas, performed by the always entertaining, Pink Martini. I was introduced to this song at a performance of the Seattle Jewish Chorale last weekend and haven't been able to stop humming it since. I am ashamed to say, I had never even heard of the ancient romance language, Ladino (aka: Judeo-Spanish) until last week, but I love this song and I hope you will too. What makes this clip so perfect for this post is that whoever made the slideshow that goes with the song, did it all up with Christmas pictures! Ha!
If you live in the Seattle area, you can still catch the Chorale performing their "Light The Candles" concert this Sunday, December 9th in Olympia or Wednesday, December 12th in Bellevue. It was an awesome show - go if you can! Details are available on their website: SeattleJewishChorale.org.
That's the scoop on Handmade Hanukkah. I hope you'll come back tomorrow for Day 1 and follow along for all 8 days. Be sure to bookmark this page or follow along at any of the links below, so you don't miss a thing. XOXO, Cindi
