Happy Hanukkah! Learning About the Past Through Latkes, Literature, and Dreidel Matches for Chocolate Coins

Happy Hanukkah!

This is our second year learning about and celebrating Hanukkah as part of our holiday season. Michael is a quarter Jewish, and I think it’s neat to learn about Hanukkah for that reason. Not to mention it builds tolerance and respect for other cultures and customs if children learn about them. We light our Menorah just as proudly as we trim our tree. It’s a beautiful season to celebrate for everyone, no matter what religion.

American Girl Rebecca celebrates Hanukkah!

We began reading “Candlelight for Rebecca” from the American Girl Series at the start of Hanukkah last week. Rebecca is an immigrant Jew living in New York (in the early 1900s I believe). The story is a great tale of learning about a new culture while staying true to one’s own beliefs. Rebecca and her family celebrate Hanukkah in the book, and it was a perfect tie-in. Not to mention Little Miss had a Rebecca doll waiting for her under the tree for Christmas morning. We truly enjoyed the story and had some great conversations. I LOVE the American Girl book collections! Alex is learning so much about American history. I loved them as a young girl too.

Alex was excited to get to light the Menorah each night of Hanukkah. She doesn’t usually get to light candles! We also read lots of books about the holiday and its meaning from the library.

Tonight, I fried up some homemade Latkes for dinner and the family loved them. They turned out really good and were very authentic!

Homemade Latkes!

After supper, we played a fun-filled game of Dreidel! We re-read the rules and got out the Chocolate Gelt (money) from the Harry and David store. Alex and Ethan were both excited to play for candy! We played for quite some time and had a blast. In the end, I had 7 pieces, Ethan had 2, and Alex had 1. I gave Alex one of mine to even things out between her and Ethan and saved most of the rest for tomorrow. So fun!

Dreidel! Dreidel! Dreidel

Alex loves to play too!

Ethan was very good at the game

We learned about the past through latkes, literature, and dreidel matches for chocolate coins and had so much fun doing so. The kids learned a lot about Hanukkah, as well as about Christmas and holidays in other religions and cultures around the world. It was a brilliant light in our holiday celebrations and one we look forward to again next year.

How do you teach your kids about holidays and Christmas celebrations around the world?

Related articles

• Five reasons for celebrating Hanukkah (omniumgatherumblog.wordpress.com)
• 12 Most Festive Chanukah Favorites By Lily Zajc (12most.com)
• Hanukkah Celebrations (elementsofelliott.wordpress.com)