Ideas for Celebrating a Christ-Centered Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication/Festival of Lights)
If you are wondering why a Christian might celebrate Hanukkah, I’m working on a post that answers that very question. Also, can I humbly suggest you might read my two other posts about Hanukkah? In them I go into more detail about Hanukkah and the deep, wonderful meaning behind this beautiful celebration:
Embracing a Christ-centered Hanukkah
I also highly recommend A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays by Robin Sampson.
Below are some fun and meaningful Ideas for Celebrating a Christ-Centered Hanukkah:
Celebrate by lighting the Menorah and reading God’s Word together as a family every night of Hanukkah-
We light a candle every night of Hanukkah. I write the daily ‘theme’ and scripture readings on tags and place them in envelops on the wall. Every night we take out the corresponding tags and do the readings. We light the candle(s) for that day and then we hang the tags on our scripture/truth tree (a Mason jar full of branches). This is a lovely tradition to embrace because it fills us with God’s truth and reminds us of the true reason for celebrating.
The themes all have to do with LIGHT since this is the Festival of Lights! We also read about God’s miracles and sometimes share the story of the Hanukkah miracle in the temple.
The themes all have to do with LIGHT since this is the Festival of Lights! We also read about God’s miracles and sometimes share the story of the Hanukkah miracle in the temple.
Day 1:
Theme – God is Light
Scripture – Rev. 21:22-23, 1 John 1:5
Day 2:
Theme – Lord is our Light
Scripture – Isaiah 2:5, Psalm 27:1, Isaiah 60:19
Day 3:
Theme – The Word is Light
Scripture – Psalm 119:105, Psalm 119:130
Day 4:
Theme – The Messiah is the Light of the world
Scripture – John 8:12
Day 5:
Theme – When Christ is Your light, you are transformed
Scripture – 2 Cor. 4:6, Acts 26:18, 1 John 2:9
Day 6:
Theme – The Light overcomes the darkness
Scripture – Prov. 13:9, John 1:4-5, John 12:46
Day 7:
Theme – We are to be a Light in this world
Scripture – Matt. 5:14-16, Eph. 5:8, Phil. 2:14-16
Day 8:
Theme – Let your light shine!
Scripture – Luke 11:33-36, John 12:35-36, John 13:34-35
Make A Menorah!
The Menorah is a central part of the Hanukkah celebrations. The Menorah reminds us that Jesus is the Light of the world as well as symbolizes God’s miracles. We use a Menorah which replicates the one found in the original Temple. We light a candle every night of Hanukkah and do bible readings as well. We chose to purchase a Menorah, but I understand not every family can or will. So, I thought I’d share some ideas for DIY Menorahs!
Not all the ideas for DIY Menorahs are amazing (or even appropriate, in my opinion…) but I thought it’s be worth sharing a few of the better links anyways…
Alphabet Block Menorah
Simple Votive Menorah
Modern Menorah Using Tea Candles
Toddler Friendly Menorahs
Homemade Menorahs (Crafting Jewish Style)
Various Creative/Contemporary Ideas
DIY Upcycled Menorah
Decorate your Home for Hanukkah:
For Hanukkah, we decorate with lots of lights, candles, blues, whites, silvers, and all things sparkly! It is so fun to still embrace decorating and making the house feel warm, cozy, and full of joy and cheer. We don’t miss the ‘Christmas Tree’ in the slightest. We feel so much happier embracing these God-honouring ways to remember Him and His glorious power! There are so many beautiful ways to decorate for Hanukkah, but I put together a little photo collage for inspiration!
PS. This year we’ll be making these.
Play Dreidel and give your children chocolate “gelt”:
Dreidel is so much fun to play. There are tons of instructions available online, this is a good description.
Something neat about Dreidel is it actually has a pretty cool story you can tell along with it. The story has not been confirmed as solid ‘history’ but ranks up there with worthwhile tales. According to ‘legend’ (so to speak), not only do the words/symbols remind us of the miracle God did in the temple, the game also reminds us of another interesting idea.
Many stories are told of how the Jewish people, at the time of great persecution by the Greeks, would pretend to ‘gamble’ in order to hide the fact that they were actually talking about Torah. They had to be clever and sneaky in order to continue to learn, worship, and share God’s truths. The symbols on the dreidels would have letters, symbols, parts of Torah, etc. on them. This story leads to discussions of how blessed we are to have the ability to openly worship God, read our bibles, pray, and openly meet together. Also, we can use this as a tool to encourage praying for the persecuted Christians in the world and also our Jewish brothers and sisters, as well as the nation of Israel.
Something neat about Dreidel is it actually has a pretty cool story you can tell along with it. The story has not been confirmed as solid ‘history’ but ranks up there with worthwhile tales. According to ‘legend’ (so to speak), not only do the words/symbols remind us of the miracle God did in the temple, the game also reminds us of another interesting idea.
Many stories are told of how the Jewish people, at the time of great persecution by the Greeks, would pretend to ‘gamble’ in order to hide the fact that they were actually talking about Torah. They had to be clever and sneaky in order to continue to learn, worship, and share God’s truths. The symbols on the dreidels would have letters, symbols, parts of Torah, etc. on them. This story leads to discussions of how blessed we are to have the ability to openly worship God, read our bibles, pray, and openly meet together. Also, we can use this as a tool to encourage praying for the persecuted Christians in the world and also our Jewish brothers and sisters, as well as the nation of Israel.
Make Hanukkah Gingerbread Houses/Cookies:
I have never thought of this before, but what about a Hanukkah Gingerbread house? We’ll hopefully be doing this this year and I’ll be using THIS RECIPE. Check out these neat ideas:
Consider following my Hanukkah board on Pinterest for more ideas!
2 Comments
Megan Russell
Gorgeous photos and excellent ideas! We celebrated Hanukkah one year and it was a blessing to our family.
Unknown
We do a Christ centered Hanukkah as well. been experimenting i suppose to some degree. but the one thing we did last year and intend to do this year as well; is to have each of my children spend a short time in prayer before lighting one of the candles. we use a 7 branch menorah and light all seven every night of Hanukkah. I think last year tho, we did on Jesus candle and then lit a candle for each member of the family off of that one, signifying how the light of Christ is passed from one to another.