Our nieces and nephews will love having some creative fun during Hanukkah this year. Looking for some easy, quick ideas that can be done before the meal is served or at the table itself? Check out these ideas:

1. Have your niece or nephew create their own menorah table decoration to place on the table. Here are the items needed to make this festive craft:

-Wood block
-Wood or foam dowels
-Glue
-Nuts
-Paint
-Permanent marker
-Red and yellow tissue paper

2. Use traditional solid colors for the tablecloth and table ware: blue, white, and silver. You can also spread confetti and pretty foiled chocolates in these colors as added decorations.

3. Place small dreidels around the holiday table, adds a festive touch and the kids can play dreidel games, too. On the table, make sure to have small bowls full of different goodies to place the game with: nuts, pennies, M&Ms, etc. This will also add holiday spirit to the table.

4. Before the meal, have your niece or nephew make their own dreidels out of small milk cartons. It’s simple! Fold the top of a small milk carton down to make the boxes. Let the children paint the boxes with a little glue that has been mixed into paint. Finally, poke a pencil through the box from top to bottom; the point should be at the bottom.

5. Make edible dreidels. Using a chocolate kiss, attach a mini marshmallow with frosting or peanut butter to the flat side of the kiss. Insert a pretzel stick into the mini marshmallow. The kids can spin their own dreidel.

6. Make edible menorahs. Cut a banana in half and slice it down the middle lengthwise. Count out eight pretzel sticks with the kids and have them stick the pretzel sticks into the banana like the candles on the  menorah.

Lisa Kothari is the founder of pepperspollywogs.com.

Photo: goldberg via flickr
Published: November 27, 2013