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| |    Hanukkah Traditions: Celebrating the Festival of Light by Susan E. Davis reviewed by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P. Although Hanukkah (or Chanukah) isn't quite as much of a red-letter day in the Jewish calendar as Christmas is to Christians, it's still a significant time of year. Commonly known as the Festival of Lights, this eight-day-long holiday commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians and the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem in 165 B.C. The nature of the holiday lends itself to themes of family togetherness, the triumph of religious freedom, light, and miracles. Lighting the menorah, saying blessings, and playing the dreidel game for gelt are the best-known Hanukkah traditions, but here are some other ideas to celebrate the spirit of the season: • Make candles to put around the house to emphasize the notion of light (keeping them well out of reach of little ones). Young children can make candles by rolling up sheets of beeswax around a wick (available at arts-and-crafts stores), and older children might use more elaborate candle-making kits. • Make homemade Hanukkah cards for friends and family. Pick a special theme or saying each year, and have each child illustrate a set of cards with his own interpretation. • Listen to Hanukkah music, such as Chanukah: Festival of Light, a collection of traditional klezmar songs performed by Ot Azoj Klezmerband, or Spirit of the Holidays by Andy Statman. • Let children help prepare special holiday foods. A lot of traditional Hanukkah foods, such as donuts and latkes, involve cooking in oil, which isn't a suitable occupation for young children, of course. But they still can help prepare the latke or donut batter, or cut out sugar cookies in the shape of stars and dreidels and decorate them with blue and white icing and silver nonpareils. • Have each child make his own menorah out of sculpting clay or play dough. You may or may not want to issue them their own set of candles to light, depending on their ages. • Read books with Hanukkah themes, including the delightful Chanukah in Chelm by David A. Adler and • One Hanukkah tradition that children love is setting an extra place at the dinner table in case a hungry stranger wanders in. Most of us don't invite strangers into our homes these days, but the theme of generosity is an important one. You can echo that same spirit by having your child prepare a bag lunch and giving it to a homeless person, working as a family in a shelter kitchen one evening, participating in a food drive, or contributing a portion of their allowance during the month of December to a local food bank (maybe with Mom and Dad providing matching funds. At home, you also might encourage your child to decorate a paper plate and set the place for the wandering stranger. • Go for a walk or a drive as a family and take in the holiday displays and lights. After all, so many Christmas symbols are secular, not religious, and belong to anyone who loves snowmen, shining stars, magical nutcrackers, and gaily decorated evergreens.
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