Chanukah Family Fun for Night 2

By Yehudit Garmaise

 

Make the second night of Chanukah extra special by sending the children on a hunt for oil or dreidels.

Instructions for the Pure Flask of Oil Hunt:

1. Buy 30 white, to-go paper coffee cups with lids.

2. Write "Menorah Oil" on 20 cups with a marker. On the remaining 10 cups, write "Mehadrin Pure Oil" on one side and "$1" on the other. 

3. Tape the tops to the "pure" cups so the pure oil looks sealed.

4. Hide the cups all around your house.

5. When you are ready for the hunt, gather the children and give them a little cloth tote bag or a basket to hold the cups of pure oil they find.

7. Tell the children that they are the Kohanim, and they need to find Mehadrin Pure Oil to light the menorah. 

6. Put on fun Chanukah music, and set a timer for 10-15 minutes for the children to find as many pure flasks as possible.

7. After 10 to 15 minutes, have the children return with all the pure oil jars they found, and they can choose little prizes from a basket. A child who finds five pure oil jars can buy $5 worth of prizes.

Thank you to Rivka Chakak of B'nai Brak for the fun idea. 

 

Instructions for the Dreidel Hunt:

1. Draw four simple dreidels on five different colors of construction paper. You should have 20 dreidels in total - or more if you want the game to last longer.

2. Cut out the dreidels and neatly stack each color together.

3. On each color, write one of the following letters: Nun, Gimel, Hey, or Shin.

4. On the other side of the dreidel, assign a value for each number, like 10 cents, 50 cents, $1, and $5.

5. Make a sign with the construction paper that says: "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham," or "a great miracle happened there." Hang the sign in the area you plan on distributing prizes.

6. Gather small, fun prizes of slightly different values from stores like Dollar Tree or local toy stores. Assign dollar redemption values to each award.

7. After you hide the dreidels all over your house, you can play leibedig Chanukah music while the children have fun searching the house to collect as many dreidels as possible.

8. After 10 minutes or so, the children will bring you the dreidels they found to use as currency to buy the prizes you have prepared.

9. Some fun prize ideas: pop-it toys, Izzy and Dizzy ChanuCards, singing dreidels, gel, glitter, or "smelly" markers, colored pencils, slinkies, yo-yos, cute animal or monster "squishees," little dolls or action figures, balls with glitter inside, simple craft projects, writing notebooks, books, doughnuts, and Chanukah-themed candy.

Thank you to Malka of Monsey for the fun idea!