This blog is filled with ideas to turn everyday moments into Jewish moments, especially for families with young children.
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There’s so much to love about Hanukkah! This eight-day festival is filled with candle light, miracles, spinning dreidels, donuts (sufganiyot) and dreams too! They’re so many ways to celebrate, and we share some of our favorite recipes, activities and DIYs, especially for families with young children!
There are so many fun ways to celebrate Rosh Hashanah - The Jewish New Year! From yummy foods to DIYs to family outings, we share so many ways for your family to have a sweet new year!
We’re getting ready for Valentine’s Day and Shabbat by making love bug challah rolls. These cuties are extra simple to make too by using frozen bread dough rolls, and their adorable shape comes from baking them in a muffin tin! You’re invited to make them too with your own little love bugs!
We’re getting ready for Valentine’s Day by making mini bundt cakes topped with edible flowers. These little cakes are so so pretty, and perfect for celebrating a day of love, especially because they’re pink or “varod” in Hebrew! Come bake some with us!
I loved creating a very crafty “arty party” birthday for an adorable 4 year old girl. She was imagining Peppa Pig and her brother George too. I made adorable craft kits for all her friends, each with two crafts - a handmade necklace and Peppa’s house! This is a sweet theme for a birthday, or even a special party to celebrate friendship, family and love (think Valentine’s Day or Tu B’Av - the Jewish day of love)! Come take a look!
Today I’m making special Valentines (Galentines!) for my girlfriends - sweet bracelets on a thread with 13 seed beads! Not only does the number 13 have special significance to the Hebrew word for love (Ahavah), a red string bracelet is also known in mystical Judaism to bring protection and luck, so these simple bracelets pack a lot of power! Whether you are making one for yourself or several for friends, we share the tutorial to make your own!
It’s cold and rainy today, and we’re spending time indoors giving new life to discarded books and papers! We’re creating decorative paper garlands with bird and leaf silhouettes which makes us think of warmer days and spring! This simple craft is so versatile - you can use any type of paper and silhouette too. I love doing this with friends, and we have some tips for making garlands with littles too! So let’s go make some paper garlands with vintage papers.
Celebrate Tu B’Shevat and Shabbat Shira with freshly baked bird challah. These cuties are so simple to make with frozen bread dough, and they can also be painted with “edible” paint! This is a wonderful way to honor birds on this special Shabbat! So let’s go bake and “paint” bird challah!
The Jewish holiday Tu B’Shevat (named for the date of the holiday - the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat) is the birthday of the trees! We have so many ways to celebrate!
Hello Tevet! We recently began this new month on the Jewish calendar. Tevet is known for the start of winter, and also for the baby goat (kid) or gedi in Hebrew (so cute)! We’re celebrating this new season by making a very special snow globe. You can read more about the gedi and see the process to make your very own winter wonderland too!
We’re celebrating the month of Tevet and the arrival of the winter with a flurry of snowflakes - edible marshmallow snowflakes! In Hebrew, snowflakes is pronounced Ptitey sheleg, and they’re pretty magical because no two are ever the same. With this snacktivity, we’re challenging ourselves to make as many different patterns as we can. Come make some with us, and don’t forget the hot chocolate too!
It’s the start of winter (horef in Hebrew) and a new month! We’re celebrating the new season with a winter yarn tapestry, complete with icicles (yarn strands), snowflakes (circular weavings) and snowballs (pom-poms). This is a festive project for grown-ups and kids alike! Come celebrate winter and make a yarn tapestry with us!
This is a special tutorial to make circular loom weavings to finish our winter yarn tapestry. We used yarn in different textures, thickness and shades of white to make these beautiful weavings. We think they look a little like snowflakes, which is perfect for the arrival of a new season! Come make some with us!
This is a special tutorial to learn how to make fork pom-poms which look just like snowballs for our winter yarn tapestry. This is one of my all time favorite crafts and simple to make for grown-ups and kids alike. So let’s go make some pom-poms!
As we say goodbye to Hanukkah, we welcome the arrival of a new season and the month of Tevet, which is known as the darkest month of the year. We created all kinds of warm and cozy DIYs and activities (all with a Jewish connection) to celebrate all month long. We hope these activities and the glow from all the candles lit during Hanukkah will keep you filled with light, warmth and love all winter long.
On this last day of Hanukkah, we are making intention word bracelets with alphabet beads as a personal promise to ourselves to shine bright like the Hanukkah lights. You can choose any word that is meaningful for you. We chose the Hebrew words “or ve ahavah” which translates to “light and love” in English. See the steps to make your own bracelets.
During this time of year, it’s so wonderful when children have the opportunity to be the light for someone else by participating in an act of kindness. Today we’re sharing a wonderful family mitzvah - children making stuffed animals for other children in the hospital. Your invited to join us at our family mitzvah day and create your own tradition of an acts of kindness day too!
We’re celebrating Hanukkah in the most delicious way - with a donut decorating party! We made a batch of chocolate and vanilla donuts in a newly gifted donut baking pan and decorated them with homemade icings and delicious toppings! This is a wonderful party to set up for adults and children alike. Let the decorating begin!
We’re deep diving into Hanukkah celebrations with some wonderful new DIYs, like this speckled clay menorah in a simple design. I make a lot of projects with littles in mind, but this menorah is a wonderful project for adults (it involves coffee and wine)! So let’s go make a menorah for the Festival of Lights.
To spread smiles and happiness this Hanukkah, we’re making colorful dreidel necklaces to share with some of our favorite friends. We use paint chips from our local home improvement store to make these cuties, and string the necklaces with beads in different shapes and sizes. This is the happiest (and easiest) dreidel necklace for littles, so let’s go make one!
