This blog is filled with ideas to turn everyday moments into Jewish moments, especially for families with young children.
You're family is sure to have a sweet fresh start for the Jewish New Year with these special DIY projects, recipies and family outings! Share with us how your family celebrates Rosh Hashanah in the comments below!
We’re “painting” rainbow challah to celebrate the first Shabbat of the New Jewish Year! We made edible paint from natural food colors, and used challah as our canvas. This is such a fun food craft for all the little artists in your life, or anytime you want to add a little extra color and happiness to your Shabbat! So come “paint” some challah with us!
There’s something about picnics that make us so happy. We’re having a sit down picnic dinner for Rosh Hashanah this year, and we’ve saved you a seat with our apple basket place cards. They’re so adorable and make sweet party favors too. We share a full tutorial on how to make them.
For this Rosh Hashanah, we are full speed ahead with a picnic theme, which I think is lovely for grown-ups and children alike. Our picnic has an abundance of apples, honey bees, white plates, and baskets filled with flowers and lots of handmade touches. Come take a look!
This is the sweetest “baking experience” for littles. We used store bought cream puffs and transformed them into a mini apple dessert for Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot. With just a few ingredients, they’re so simple to make, but oh so cute and fancy! Most importantly, we share 10 thoughtful ways for a little one to help make them! So let’s get “baking!”
On Rosh Hashanah evening, right as the sun sets, we begin our holiday by lighting candles. This year we made special festival candles by drawing doodles on tissue paper and then melting the paper into the candle wax. This is a fun project for all ages. So let’s go bring some warmth, love and light into our New Year by making Rosh Hashanah candles!
Teeny tiny pinecones are made into honey bees for our Rosh Hashanah honey pot! This is a very simple craft but oh so very cute! You only need a few supplies, so come make a sweet honey bee and honey pot with us!
Here’s the cutest way to have apples and honey for a sweet new year - with our apple buns stuffed with pie filling! As of of right now this is my most favorite recipe for Rosh Hashanah. They’re so sweet and adorable, come bake some with us!
Making honey bee crowns with your family is one way to put imaginative play into your Jewish New Year celebration. Plus, They’re extra fun to wear while eating apples dipped in honey! One sheet of poster board makes 10 crowns, so they’re perfect for a party or picnic celebration. Let’s go make some!
These adorable unicorn challahs are the perfect summer-pick-me-up! They’re extra fun for Shabbat or even getting through a long day. The shape also reminds us of the round challah we eat on Rosh Hashanah! The prep is super simple with frozen bread rolls (Shhh! It’s a secret! I’ll never tell). So grab a little, and let’s go make some magical fun!
We made mini (but mighty) visual for the new year ahead. It might be small, but when I hold it in my hands, it feels weighty and substantial. I love the process of making a vision board. It’s really a lovely form of self-care - thinking about what you want to bring into your life and how you want to feel in the new year ahead. Come see the process of making one for yourself.
I made these sweet apple and honeybee puffy friendship necklaces while thinking about my friends. No matter your age, Rosh Hashanah (and Yom Kippur) is a time to think about our friends and say ‘You’re special to me. I’m sorry, and please forgive me” to friends we may have hurt in the past year.
We love finding new and creative ways to include apples and honey in our celebrations. This year, we decided to dress-up store bought cupcakes and transform them into Rosh Hashanah cupcakes with apple and honeybee cupcake toppers - inspired by red and yellow pom-poms in our craft bin!
To celebrate our puppy, we wanted to share an easy project - a no-sew sock puppy! Today is also an extra special day to make one since it’s the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, which in Judaism is the New Year of the Animals.
The Hebrew word for sweet is Ma-tok! Honey comes in many varieties (from flowers, citrus, and even palm trees - if you live in Florida)! It's fun to have a family honey tasting to see which honey tastes sweetest for Rosh Hashanah apple dipping!
What I love most about the Jewish New Year is the opportunity to have a fresh start. Growing up, my mom explained that Rosh Hashanah was a time when you were given a clean slate.
On Rosh Hashanah, apples taste extra sweet because we dip them in honey! A fun way to thank the honeybees for their honey is to learn more about them by visiting at a bee farm!
It's fun to extend the theme of growing and changing for the Jewish New Year by helping your children make their own butterfly wings!
The Hebrew word for butterfly is Par-Par. We thought it would be special for children to take a "butterfly" home from the butterfly garden, so it could watch over them as they grow and change throughout the New Year.
One of my favorite books for the Jewish New Year is Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. While this might not have been written as a "Jewish book," the idea of growing and changing (like a caterpillar into a butterfly) is a Jewish theme for Rosh Hashanah.
Rosh Hashanah gives parents the opportunity to talk to our children about mistakes, and say, "I'm sorry." No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, but with each New Year, we can try to do better.
Rosh Hashanah is the perfect time to take your family on a "Birthday of the World" Nature Walk!
A special way to incorporate apples and honey into your Rosh Hashanah celebration is by crafting a fuzzy apple pom-pom necklace.
Cereal necklaces are a wonderful way for small children to practice their fine motor skills and celebrate a holiday!
A favorite holiday tradition is to welcome the New Year with sweetness - by dipping apples into honey! It's so much fun to explore other ways to include apples and honey in our celebration. This year, we decided to have an apple and honey picnic breakfast!
