This blog is filled with ideas to turn everyday moments into Jewish moments, especially for families with young children.
All in DIY
One of our favorite traditions is to decorate our home as a family for Hanukkah! My most-loved decorations are handmade, like these festive dreidel garlands and mobiles - all from a collection of paint chips. This is a wonderful collaborative project to do with littles, and we show you all the steps to make your own!
We’re in the kitchen today making “apple donuts,” a healthy twist on the traditional Hanukkah sufganiyot (donut)! These adorable donuts are apple slices, spread with yogurt “frosting” and topped with colorful sprinkles! They’re so yummy and refreshing that you’ll feel good about snacking on them for all eight days of Hanukkah!
We’re starting to get a little topsy turvy around here! On Hanukkah, we spin tops called dreidels, and they’re just so many fun and creative ways to include them in our Hanukkah celebrations - like with this cute puffy dreidel necklace. You only need a few materials to make your own, and they’re the perfect accessory for littles to wear while singing the dreidel song! So let’s go make a puffy dreidel necklace!
It’s almost time for “Challahween!” We’re getting ready by baking the cutest challah ghosts, broomsticks and pumpkins too! These shapes are just so easy to make with frozen bread dough! These are the perfect little challahs for the fall season, and we show you how to make all three!
I loved creating a very crafty “arty party” birthday for an adorable 8 year old girl. She was imagining witches and broomsticks, and after brainstorming with mom and daughter, I put together two adorable craft stations. This is a very fun theme for a fall party, and you’re invited to take a look!
Celebrate pumpkin season (and Shabbat) with fresh baked pumpkin challah rolls. These cuties are so simple to make with frozen bread dough, and they can also be dressed-up for “challah-ween” with icing, sprinkles and candy eyes. This is a wonderful family activity for fall. So let’s go bake and dress-up pumpkin challah rolls!
We recently baked a “patch” of gourd and pumpkin cookies to celebrate fall! They were so fun and festive, we decided to also use the cookies for pumpkin (and gourd) patch cupcakes! This is a simple (but oh so cute) activity with store bought cupcakes, dried fruit and nuts! It’s also a wonderful activity for littles to help with too. Come visit our pumpkin patch and make some fall cupcakes us!
A beautiful tradition in Judaism is to light a memorial candle, a yahrzeit candle, on the anniversary of a loved one’s passing. I received a candle for my dad, and spent the afternoon making a special candle holder from clay and imprinted with wildflowers. If you’d like to remember someone you love with a beautiful little memorial candle holder, read on to learn how.
We’re sharing our fall harvest with family and friends at a Sukkot dessert. The sukkah is meant to be an open tent, and extending hospitality and sharing something delicious with people you love is what makes this holiday and the fall season so special. Come take a look!
We’re bringing Sukkot and the fall harvest into our home by building a tabletop sukkah, draped in branches of tiny leaves and autumn flowers. It’s wonderful to experience building a sukkah, even if it’s small in size. For this project, you only need a few items - most found in nature. We show you all the steps in photos, so let’s go build a sukkah!
We’re welcoming fall (and Sukkot) with a harvest of gourd cookies! The funny bumpy gourd reminds us that extending hospitality to friends and strangers is beautiful Jewish custom during this time of year. These cookies are shaped with a buttery dough and painted with a sugar glaze. Come bake a harvest with us!
Jewish people have been building sukkahs for a couple of thousand years - really! This year, we’re building our sukkah with graham crackers, pretzel sticks and a harvest of dried fruits and fresh herbs. This is such a wonderful activity, and actually, building a sukkah is considered a mitzvah! So come make one with us!
During Sukkot, we read in the Torah that we should take the branches of the beautiful trees...celebrate and be happy! We love the idea of using tree branches and repurposing them into a joyful family craft for Sukkot. Come make some Sukkah greeters with us!
It’s officially fall, a new season and the beginning of Sukkot. This week long celebration is considered the longest and happiest holiday of the Jewish year! Check out our Round-up for so many fun ways to celebrate with your family!
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!
