Hanukkah: Festival of Lights



Celebrating A Miracle. The miracle being that God provided enough oil for the menorah to burn for eight days. This is a festive time of celebration remembering Gods goodness and remembering the great struggle the Jewish people had to over come.In Hebrew, the word 'hanukkah" means "dedication". The name is a reminder that this Holiday is a re-dedication of the Holy temple in Jerusalem following Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greeks in 165 B.C.E.  Source and to learn more. This year Hanukkah or Chanukah begins at sun down on December 20 and ends December 28.

We are happy to bring to you today these great free Hanukkah printables from The Toy Maker. We chose three objects familiar during Hanukkah to help you prepare for the upcoming celebration if you celebrate Hanukkah, or if you would like to pass these printables on to someone you know who does.

In case you are not familiar with The Toy Maker here is a little background for you.

Marilyn Scott-Waters loves making things out of paper. Her popular website, http://www.thetoymaker.com/08MediaRoom/8Mediaroom.html receives 2,000 to 7,000 visitors each day, who have downloaded more than six million of her easy-to-make paper toys.  She is a children's book illustrated and paper engineer. Her goal is to help parents and children spend time together making things.  If you would like to find out more, please visit Marilyn at The Toy Maker.

We love this menorah. It was designed so that all the candles fold down in the back, and for each night of Hanukkah you pull one up as though you were lighting a real menorah candle! Love it! The candle in the middle always stays up {or lit}. There is also a traditional prayer in Hebrew and English on the bottom of the menorah. We don't recommend this paper craft for young children unless you don't mind some or possibly all of the menorah candles becomomg missing during cutting. It requires some fine cutting that older children and adults can work on. If you would like your own paper menorah, please click on the link provided below.

The Toy Maker:A Menorah

Dreidel is a Yiddish word that comes from the German word "drehen," which means “to turn.” In Hebrew the dreidel is called a "sevivon," which comes from the root "savov" and also means "to turn." A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side. It is used during Hanukkah to play a popular children's game that involves spinning the dreidel and betting on which Hebrew letter will be showing when the dreidel stops spinning. Children usually play for a pot of gelt, which are chocolate coins covered in gold colored tin foil, but they can also play for candy, nuts, raisins – anything really! Source

We printed our Dreidel out on white card stock paper and put it together. We reinforced it with some tape on the top. This Dreidel could be played with gently and carefully, but mainly used as a decoration. If you would like your own paper Dreidel, please click on the link provided below.

The Toy Maker: Dreidel Boxes

Last we have our Hanukkah Box. We love how it has the Festival of Lights printed on the side of the box. It is about the size of a wooden match box. Very pretty and appropriate for the occasion.

On the top of the box is the Star of David with a nice "Happy Hanukkah" greeting.

The box slides open and we choose to put our "Gelt" in the box. {We could not find the actual "gelt" printed chocolate, so we used regular chocolate gold coins}. If you would like your own paper Hanukkah box, please click on the link provided below.

 

 The Toy Maker: Chanukkah Box

We hope you are inspired to use these wonderful free printables to help make celebrating Hanukkah a little more fun and festive! Happy Hanukkah!

Your name, O Lord endures forever,

Your renown, O Lord, through all generations

Psalm 135:13

Photos/Homespun With Love

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