My Top 5 Tips for Hosting a Hanukkah Dinner Party

Aside from my traditional Friday night dinners, I love celebrating Hannukah and the little traditions, old and new. I wanted to share with you my celebrations this year and show you how I decorated my table.

1.Bring Your Own Lights

To celebrate the festival of lights, I love to cover my table with twinkly candle lights surrounding the menorah centrepiece. The menorah used at Hanukkah is actually called a Chanukiah (Hah-noo-KEE-ah). It has nine candles, eight for the eight nights of Hanukkah and a ninth for the “shamash,” the candle used to light the others. Get your guests involved and ask them to bring their own light to set upon the table- the more lights the better in my opinion.

2. Games 

You’ve likely heard of the dreidel with its basic premise with Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins in gold foil paper). I sprinkle the chocolate coins all over the table and incorporate them into the decoration too. I went for a pink and gold theme this year, it’s just so pretty!

3. Fried Foods

The tradition is to eat fried food which celebrates the oil from the lamp that miraculously continued to burn for 8 nights. The most common are doughnuts! I placed doughnuts at every place setting.

4. To Gift or Not to Gift

Some like to give presents for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah or just one big gift at the last supper. Gifts serve both for the traditional aspect of giving and the fun part of receiving. I personally like to exchange a small gift at dinner, usually to the kids of the family.

5. Favours

Every good party has fun favours! For Hanukkah, you can get as crazy as you like. One fun gift is pasta in the shape of the Star of David in a gourmet gift basket. Other ideas include Hanukkah socks, hollow dreidels filled with chocolate or Hanukkah cookie cutters, but there are dozens more ideas out there! A nice touch is to home make some treats, my Rocky Road Recipe works perfectly here as you can decorate the top with twinkly stars to represent light, you can also buy some minature bags to take  it home in.