When you hear the word “wreath” what do you think of? I immediately think of the popular Christmas decorations that are suddenly everywhere the day after Thanksgiving.  But here’s the thing… though they have taken on that connotation in modern America, wreaths have a deep history across time and the globe.  And what I have realized is that coming home to a wreath on my door is like being greeted with a nice warm smile and it makes me happy.  At Rosh Hashanah I put up a pomegranate wreath.  At Halloween, I had a monster face wreath.  For November, I have enjoyed my sweet felt flower wreath.  And now that we are entering the dark time of year and it’s almost Hanukkah, I wanted something even more fun and cheerful.  But sadly, a quick google search for “hanukkah wreath” turns up almost nothing but a few wreaths made of blue and silver ornaments (note to stores – round ornaments are pretty Christmassy even if you make them in “Hanukkah colors”).  So, what’s a girl to do?  Make something of course!

So, next I turned to a Pinterest search and came across this fabulous tutorial by Felt So Cute (clearly a Jewish crafting soul sister!!) from 2014.  My friend KaraAnne and I took one look at this gorgeous wreath and knew we both needed it.  Following the tutorial from Felt So Cute, we ordered a total of 300 dreidels (100 each of blue, ocean blue, and silver; a total of 150 for each of us) from chocolategelt.com. (I also ordered some blue and silver gelt to go in the jar on my mantle for festive Hanukkah sweets – the order came quickly and I would definitely order again!)  To be fair, the dreidels add up even on sale (just under $50 for each of us) but we both agreed it was totally worth it since there are no pre-made wreaths that even come close to this beauty and this will last for many years to come!

We pretty much followed Felt So Cute’s tutorial step by step using foam wreaths I managed to find on Amazon and some wide Offray navy satin ribbon I had on hand (the same one I use to hang our holiday cards). This ribbon worked well because it had a bit of stiffness which I think made it lay nice and flat when glued to itself (as opposed to say a double face satin that can be more difficult to work with). And after a lot of dreidels, a lot of glue and a little red wine, we had the finished wreaths!  We were so excited with how they turned out that we are already contemplating what else we might be able to cover with dreidels!

Though I love the wreath as is, I am also contemplating ways to change it up by adding a little wooden or paper sign on top like “Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel” or “Oy to the World” or just the classic “Happy Hanukkah!”  I am so excited to start decorating for Hanukkah today!  Oy, we’re just over a week away and I have a few more things I need to get ordered so they can get here on time!.