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Ugh!  Halloween is over and it appears as though Christmas has settled in to stay – it is EVERYWHERE already!  And I am not even going into it having had a nice solid dose of the Jewish holidays to sustain me since I spent Rosh Hashanah through Simchat Torah with pneumonia (and I am not talking just take a Z-pack and be okay pneumonia, we’re talking hospitalized for a couple days, out of the office for five weeks pneumonia – but don’t worry I am finally on the mend).  Anyway, Christmas is exploding already and so my natural response is to start thinking about Hanukkah.  My son and I went to JoAnn on Saturday to pick up some craft supplies and were very sad to not find a single Hanukkah thing amidst all of the Christmas stuff.  In addition, as we were checking out the checker commented on my pretty blue glitter cardstock and then proceeded to ask what color our Christmas tree was.   While I really wanted to be like WTF?! and ask why that even seemed like a sensible question, all I said was “Oh, we celebrate Hanukkah, this is the perfect color for that.”  Then she was either too scared to say anything else or was trying to wrap her head around the fact I didn’t celebrate Christmas.

OY.

Despite this experience, there is some fabulous Hanukkah stuff out there already which is the inspiration for today’s post.  It can go quickly so no time like the present to start your Hanukkah planning and shopping!resw

1. Bullseye Playground at Target (aka the dollar section)

I always manage to find some good stuff here and it’s never shown online so the best thing to do is go to your store and look.  You can see my finds yesterday above – a couple of cute wooden signs, some wooden dreidel tags and of course some window clings for my daughter.

2. Hanukkah Pajamas

So the exciting thing is that there is an ever-increasing selection of Hanukkah PJs out there to allow for family matching snuggle fun but there are a few that are high on my list:

• Last year we went with matching family Hanukkah PJs (including the dog) from Hanna Andersson.  We love Hannas in our house because they are always good quality cotton and you can’t go wrong.  They have almost the exact same style again this year!
• Kohl’s has some super cute fleece PJs this year.  Even better there is a nightgown option that comes with a matching doll nightgown – perfect for my nightgown obsessed daughter.  Oh and there is even a matching dog bandana!
• Meanwhile I have my eye on this year’s PJ Salvage flannel PJs in Happy Llamakah – they are not cheap but they are worth it, i have a cat version from a couple years ago – it looks like they are available in several places including Modern Tribe which is always one of my first stops for good Judaica and Hanukkah merchandise.

3. Safed Candles

These are my all time favorite candles for Hanukkah (and Shabbat actually).  They come in a gorgeous array of colors and burn beautifully.

4. Wrapping Paper

While I tend to go a bit more economical on wrapping paper or use reusable gift bags, this year Paper Source wins my heart with their Happy Paw-nukkah paper since despite the lack of a purple tongue, pretty sure there is a red chow in the mix.  I may even take some and craft some longer-lasting Hanukkah decor with it.

5. Socks

Hanukkah socks are not only cute and fun but practical at this time of year.  And, Hot Sox wins the Mamaleh seal of approval because many designs are really not limited to Hanukkah so can be worn well beyond Kislev.  I mean I am a “Challah Back Girl” year round and my husband loves his “Matzo Ballin'” socks I got him last year!

6. Hanukkah Creativity for Kids

So obviously I have lots of ideas for creations (and hopefully more coming soon) but when it comes to kids, sometimes you need something easy and pre-fab while still feeding their creativity.

• Dreidel fuse beads – I saw these and knew my fuse-bead obsessed kids needed them.  We haven’t tried them yet so i can’t vouch for the beads themselves but I expect the base will work just fine with all of our beads and I ordered a few fun color packs of Perler beads to go with it.  Note there are patterns to design a dreidel with your existing fuse bead bases but my 4 year old just likes to follow a grid so this is way easier.
• Hanukkah Unicorn coloring book – I mean Hanukkah and unicorns, what else do you need?!
• Mess free glitter menorah and dreidel – we had this last year and it is truly mess free (says the woman who’s craft room looks like a glitter bomb went off after some glitter kippa making this weekend – more on that later) and is a fun activity to create paper based three dimensional menorot and dreidels.  At 3, my daughter needed a fair amount of help with this but for older kids, it could be an independent activity.

I am sure there is some more great Hanukkah stuff out there that has caught my attention but I think this is a good start. Is there anything in particular you are looking for this Hanukkah? Decor? Gifts? Tell me and I’ll try to do a second favorite things post. Also for those asking, this year’s countdown calendar should be out right around Thanksgiving so you can start counting down. 🙂