Hanukkah is a great time to get together with friends and family and celebrate a defining moment in Jewish history. However, with eight days of celebrating it may seem like a huge stressor for those that are on a budget. With eight days of feasting, games and gifts, the sheer thought of paying for it all may give you the blues. You don’t have to have a pre-holiday melt down though, especially when your finances are concerned. With these ten tips you’ll be able to make your celebration of light even more fun for all your guests without having to put in a small fortune to do so. So, dust off the menorah and call all your family as this holiday will be one of your best yet!
1. DIY Candles
Every Hanukkah you probably search around the home to find candles for your menorah. If there’s none to be found then you brave leaving the home to shop during the busiest time of the year. Although candles tend to not be too expensive, you can really avoid a shopping crisis as well as spending money on the limited in store stock by creating your own candles. This is a great craft for the whole family and will make the kids feel like they’re an even bigger part of the celebration. With a simple DIY candle kit you can go all out with colors, designs and can even make your candles with special waxes if you so choose. The best thing is, when you’re all finished you can wrap up your extra candles to give out as gifts! You can also allow the kids to have their own special menorah without spending any extra money!
2. Only Give to Children
Hanukkah isn’t meant to be about the exchange of presents, so don’t feel obligated to pass out gifts to everyone in your inner circle. Rather, try to just arrange gifts for the children. The adults that attend your celebration will understand as the commercial aspect of Hanukkah didn’t come along until much later. However, it is nice to ensure the kids feel special on this holiday. This doesn’t mean you have to spend a small fortune on the gifts, nor does it mean each of the eight gifts you buy needs to be extraordinary. Instead, put a little thought into it and give the kids something with a deeper meaning. In some circles, giving gifts during Hanukkah may not even be welcomed. If this is the case then provide for your own children before or after your celebration.
3. Modest Gifting
It’s very tempting to go on a spending frenzy in the month of December. With sales in abundance during the giving season it’s totally easy to get swept away in the trend and spend a ton of money on your Hanukkah gifts. The best thing you can do is try to avoid sales you know are going to be too much for you to handle. This will help you make your Hanukkah giving a little more modest. Instead of giving out materialistic items try to keep it simple. Packages of seeds and ecofriendly gifts, like a re-usable water bottle, are a great way to give your children a gift that gives back as well as providing the planet with a gift. You may also want to shop around for items that aren’t as expensive. For instance, school supplies, socks or other items your kids absolutely need are easy gifts that most children need. You could also make DIY gifts to keep your budget even lower. If you don’t want to spread a materialistic message to your kids then consider making a donation to a charity in their name!
4. Chocolate Gelt
Gelt is a big part of the holiday. In fact, gelt was introduced because it gave people the money they needed to buy candles for the holidays, rather than having to go without or forcing someone to borrow. In this day and age candles are fairly cheap and most people have several lying around the house. So, rather than giving out actual money for gelt, you might want to swap to chocolate gelt. You can buy religious inspired gelt at a number of religious stores or you can order it online for fairly cheap. The gelt usually has a variety of symbols on it and comes in a gold foil. When you peel back the gold it reveals delicious chocolate that proves to be an amazing dessert for the special day. You can also use the gelt during games to make it go even further without forcing anyone to use actual money during the eight days of celebration.
5. Potluck Meal
Planning eight days of food for a group of people isn’t just time consuming but can cost you a small fortune. Hosting the party on your own may prove to be one of the most stressful things you’ve ever done, so don’t put that burden on yourself. Rather, when you send out invitations add that the celebration is going to be a potluck. Your guests can RSVP with the dish that they’re making for the event. When everyone shows up to the celebration with food you can feel relieved to be the host. Allowing your celebration to be a potluck can also become a learning experience. Many people know how to cool the traditional recipes very well and others know recipes you may have never had the experience of trying. This will give your family the tradition you’re looking for without forcing you to buy pre-made dishes. If you’re lucky some of your family and friends may show you how to make some of the dishes your family favored, which will make future Hanukkah celebrations easier for you!
6. Make Your Own Decor
Finding Hanukkah decor may actually prove to be time consuming as you have to know just where to go to get what you’re looking for. Thus, this could also mean it isn’t going to be priced fairly either. Rather than spending some of your holiday budget on Hanukkah decorations you might want to just make your own. This is actually a great crafting time for kids and can even be done on the first day of the celebration. Of course, you could also spread out the different crafts to last throughout the eight days which will allow you to decorate little by little. If you have a lot of fun with this then you could make it a holiday tradition which will allow you to add new decorations each year. To begin your crafting you could easily make a Hanukkah table cover with rolled paper or an old sheet. Kids can draw dreidels, menorahs and anything holiday related. They can also write special messages that they’ll be able to look back on over the years. You can also print out pages for the kids to color which will look great hung up around the home. Banners are another cheap and easy craft for the holidays as well as stringing gelt together to form a garland! There’s lots of ideas to create, but if you’re feeling lost look online to see what others have done!
7. Games
Entertainment is one of the most important aspects of the celebration. Sure, the singing, stories and eating are a lot of fun, but you need something else to pass the time. Games are especially important if you have younger children that aren’t quite ready to sit still and listen to the true meaning of the holiday. Dreidel, of course, is one of the most common games to play during Hanukkah. From young children to adults, this pass time will keep everyone busy. However, you may want to cut back on spending by having kids craft their own dreidel before the games begin. You can easily get a print out for this or you can wing it to impress all your young party guests. Of course, a dreidel that is passed down from generation to generation is also a great item to use during your celebration and won’t cost you anything. Instead of using real money during the games you may also want to use the candy gelt. This is a crowd pleaser for the little ones anyway. You may also want to begin transforming common household games into Hanukkah inspired games. For instance, you can play Pictionary using only Jewish words. The ideas are endless, but if you want to plan ahead of time you can easily get some ideas from online.
8. Songs
Singing and having fun with those you love is an important part of holidays. Generally, songs are passed down from generation to generation, but there’s always room for something new or updated to keep the holiday fresh. Rather than spending a lot of money on CDs or sheet music you can easily take to the internet to find everything you need. If you enjoy playing and singing the music yourself then there’s an abundance of free or low cost sheet music that can be found online. This will give you a chance to download everything you need and practice a bit before the holiday arrives. Of course, not every gathering wants to sing traditional songs. If you’re hosting a group that would rather play games, or you’re just having a quick dinner after work then you may want to check online for some background music. There’s an abundance of holiday inspired playlists on many online radios that will make your meal an even bigger treat.
9. Cards
Not everyone chooses to send out cards, but they’re always a welcome treat to those that receive them. If you plan on sending cards you might want to skip out on purchasing them. This can cost a fortune, especially if you order custom cards. Instead, you may want to gather up the kids and have the entire family make custom made cards. This will add a personal touch without costing you too much money. Of course, if you want to save even more money you can find an abundance of free e-cards online. These will brighten everyone on your mailing lists day and will save you plenty of time and money.
10. Shop Sales
When it comes to holidays nothing is going to save your budget quite like a good sale. Luckily, there’s plenty of be found in December so you’ll be in luck with just about anything you may want to shop for. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a good deal on food or you can need a cheap gift for someone on your guest list, as sales will eliminate some of the burden of the holiday. Before you go out you may want to do a little pre-shopping online. This will help you get a pretty good idea of where you need to shop. You might also look into stores that do price matching in order to save even more money. Shopping during the holidays can be frustrating because it’s the busy season so you might want to download an app in order to be fast about your shopping decisions. Many shopping apps will direct you to the best stores and some will even allow you to reserve items you absolutely need so it’s guaranteed to be there when you finally get to the store.
Hanukkah is a great holiday for bringing friends and family together, but sometimes finances don’t allow us to always see the brighter side of the holiday. With these ten money saving tips you should be able to enjoy the holiday for its true meaning rather than stressing out about how much you need to spend to make it great. With the budget out of the way you’ll be able to make this year’s 8 days of celebration even more memorable for the entire family.
