Hanukkah — the Jewish holiday that spans eight nights — starts on Dec. 7 this year, and if you’re celebrating or attending a gathering, you may be looking for gifts your loved ones will appreciate. Below, we rounded up a handful of ideas that adults and kids will be excited to unwrap after eating latkes and gelt, lighting the menorah, or playing spin the dreidel.
SKIP AHEAD Best Hanukkah gifts for adults | Best Hanukkah gifts for kids and teens | Best Hanukkah menorahs and candles
The best Hanukkah gifts in 2023
As shopping experts, we rounded up the best Hanukkah-inspired gifts considering factors like budget, product type and items people tend to search for around the holiday. We included products Select staff have tried themselves, options from brands and retailers we’ve previously covered and highly rated items.
Best Hanukkah gifts for adults
BaubleBar Eight Night Earrings
BaubleBar’s menorah-shaped earrings add a little Hanukkah flair to any outfit, and are a special piece of jewelry your loved one can wear year after year. The post-back earrings are designed with polished gold plating and pavé stones. You can purchase them in small and large sizes — the small size are studs, while the large size are drop-down earrings.
“I Could Nosh” by Jake Cohen
Recipe developer and author Jake Cohen has taught me how to make many classic Jewish dishes with a modern twist through his cookbooks. He recently published “I Could Nosh,” which is filled with recipes for classic Jewish meals and desserts, including challah, latke tartines, matzo balls and schmears.
Zola Bakes Hanukkah Rainbow Cookies
Add to the dessert spread at any Hanukkah celebration with Zola Bakes’ themed rainbow cookies. I’ve brought them to many gatherings and people often tell me they’re almost too beautiful to eat. The rainbow cookies come in a pack of 20 — half have a chocolate hazelnut filling and half have a raspberry filling. They’re topped with dark chocolate and a white chocolate drizzle, plus edible glitter.
Banana Menorah Challah Charm Necklace
Your giftee can show off their love for their favorite food by wearing this necklace, which has a tiny braided challah charm. It’s available on a 16-inch or 18-inch chain and comes in gold vermeil, sterling silver and 14K gold. All finishes are free from nickel, lead and cadmium, making the jewelry gentle on skin and fit for everyday wear, according to the brand.
Vahdam Happy Hanukkah Tea Gift Set
Tea lovers can start or end their day with an herbal blend from this set, which comes with four loose leaf varieties to make hot or iced beverages. The tea varieties include vanilla spiced masala chai, turmeric spiced herbal tea, chocolate vanilla herbal tea and ginger chocolate herbal tea. The set comes with enough to brew about 100 cups, according to the brand.
Lovepop Hanukkah Flower Bouquet
Ditch the standard fold-out card and opt for this pop-up option instead. It’s a 10-inch tall, 3D paper flower bouquet your giftee can use as a centerpiece, and comes with a blank note card so you can write a message to your loved one. In addition to the flower bouquet, Lovepop offers other 3D Hanukkah cards like those with menorah and latkes.
Kule The Modern Oy Vey
“Oy vey” is a Yiddish phrase used to express grief or frustration, and on the other hand, some also use it to express excitement depending on the situation. Kule carries a line of oy vey-labeled gifts, like this machine-washable shirt that’s available in sizes extra small to extra large. The straight-cut shirt is made from a soft, lightweight Portuguese cotton that’s machine washable.
Crocs Classic Lined Hanukkah Clog
Help keep your loved one’s feet cozy during the warm winter months with these fuzzy, fleece-lined Crocs decorated with a Hanukkah-themed pattern. Your recipient can wear the foam clogs as indoor or outdoor slippers; they have a heel strap to secure the shoes to feet. The Crocs come in men’s and women’s sizes, as well as sizes for kids and toddlers. Your loved one can customize them with Jibbitz charms, which are sold separately.
Fine & Raw Chocolate Dreidel
You’re technically not supposed to play with your food, but anyone with a sweet tooth can make an exception for this confection. The 8-ounce chocolate is shaped like a dreidel and it has a solid outer shell with a rich, creamy truffle center. And yes, it spins.
Sugarfina Hanukkah 8 Nights of Love and Light Candy Tasting Collection
If chocolate isn’t your thing, opt for Sugarfina’s candy calendar instead. Each night of Hanukkah, you’ll open a new box filled with treats like cookie dough bites, caramels, cookies and sour candies. All the sweets inside this calendar are Kosher, according to the brand.
Harry & David Hanukkah Wine Gift
Packed in a menorah-shaped box, your loved ones can enjoy a variety of snacks and wine from Harry & David this Hanukkah. They’ll open a new part of the container each night of the holiday to reveal red wine and white wine, as well as candied peanut squares, milk chocolate truffles, yogurt-covered pretzels and more little bites.
Best Hanukkah gifts for kids and teens
Mensch on a Bench
The Mensch on a Bench is a Hanukkah take on Elf on the Shelf. Growing up, it brought lots of laughter and fun to my family’s holiday celebrations. The Mensch is a plush doll that your recipient can remove from its bench and play with. It comes with a book that explains the eight rules of having a Mensch and helps introduce children to Jewish values and traditions, according to the brand.
KiwiCo Light-Up Menorah
Kids can build and wire their own light-up menorah with this kit from KiwiCo, a brand NBC senior commerce photo editor (and mom) Becca Delman recommends for its interactive activities. It comes with nine acrylic candles (plus four extras) kids can decorate using stencils and sandpaper. When placed in the base, the decorated candles light up in multiple different colors.
Hanukkah Mad Libs
Hanukkah Mad Libs keep kids, 8 years old and up, entertained before, during and after holiday gatherings. They can go through the 21 themed stories by themselves or with a group and fill in the blanks with whatever they come up with. Kids can write directly on the pages inside the book, which has a 4.7-star average rating from more than 700 reviews on Amazon.
Hanna Andersson Kids Long John Pajama Set
Extend holiday celebrations through bedtime with Hanna Andersson’s machine-washable Hanukkah print pajama set. It comes with pants and a long sleeved shirt, both of which are made from organic cotton and have smooth flatlock seams. Adults can purchase matching Hanukkah flannel pajama tops and bottoms, and the brand also offers matching dog pajamas.
Polaroid Go Instant Mini Camera
Polaroid makes some of our favorite instant cameras, and this is the brand’s smallest model. Teens can unwrap it during Hanukkah and use it to capture holiday memories with friends and family. The camera is designed with a built-in self-timer and a mirror on the front to help users take selfies. It’s compatible with Polaroid Go film, which you have to purchase separately.
FarmSteady Jelly Doughnut Kit
Making jelly doughnuts — also called sufganiyot in Hebrew — is a Jewish tradition during Hanukkah. This kit has all the ingredients and tools kids and teens will need to to bake a dozen doughnuts, including a baking mix, yeast, finishing sugar, a piping bag and tip and a set of directions. Once they bake or fry the doughnuts, they can add their favorite jelly, cocoa spread or nut butter to the pastry bag to fill the pastries.
Sips By DIY 8 Nights of Teal Hanukkah Calendar
Before Hanukkah begins, teens can spend time putting this calendar together, which doubles as a decorative garland. It comes with all the materials needed to construct and fill the calendar, like Hanukkah cards, a pom-pom rope and mini clothespins. Once Hanukkah begins, your loved one can open an envelope each night of the holiday to reveal a tea bag or loose leaf blend. The calendar also comes with a heart-shaped tea infuser. All teas that come with this set
Best Hanukkah menorahs and candles
The Banana Menorah
NBC Select editor Lindsay Schneider is a menorah enthusiast and likes to collect old and new models across different styles. This year, she was gifted The Banana Menorah by the brand, and is the one she’s most excited to light this year. Schneider says it feels solid on the inside instead of being lightweight and hollow, which gives it a substantial, heavy feel. The uniquely shaped menorah is available in stainless steel, polished brass, brushed brass and yellow. “I love having it on my shelf, it looks like a piece of modern art,” she says.
Tchotchke Ripple Menorah
This circular stoneware menorah sits almost flat, which makes it easy to store once Hanukkah is over, according to Schneider. There are ripples sculpted into the main circle where you insert candles. This keeps a tight grip onto the candles so they stand up straight and never fall, says Schneider. The Shamash (the ninth candle) gets its own separate holder, which you can place inside or outside of the menorah.
Via Maris Trace Chanukiah Menorah
Also recommended by Schneider, this sleek, steel menorah’s wide, swooping arms make it an eye-catching piece to gather around during Hanukkah. “The standard candles I usually use were a little too small to fit in this steel menorah, but I I found a way to work around it because I love the way this looks all lit up,” says Schneider. (To make her candles fit, she fills the cups with small bits of tinfoil for stabilization). You can purchase the menorah in six colors: Cloud (off-white), Midnight (navy), Clay (terracotta), Sand (yellow), Noir (charcoal) and Sage (green).
Homesick Latkes and Lights Candle
Homesick created this candle to smell reminiscent of potato latkes dipped in applesauce and jelly donuts. It gives off a baked apple, butter and potato fragrance with notes of pomegranate, pound cake, vanilla, sugar and musk. The candle is made from a natural soy wax blend and a cotton wick, and it burns for between 60 and 80 hours, according to the brand.
Rite Light Go Electric LED Chanukah Menorah
Leaving lit candles out may be out of the question if you have kids or pets. My family has three cats and a dog running around, so we opt for this menorah, which is designed with LED lights you turn on one by one for each night of Hanukkah using built-in buttons. The menorah, which comes in blue, light blue, white and silver, can be powered by an AC adapter, USB cable or batteries. You can also choose if you want the lights to blink, flicker or to have a chasing effect.
Adara Rituals Basha Beaded Pillar Candles
Those who host Hanukkah gatherings will love unwrapping this decorative pillar candle, which they can display during holiday celebrations or year round. The candles have a hand-beaded patch and they’re available in four designs: the star of David, a peace sign, a heart and a Hamsa hand. There’s a little glass dish atop each candle for you to place a tealight (not included).
Why trust Select?
Zoe Malin is an associate updates editor at NBC Select who has written gift guides including gifts for bakers, brothers and music lovers. To round up the best Hanukkah gifts, Malin chose items she thinks recipients will appreciate, including products Select staff members have tried and highly rated options.
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