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8 Hanukkah Gift, Party & Tzedakah Ideas You Can Sink Your Teeth Into

by Helen Jupiter · December 9th, 2008

While I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Hanukkah is here again (time really flew since last year’s latke fry), I do have an assortment of gift, party, and tzedakah ideas in mind for this year’s Festival of Lights. Here are eight suggestions—one for each night.

DIY, Together: Partner up with a friend or two to make something simple and delicious like organic pickles, applesauce, jam, chutney, trail mix, or granola. Recipes abound online, and you can package your gifts in reusable glass jars.

Another Spin: Not of the dreidel, but of the DIY meme. Try your hand at homemade chocolate gelt or Hanukkah-themed chocolate lollipops. There are lots of molds to choose from online, and it’s as easy as melting some sustainable, organic, vegan chocolate chips.

Can Can, Can You: Host a Hanukkah party and ask everyone to bring one or two cans of food to donate to your local food bank.

A Matter of Taste: Host a Hanukkah “tasting” potluck party. Ask everyone to email you the recipe for the dish they’re bringing. Input all of the recipes from the party into a shared, online recipe book on a site such as epicurious or all recipes, and send the link to your guests after the party.

Hard to Shop For: We all have someone in our life who has it all. How about “giving them” something like this MercyCorps Agricultural Mercy Kit. $40 supports a program that provides training, seeds and farming tools to help impoverished families set up and maintain gardens. There are also a number of Israeli charitable organizations focused on feeding those who are hungry in the Holy Land.

Share the Love: Support local family farms by joining a CSA. This can be a great gift to yourself and your family, or even to give to a friend or relative—just make sure they’re cool with the weekly or bi-weekly pickup.

A Tisket, a Tasket: Fill reusable baskets or tote bags with fun food products from environmentally and socially-conscious companies such as Peaceworks, a company that promotes peace in regions of conflict. You could easily fill a basket with natural, kosher, vegetarian pestos and tapenades, fruit and nut bars, and cooking sauces from Peaceworks alone. Best of all, with their products on the shelves of 15,000 stores across the United States (not to mention available online), they won’t be hard to come by.

Let Someone Else Schlep: If you simply haven’t got the time to shop this Hanukkah, let Nagaya do the work. Green Prophet tipped me off to this great little company, which offers gift baskets filled with gourmet organic fare produced by small Israeli businesses. There’s also Vegan Divine, which offers eco-friendly Hanukkah gift baskets filled with natural, vegan, organic gourmet munchies.

[Image by Lisa Brown, from Lemony Snicket's The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming]

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9 Responses to “8 Hanukkah Gift, Party & Tzedakah Ideas You Can Sink Your Teeth Into”

arnie draiman Says:
December 9th, 2008 at 3:03 am
very good! for tzedakah ideas in israel,check out:

http://www.mitzvahheroesfund.org

all places have been thoroughly vetted by yours truly for due diligence, transparency and efficient/effective use of tzedakah money.

happy to assist!

arnie draiman
http://www.draimanconsulting.com
Leah Koenig Says:
December 9th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Great suggestions Helen! And, I just saw The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming – opened it up, and pretty much made a fool out of myself by laughing for 15 minutes straight in the bookstore. It is *definitely* a great gift – for a friend, or for yourself!
aliza Says:
December 9th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Also, Equal Exchange has kosher, fair trade Chanukah “gelt” – http://www.equalexchange.coop/.....nukah-gelt

ok, so they are not actually in the shape of coins, but isn’t the content more important than this weird tradition we have of eating fake money?
Helen Says:
December 9th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Thanks guys…I meant (but forgot) to encourage readers to add their own ideas and tips in comments!
Kirby Says:
December 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
If you’re in the Los Angeles area…
December is Peanut Butter Month at Sova Food Pantry!
We’re hosting a Hannukah party at our house, as well as a month long drive for this food pantry. I’m posting on facebook and asking local friends to bring non-perishable food items to any place they’re going to see me – I’ll make the drive to Sova with the goods. Easy-peasy!
Sova provides staples to anyone in need, but you can also make requests for dietary needs here, including kosher.

http://www.jfsla.org/sova/ShoppingList.php
Helen Jupiter Says:
December 9th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Kirby, that’s awesome. I did something similar for my 30th birthday party. Dropped it all off at Sova after. You can check out a video I did here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfvlth4tMgM
Ketzirah Carly Says:
December 14th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Well, you say party ideas in the title. How about a Hanukkah Seder? http://www.peelapom.com/wheel-.....kah-seder/ yes, it’s a bit of shameless self-promotion, but you did ask for ideas!
Mimi Says:
December 16th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Excellent ideas. I have a windowsill pot of basil that needs to be harvested; was just wondering what to do with all that pesto, and now I know.
The tote bag idea is also wonderful. For my Latkeh Party I’ll fill bags with a jar each of homemade pesto, applesauce, and toasted spiced nuts. Plus a bottle of homebrewed wine. Thanks for the ideas!
Helen Jupiter Says:
December 16th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Homemade pesto, applesauce, and toasted spiced nuts!? Mimi, can I come to your party?