Hanukkah for kids explained: 2026 dates, the menorah and the dreidel

When is Hanukkah 2026?

Hebcal, the Jewish calendar service, gives Hanukkah 2026 as sundown on Friday 4 December to nightfall on Saturday 12 December, which is 25 Kislev to 2 Tevet 5787 on the Hebrew calendar. Jewish days start at sundown, so the first candle is lit on the evening of 4 December.

This year the first night falls on a Friday, which changes the routine. Britannica explains that the candles are lit after sundown except on the Sabbath, when they are lit before the Friday-evening Sabbath candles. Hebcal's 2026 table therefore lists one candle before sundown on Friday 4 December, two at nightfall on Saturday 5 December, and eight candles before sundown on Friday 11 December.

The date moves every year because the Hebrew calendar follows the moon as well as the sun. Chabad.org lists 24 December 2027 to 1 January 2028 for next year and 12 to 20 December for 2028. It always falls in November or December, which is winter in the northern hemisphere. In New Zealand and Australia, Hanukkah arrives in summer, so the candles are lit on long, light evenings.

How to explain Hanukkah to a child

Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah) means "dedication" in Hebrew. Britannica describes it as the festival that remembers the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees in 164 BCE. Here is the story at three levels. Pick the one that matches the child's age and add detail when they ask.

• Ages 3 to 5. "A long, long time ago, a king said Jewish people couldn't pray the way they wanted. A small group stood up to him and won. When they went back to their special building, the Temple, they found only a tiny jar of oil for the lamp, but it kept burning for eight days. So at Hanukkah, families light candles for eight nights, eat yummy fried food and play games."
• Ages 6 to 8. Add names and the meaning of light. The ruler was King Antiochus, who put Greek gods in the Temple. A family called the Maccabees, led by Judah Maccabee, fought back and cleaned the Temple. Reform Judaism's kid-friendly version of the story is a good read-aloud, and it ends on the idea of keeping "the light of religious freedom burning for all people".
• Ages 9 to 12. Older children can learn that there are two parts to the story. Britannica notes that the books of the Maccabees, written about 150 to 100 BCE, tell of the battles, while the miracle of the oil comes from the Babylonian Talmud, written centuries later. That's a good way into how stories and traditions grow over time.

Children often ask whether Hanukkah is "Jewish Christmas". It isn't: it remembers a different event, and in religious terms Britannica says it has traditionally been a minor holiday compared with Passover, Purim, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Because it falls near Christmas, it grew more prominent from the mid-19th century, first in the United States, and picked up customs such as presents along the way.

What do the menorah candles mean?

The Hanukkah menorah, often called a hanukkiah, has nine branches. Eight hold one candle for each night, and the ninth holds the shamash, or "helper", which is used to light the others. Reform Judaism's glossary notes that the shamash's branch is often taller, central, or more prominently displayed, so it is easy to tell apart.

The order is a nice puzzle for children. Reform Judaism describes it like this: with the menorah facing you, the first candle goes in the right-most holder. Each night, a new candle is added to the left of the last one, and the candles are lit from left to right, so the newest one is lit first. One candle on the first night, two on the second, up to eight on the last night.

That counting makes a good maths question for older children: how many candles does a family need for the whole of Hanukkah? The night candles add up to 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36, and with a new shamash every night the box needs 44. Our Hanukkah menorah colour by number (color by number, if you search the US way) and the Hanukkah gelt addition colour by code keep the counting going.

Real candles need an adult. Fire and Emergency New Zealand advises that you never leave a candle unattended. For a classroom or a young child's own display, a paper menorah works just as well: colour our menorah colouring page, cut out eight paper flames, and stick one on each evening.

How to play dreidel

A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top. Each side has a Hebrew letter: nun, gimel, hei and shin. Reform Judaism explains that the letters were later read as the first letters of "Nes gadol hayah sham", "A great miracle happened there". The game itself is simple:

1. Give each player the same number of tokens: chocolate coins (gelt), raisins, buttons or paper counters.
2. Everyone puts one token into the middle.
3. Take turns to spin. Nun: take nothing. Gimel: take everything in the middle. Hei: take half. Shin: put one in.
4. When the middle is empty, everyone puts one in again. Play until one person has all the tokens, or until a timer goes off.

No dreidel at home? Children can colour one of our dreidel colouring pages while they wait their turn, or make a paper one. Write the four letters, or their English names, on the sides of a small square of card and push a pencil through the middle.

Hanukkah food: why latkes and doughnuts?

Hanukkah food is fried, and the reason links back to the story. BBC Bitesize explains that by eating food cooked in oil, Jewish people remember the miracle of the oil in the Temple. The best-known dishes are latkes, which are potato pancakes often served with apple sauce or sour cream, and sufganiyot, which are doughnuts filled with jam (jelly, in the US).

Children can help grate potatoes or add toppings to cooled doughnuts. The frying is a job for an adult. For a no-cook version, our Hanukkah doughnuts colour by number has 16 spaces and seven colours.

Hanukkah activities for home and school

Eight nights give you eight short slots. Here is one free printable for each, roughly from easiest to hardest:

1. Colour the menorah, one flame a night.
2. Colour a dreidel, then play the game.
3. Do the doughnuts colour by number while the latkes cook.
4. Solve the gelt addition colour by code, which has 14 sums within 10.
5. Find 10 words in the easy Hanukkah word search, or try the hard one.
6. Unscramble menorah, dreidel and latkes in the Hanukkah word scramble, which has an answer key.
7. Colour the Happy Hanukkah bubble-letter page and fold it into a card for a grandparent.
8. Pick a favourite from all 24 Hanukkah colouring pages for the last night.

In a classroom, teach Hanukkah as one of the festivals children's families keep, not as a stand-in for Christmas. If you have Jewish pupils, ask their families first whether they'd like to share how they celebrate. Don't put a child on the spot. The same pages work for a December display alongside our advent activities and Kwanzaa colouring pages. Every page prints from a US Letter or an A4 PDF, and our guide on how to print colouring pages covers the printer settings.