Easy DIY Hanukkiah to Make with Your Family

We absolutely LOVE celebrating Hanukkah! Hi, I’m Trish, one of the owners of Hip Homeschool Moms and we are a Messianic family. We have been celebrating the Biblical Feasts for almost a decade now and have been making our own Hanukkiahs (a nine branched Menorah) for almost that long. I thought this year I would share with y’all the Hanukkiah we made and give you instructions on how to do it for your family. Some of our Hanukkiahs have turned out better than others, but this family tradition is really about making memories with out children anyway. This year we chose to use some materials traditionally used as a back splash in the kitchen to make this uber easy DIY Hanukkiah.

What is a Hanukkiah? 

The hanukkiah is a type of menorah made specifically for Hanukkah. The Menorah has seven branches to represent the seven days of the week. But a Hanukkiah has nine branches and is used to celebrate Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.  It commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days which occur somewhere between late November to late December. It is also known as the Feast of Dedication and you might be surprised to learn it is actually mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible (John 10:22).

This year, Hanukkah begins Tuesday night, December 12th and continues through Wednesday, December 20th… so you still have plenty of time to make a Hanukkiah this weekend! We light the candles each night after sundown. Notice there is one candle taller than the others, it is called the Servant Candle. You light the Servant Candle first and use it to light the other eight candles, one additional candle each night.

This would be a great year to study the Festival of Lights and make your own Hanukkiah!

Materials we Used:

We headed over to our local Home Depot to get our supplies for this project. We found all of the tile and trays in the kitchen back splash section. They have so many to choose from. Here are the combinations we picked.

1. Mosaic Tiles

You can also find these mosaic tiles on Amazon, but they are cheaper at Home Depot!

This set of tile is Hexham Blend Hexagon. It is $12.78 per square foot at Home Depot. We pull individual tiles off their mesh backing and had plenty extra for a second Hanukkiah.

This next set of back splash stones are called Majestic Ocean and it is $4.99 from Home Depot. 

This set of tile is called Manhattan Blend from Home Depot and is $14.98 per square foot.

This last set is Diamond Dream and it is $4.68 at Home Depot.

2. 4×12 or 6×12 Subway Tiles

We used these subway tiles as the base for the Hanukkiah. Some of our bases were 4×12 and others were 6×12. Home Depot has a ton of varieties to choose from. Just use whatever you prefer on this one.

 

3. Hexnut – Brass, Zinc and Steel 3/8″

The brass ones are the most expensive. Unless you need brass, stick with the zinc or galvanized ones at Home Depot.

4. Glue

We used Rapid Fuse but I did glue my fingers a lot so if you are working with younger children, you will want to do this part. It worked amazingly on the tiles that were not as glossy or glass. For those you will need to get glass glue. I had to go back and reglue a few of my pieces with it.

5. Hanukkah Candles

We prefer the BeesWax ones, but our order will not be here until right before Hanukkah. That worried us a little, and we didn’t want to take any chances.  That being said, we bought some locally to use for this project.

 

It took about two hours total to make these. And notice we have many extra pieces added that were really not necessary for the Hanukkiah. You really could make them in less than an hour! Here are the finished products. I think they turned out great!! What do you think?

 

 

 

After seeing our creative way of celebrating Hanukkah, I hope you will consider making your own Hanukkiah this year, as well as reading about the Maccabees to learn more about the Festival of Lights, and the history behind it.