Making a Menorah. Making memories.

Being anywhere from the age of three to grown up in a Jewish home meant making a menorah when mom needed to occupy you. It’s a thing.

Hi. I’m Jenn. I’m a traditional Jew. That means I get all of the fun without any of the cumbersome religion. Your milage may vary. I’m about to horrify my family, but Torah-Praying-Jewish Law isn’t really my thing. Actually, they all probably already knew that. But hey, I could give you the low down on almost any holiday, feast, fast, event, why the calendar moves all the damn time, and why Jewish is both a religion and an ethnicity. I’d make a fun lesson too. I’m awesome like that.

But forget all that. Because today we’re making menorahs. I’m sure you’ve seen one. They pop up anytime from Thanksgiving to just after Christmas (that pesky lunar calendar!). They are everything from tiny to huge to simple to gaudy. I’ve even seen some that you can put on top of your car.

I made my first wooden menorah when I was three. I was in nursery school at the JCC. We made all sorts of things there, but other than a clay dinosaur in a frame (don’t ask), that menorah was the only thing to make it to my adulthood. It was a simple wooden platform with wooden pieces and nuts glued on to hold the candles. My mumble year old menorah had a small accident a few years back. I mourned it for a minute and moved on. Why? Because we honestly had half a dozen more, made by me, by my siblings, by my kids, and we decided to use the one my grandmother brought from Israel that year anyway.

Find this holiday tutorial on Punky Moms.