Chanuka Games

for families of all ages & sizes

December 02, 2025

Chanuka is a cozy, delicious time for family fun. Whether for an extended family party, or an activity at home, try one (or a bunch!) of these:

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Surprise favor swap

Everyone commits to giving a gift, without knowing who it will go to. Favor-gifts work really well here! For example:

  • I’ll bring you a sourdough for Shabbos

  • We’ll have an ice cream date

  • I’ll sing you a custom song for your birthday

  • I’ll write a poem for a thank you card you need to send

Now, two variations of how to play:

The auction

  1. Every participant gets a pen and paper.

  2. Questions are asked, each worth a specific amount of points for everyone who answers yes.

  3. At the end, tally the total points and everyone can bid on their desired prize (or favor) with the points they earned.

The anonymous chocolate bar

  1. Sit in a circle.

  2. Everyone gets a wrapped chocolate bar. Only ONE is a bar of which chocolate (but no one knows which!)

  3. Each person promises their prize to a person relative to the white chocolate bar, for example:

  • I’ll send a birthday message to the person 3 seats to the right of the white bar

  • I’ll make an iced coffee for the person closest in age to the one with the white bar

  • I’ll color a picture for the youngest person in the family of the one with the white bar

  1. After all favors are committed, everyone unwraps their bar and discovers who they need to gift!

Guess the number

This game requires some prep, but can be so fun with the right crowd!

  1. Everyone receives 3 sets of prepackaged goodies (chocolate lentils, cashews, chocolate chips, jelly beans your choice!)

    The goodies need to be packaged in advance and customized per person.

  2. The AMOUNT of each treat that each person gets is different — but for the same reason. And that’s the game: they have to figure out the reason by comparing notes and brainstorming together!

For example, if jelly beans = number of letters in first name Leah would get 4 jelly beans and Mordechai would get 9.

Numbers you can use:

  • Age

  • Last digit of phone number

  • House number of address

  • Grade

  • Number of letters in first/last name

  • Birth month

  • Birth day of month

  • Number of siblings

Group-write a story

  1. Have everyone call out a word that connects to/describes your family.

  2. Distribute a list of all the words to every participant.

  3. Each person has to write a paragraph using all the words, without adding any other nouns or adjectives.

Mystery menorah drinks

  1. Create a menorah from 9 shot glasses. Fill each with a different (edible) liquid.

    Ours contained: soy sauce, whiskey, rum, corn juice, pickle juice, coffee, tea, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract. 🥛

  2. Each participant writes down their guesses for what each liquid is – by sight alone.

  3. The 8 participants with the fewest correct guesses have to take a cup at random and drink to find out what it is.

We enjoyed a lot of laughs. Have fun!

Spin a gift

  1. Build a spinner using a lazy susan or one from your fave board game (or customize a blank one!), with one segment per participant. Assign each segment of the spinner a sticker, festive ribbon, or number (no duplicates!).

  2. Lay out a bunch of upside down cups each labeled with a coordinating sticker, ribbon, or number to one segment — a $5 gift card, nothing, a chocolate chip, or anything in between.

Hot & cold gift giving

Play hot and cold to distribute gifts to the little kids, giving each one their turn in the spotlight.

Place the gift in a large box in the center of the circle.

Blindfold the child and have the others lead him to his gift by shouting hot as he gets closer, and cold as he moves away from it.

Most of all — have an amazing time! A freilichen Chanuka!