When: have your Hanukkah party during the eight days of Hanukkah (in 2010 starting 1st December). Have your Hanukkah party after sun down so that the party can be focused on the lighting of the Hanukkah candles.

Where: Have your Hanukkah party at home where you can light the family Menorah.

What to eat: There are traditional Hanukkah foods including sufganiot – jam doughnuts and levivot (potato pancakes/latkes). You can buy the doughnuts and make the levivot(potato pancakes/latkes) using this recipe. Apart from that you should provide sweet snacks, and finger food, especially things that can be eaten together with the levivot, like cheese, salad and dips. Any food prepared with or in oil can be considered a Hanukkah food.

What to do at a Hanukkah party: The main event at any Hanukkah party is the lighting of the Menorah or eight branched candelabra. Place the Menorah on the windowsill or near a window as this is traditional. Make sure that you have someone who knows the Hebrew blessings delegated to light the Menorah. You could provide your guests with yamakas/kippot which should be worn while lighting the Menorah. The Yamakas could also be a party favor. Apart from the lighting of the Hannukia or Menorah the rest of the party is like any other party.

Another Hanukkah activity that you could do is a game involving a dreidel or spinning top. The dreidel or spinning top is a traditional Hanukkah toy and you can invent games using the dreidel as a kind of dice. For example: on each of the dreidel's four sides write an action, then have a person spins the dreidel and carry out the action written on the side of the dreidel that ends up facing upwards when the dreidel stops spinning. If it is an adult party this can be turned into an interesting trivia game or drinking game. A dreidel is also a nice Hanukkah party favor.

To keep the kids busy you could get them working on one of these Hanukkah arts and crafts projects.

Hanukkah party music: In any Judaic store or perhaps even in a music store you should be able to buy a disc with Hanukkah songs, there are plenty of Hanukkah songs both in Hebrew and English.

Hanukkah party decorations: Remember that one of the themes of Hanukkah is light so use candles, UV lights, fairy lights or flashing lights to brighten up your party. You can have fun with the kids cutting out the shapes of the Hanukkah symbols (a small jug, a Menorah, a jam doughnut, a dreidel, a candle) then color them and string them together to make hanging chains of Hanukkah party decorations. You can also use cellophane over lights or on the windows to add to the light theme. The Star of David can also be used to decorate your home for a Hanukkah party.

In contrast to many other Jewish holidays, Hanukkah is not observed like a Shabbat and so it is a rare opportunity to have a really good party!