Forget the Gelt - Smarties Candy Hanukkah Menorah

When my sisters and I were kids, we were one of the only families I knew who celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah.  This garnered friends saying "omigosh I'm sooo jealous...how cool that you get double presents!"

It was pretty cool and it's still pretty awesome today.  The exception being that I am now the parent who has to buy, hide and wrap double presents, decorate and cook for both holidays.  To say it's a lot of work is an understatement but I can't lie, I still enjoy (almost) every minute of it.

While I was taking out all of the holiday decorations a few days ago I had a million ideas for Christmas crafts to do with Kayla but far less for Hanukkah.  Then I remembered how I'd shared my idea for Smarties spiders a couple months ago (which were a hit ) and this Smarties menorah crept into my head.  

At Hanukkah there aren't very many treat options for kids other than chocolate Hanukkah gelt and if you have a child who has any kind of food allergy you're pretty much out of luck.  We just found out that my little nephew has a tree nut allergy and I'm so bummed for him because now he and his parents have to be SO careful about what they give him. 

One of my favorite things about Smarties is that they fall on the very safe side of the spectrum when it comes to kids with food allergies because they are gluten free, dairy free and not manufactured in a facility which processes tree nuts.  These days it seems like 95% of the food packaging I read has the tree nut warning so it was nice to know that kids like my nephew can have a safe alternative at Hanukkah.

What I love about this project is it's super simple, looks adorable and is the perfect way to discuss 

Hanukkah with a small child.  All you need to get started is:

• An elongated cardboard box (the ones that hold foil or wax paper or spaghetti are great)
• Some festive wrapping paper or construction paper
• Basic school glue
• Some scissors or a craft knife like an X-Acto knife - it's definitely easier to work with the craft knife.
• Smarties of course!  I used Tropical Smarties for their orange wrapping.

If you want a more festive menorah you can also add some fun Hanukkah stickers or use Hanukkah wrapping paper in lieu of construction paper.  Here is my #IAmASmartie step-by-step tutorial on how to make a Smarties Hanukkah menorah:

It took me about 10 minutes to put this Smarties menorah together, that's it.  Both Kayla and my husband thought it was pretty cute and we'll be using it through all eight nights of fun.

If Hanukkah isn't your holiday don't worry, I promise I have a fun Smarties Christmas idea and a Smarties giveaway coming up next week!

Just so you know, I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Smarties. #CBias #SocialFabric everything you see is my own quite picky opinion and seriously, who doesn't love Smarties??