Diverse Children’s Books to Celebrate Hanukkah This Year

By Alex Temblador

Though Christmas may get a lot of press during the holiday season, we cannot ignore that there are other holidays celebrated during winter too — like Hanukkah.

With each holiday comes special traditions that differ from faith to faith and family to family, but we’ve found that children’s books are wonderful ways in which you can have family time and still celebrate your holiday. So we decided to create a wonderful list of diverse children’s books about Hanukkah to share with you. Check them out below!

Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama

Modern families are far more blended than they were fifty years ago, and thankfully, there’s a children’s book to represent that! Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama features Sadie, a young girl who shares the traditions of her interfaith family during the holidays — the celebration of both Christmas and Hanukkah in one big happy family.

Celebrate Hanukkah: With Light, Latkes, and Dreidels

People of the Jewish faith are far more diverse and spread across the world than one might imagine. Enter: National Geographic’s book, Celebrate Hanukkah: With Light, Latkes, and Dreidels. It’s a non-fiction children’s book that features photos of Jewish people of different races around the world — Ghana, Korea, India, Uganda, Poland, Peru, Israel, and the United States — all celebrating the beautiful Hanukkah holiday.

Hanukkah Moon

Sephardic Jews (usually Jews from Spain, Middle East, Portugal, and North Africa) often celebrate Hanukkah with slightly different traditions than those of the Ashkenazi (European) Jews. These different traditions are featured in Hanukkah Moon, a children’s book that features a young Hispanic girl in the U.S. who learns about dreidel pinatas and Rosh Hodesh, the Jewish new moon celebration that Jews in Latin American countries tend to celebrate, from an aunt who has just moved from Mexico to the U.S.

Jeremy’s Dreidel

Families with disabilities are not often depicted in media, and even less so in children’s books. So we were ecstatic to find, Jeremy’s Dreidel. Jeremy makes a dreidel with Braille letters so his blind father can play with him. Not only does Jeremy create this great gift for his dad, but he also educates his classmates and friends on how his dad does things in the world such as use a cane to navigate.

Throughout our search, we were unable to find a Hanukkah book with LGBT parents (though there is a Jewish children’s book with gay parents — The Purim Superhero). However, that doesn’t mean that the story can’t be written! (Challenge accepted anyone?)