Chanukah Latke Party

What's Chanukah without a latke party, I ask you? When I was a kid, my brother and I could sit down and eat 15, maybe 20 latkes at a time. Sour cream for me, apple sauce for him (he never did have any taste).

Chanukah Party Invitation
Begin by inviting everyone to save the date for your latke party by sending a personalized Chanukah party invitation decorated with menorahs, Stars of David, dreidels and more!

Get The Kids Involved: If you have children, why not have them draw the invitation and take it to a copy store for color copies? Or, cutout dreidels and Jewish stars from construction paper and write out the information on the shapes. Let the kids decorate with stickers, markers or crayons.

Another fun idea is to make latkes ahead of time and take a family picture during your cooking. Then use that photo on your invitation. It's fun, personal and best of all, you get to eat latkes months before Chanukah.

Chanukah Decorations

Decorate like you would for Chanukah! Welcome everyone with a personalized Chanukah welcome banner. Then have bouquets of Chanukah balloons around the room. Take a look at some other great Chanukah decorations. Here are a few other fun decorations that you can use for the party and then keep and reuse yearly:

Star of David Garland - this will look great over a fireplace or a buffet
Honeycomb Small Dreidels - these can be scattered everywhere!

If necessary, use bags of gelt as seating cards (just tag off name and table number from the bag with ribbon) for a great treat.

Chanukah Party Menu

Use paper goods to make your table look fabulous and your chores at the evening's end just that much less. Use Chanukah plates, napkins and cups with coordinating plastic ware or use solid blue and white plates (blue on the larger, white on the smaller). Scatter Chanukah confetti around and tie Star of David garland around each napkin (to hold that plasticware in place!). Or if you really want to be a star, scatter solid chocolate gelt on the tables.

Okay, you're probably not as off the wall as I am, but I would go with everything potato-so what if people are eating too much starch. Once I have a theme, I stay with it: potato kugel, potato chips and dip, potato knishes, potato salad, sweet potato pie. Even if you don't serve it, pretend like you are and put fun menus at all the place settings!

Be sure to visit your local candy store for lollipops and other Chanukah candies for each table or to use as a favor when people leave.

Chanukah Party Activities
A Mr. Potato Head game for all. Since latkes are potatoes after all, why not have a Mr. Potato Head competition? Or if you can't find the game or don't have the budget, buy your own supplies for guests to decorate the potatoes while the latkes are cooking.

Another idea would be another competition where people come up with the top ten uses for a potato (besides latkes). Have them read them out loud for a good laugh.

And, of course it's Chanukah, so don't forget the traditional dreidel game. Here are the rules and some other fun Chanukah party games.

Chanukah Party Favors
Send everyone home with a goodie bag filled with a selection of chocolate Chanukah gelt, Chanukah symbol cookies or a personalized Chanukah candy bar wrapper. Again, get the kids involved by letting them help bake and decorate cookies to bring home. (This is also a fun activity to do at your party if you are going to have a lot of kids in attendance.) Here are some other fun favors for your Chanukah party:

Blue LED Sunglasses - great for the kids
Chanukah menorah theme lollipops
Flashing Stars of Davids

Happy Chanukah!