Hanukkah with kids

🎲 How to play dreidel

Dreidel is the classic Hanukkah spinning-top game. It takes a minute to learn and works for ages 4 and up — all you need is a dreidel and a handful of small tokens.

The four letters and what they mean

Together the letters stand for “Nes gadol hayah sham” — a great miracle happened there. In Israel the dreidel has pe (פ) instead of shin, for “po” — here.

The rules, step by step

1. Give every player the same number of tokens — 10 each works well.
2. Everyone puts one token into the middle. This is the pot.
3. Take turns spinning the dreidel and follow the letter it lands on: nun — nothing; gimel — take the pot; hey — take half; shin (or pe) — put one in.
4. Whenever the pot is empty or down to one token, everyone adds one more.
5. A player who runs out of tokens is out. The last player with tokens wins — or stop when you like and count who has the most.

🖨️ Print the rules sheet

Tips for playing with young children

• Use raisins or cereal instead of chocolate if you would rather avoid a sugar rush.
• For the youngest players, skip the score and simply say the letter and its word on every spin.
• Spin on a hard, flat surface such as a tray or table — a dreidel will not spin well on a carpet.

Want to decorate your own? Print a dreidel coloring page from the Hanukkah page.