If you only do Chanukah what night/s do u do presents?

[soontobe]

This is the first year ds will really get what is going on on Chanukah (lighting candles the story etc) so this is the year we set traditions In our family. So do u do presents every night, only the first night or anything else?
Thanks!!!!

[ilfaith]

Growing up, my family didn't make a huge deal about Chanukah. I usually got a couple of presents on the first night and that was it. Most of my Jewish friends got presents each night and I remember sometimes I'd lie and make up gifts when they'd ask what I got the night before.

So I like to do a gift every night. The first night is usually the BIG gift (like a Nintendo DS or a bicycle) and the other gifts are typically smaller items (smaller Lego sets, books, items from the Dollar store, and even necessities like socks or underwear).

[swissair81]

We spread it out. My parents usually give their presents the night they make a party at their house. We usually give ours the first day of Chanukah vacation (so they don't whine about being bored until later). If my in laws get presents, it's on a separate day. We do not give presents every night. I'm not sure if we're getting presents this year. I'm pretty tired of toys.

[rachelh]

We try and spread the presents out over Chanukah as well - one from us one night, grandparents a different night, great grandparents another, etc. I fill in the other days with "cheap" presents DD would be happy with - ie. a book, coloring book, a nice dreidel) This year, I caught the Black Friday Fever and bought DDs more expensive things so I probably wont be buying any of cheap things I usually buy and stick to giving them jelly doughnuts, chocolate gelt, and making latkes the nights they don't get gifts.

[missym]

We give a gift each night, though one night we give to others so they don't get gifts that day. We'll usually take them shopping to buy gifts to donate that evening. Sometimes we give the "big" gift on the last night, though we'll vary that if it makes sense, like to give it on the weekend when they'll have more time to play with it. Many of the gifts are small, or things they need anyway, like a new pair of slippers or robe. They're still pretty excited about them. ;)

[swissair81]

We try and spread the presents out over Chanukah as well - one from us one night, grandparents a different night, grandparents another, etc. I fill in the other days with "cheap" presents DD would be happy with - ie. a book, coloring book, a nice dreidel) This year, I caught the Black Friday Fever and bought DDs more expensive things so I probably wont be buying any of cheap things I usually buy and stick to giving them jelly doughnuts, chocolate gelt, and making latkes the nights they don't get gifts.

Have you ever had the caramel doughnuts from Israel? They are soooo good. They only make them Chanukah time. If anyone wants to buy me a present, I accept both the doughnuts and the jarred caramel filling. I'm not actually sure if you can bring it into the US because it's dairy, but it's a lovely thought.

[mikeys_mom]

Have you ever had the caramel doughnuts from Israel?.

Yes! They are so delicious!

We also spread out gifts from us and grandparents and other family. We don't do gifts each night but make sure to do something special each night after lighting the candles - dreidel, arts and crafts, bake cookies, etc...

[rachelh]

Have you ever had the caramel doughnuts from Israel? They are soooo good. They only make them Chanukah time. If anyone wants to buy me a present, I accept both the doughnuts and the jarred caramel filling. I'm not actually sure if you can bring it into the US because it's dairy, but it's a lovely thought.

Yes - they are heavenly! Now I wont stop thinking about them until I get myself a fix of some yummy doughnuts!
I can't complain about the selection of Chanukah doughnuts here though . We have some really yummy dairy ones also. I can't remember if we have caramel, but we have chocolate, custard, jelly...and maybe caramel...I am getting hungry!

[JustMe]

We do every night too. Growing up this is what I got as well. I tended to get a bigger present the last night. I do what makes sense with the dcs as far as when they get what. I have one friend and my sister who buy them things too, so one night is my friend's gifts and my sister usually has 2 nights with her gifts. If I were able to do this all over, I would do a very small present all the the nights up until my friend's present, then the next night my sister's, then the last night a big one from me. Not sure if this makes sense, but basically I would scale my gifts down to only big one from me that I would give the last night ,with smaller ones the other nights other than the nights covered by my sister and friend.

[lmintzer]

We do a gift every night. Sometimes, the gifts are small (like two paperback books each). Also, some of the nights are gifts from other family members (like a night from Grandma, a night from Papa, and a night from the cousins). So we wind up buying for approximately 5 of the nights.

We light the menorah every night. I decorate a little for Hanukkah before hand (we hang Perler bead menorahs, dreidles, and latkes as well as snowflakes in the windows), I put on the menorah, some blue sparkly pillar candles, and a large cookie jar dreidle. I try to make it festive but keep it in the spirit of the holiday.

We usually have a mini-party the first night--corned beef and chicken soup for dinner, latkes, and a game of dreidle.

My boys are enjoying these traditions and really look forward to Hanukkah each year.

[Giantbear]

growing up, we would get one big gift on the first night and one big gift on the last night and then a one smaller gift each night in between. Sometimes the smaller gifts would be clothes, or school items, but the big gifts were always a good toy. We will do the same with DD

[erosenst]

We do gifts on the first night...and then other nights if they happen to show up "late". But while the 'every night' is traditional, I like that we can do the menorah and enjoy it, without DD *really* being focused on the gifts.

[Twin Mom]

We do a gift each night but it could be from other family members. Generally the gifts are small but it really depends on what they want and what my parents buy them.

[hellbennt]

We wing it, LOL! but yes, gifts each night (at least one):love-retry:

[TwoBees]

Growing up, we usually did 1 gift a night. When we were little, my parents chose the gift for us to open each night. As we got older, my mom put all the gifts out on the dining room table where we had the menorah and we got to select a gift each night. If there were more than 8 gifts, we got to open an extra gift one (or more, if we were lucky!) nights.

This year for DD (she's 2) we got her 1 large gift. Then she has gifts from relatives, and I plan to fill in any remaining gifts (so taht she gets 1 each night) with small items. DH grew up with different traditions though, and he didn't get one gift each night, so we are still working this out! LOL.

[luckytwenty]

Growing up, Hanukkah was not a big deal at all. I'd get like a board game or a nice outfit one night and some chocolate gelt the next. But we make it "as good as Christmas." We live in an area that's mainly Christian with a small smattering of Jewish families here and there and I don't want my kids to have Santa-envy. :-)

We do medium-sized gifts (around the $30 range) a few nights and small gifts equivelant to stocking stuffers the other nights. Right now my 8 year old is OBSESSED with fun hand sanitizer bottles so that will be a gift for sure that doesn't break the bank.

We try to space out the gifts from relatives over the 8 nights, too. Usually the kids have two or three gifts a night to open between grandparents and aunts and uncles.

The biggest irony is my mom, who said Hanukkah is not a major Jewish holiday and didn't even wrap the gifts she got me, sends a giant box of gift-wrapped presents. Eight for each of my three kids!!

[BabyBearsMom]

Growing up we got a small gift for the first 7 nights (sometimes just a pencil and pencil case kind of things, sometimes a book or a small toy) and on the 8th night we got our big gifts. Now, we don't really do Hannukah at home (DH is Episcopalian and I am a cultural Jew who is an athiest) but we get together with family one of the nights of Hannukah and DD gets presents from us, my sister's family and my parents.

[Fairy]

We do Xmas, too, and I know you said for people only who do Hanukkah, but your quesiton seems to indicate that you don't do presents every night, so i think what we do will fit your criteria. Since DS gets both, we don't want him to think it's a free for all. So, we alternate nights

First night - Present
Second night - Give to Others (go to Salvation Army pot and put in $$)
Third night - Present
Fourth nigth - Give to Others (drop off clothes & toys to Goodwill)
Fifth night - Present
Sixth night - Give to Others (Go to Barnes & Noble and let him choose 4 books for their donation drive - he gets NO book)
Seventh night - Present
Eighth night - Give to Others (but to be honest it's hard to find something idfferent short of a soup kitchen, so we let him choose a toy for Toys for Tots bin)

We light candles every night, and he gets to eat gelt, but I think this approach gives him a good ethic on the season. I should also mention, one of the gift nights is a big Hanukkah Party I give for his frineds, so this is a gift. Another of the gift nights is Build a Bear, so there are only 2 wrapped gifts at Hanukkah for us.