Making your Chanukah table sparkle
FESTIVAL DINING is the chance to go to town with your table decorations. Chanukah gives you the chance to get glitzy. I’ve created a Chanukah table that will make your guest feel festive as soon as they arrive. Here are my tips for creating your perfect Chanukah table:
DANI’S TEN TIPS FOR A GORGEOUS TABLE ARE
Go for gold: I chose a gold theme to bring the warmth, glow and hope that this festival represents to me. This extended to vases and tea light holders.
Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel: I scatter mini wooden dreidels over the table and at each table setting . They look great and are ready to play with.
Give thanks: a lovely touch is to provide a gold note pad and pencil at each place setting as a little present for your guests to remind them to take note of all the little miracles in our lives that we sometimes overlook.
Makeshift menorah: line up wine decanters down the centre of the table to form a chanukiah. Tip: If you need to secure the candle use silver foil.
Gelty pleasures: make home-made Chanukah gelt by pouring a thin layer of melted white chocolate into a mini cupcake tin tray to make the coins. Once they have set, spray them with gold edible spray.
Doughnut delight: adults and children will love a doughnut bar on the table. Provide a mountain of plain, mini doughnuts and loads of colourful dips and sprinkles so your guests can have fun with their favourite toppings.
DIY décor: different oil containers make fabulous decorations: There are so many beautiful bottles and cans in delis and supermarkets that will look great on your table.
Light relief: gold tea lights to help create the ambience and keep the gold theme going.
Boxed in: little gold treasure boxes make a lovely table decoration or gift to each guest, and can be filled with gold confetti and a few dreidels and a chocolate coin or two.
details: To continue the theme I made sure everything on the table fitted in. I used gold-coloured cutlery; glassware or china with gold hints on them — again, many supermarkets sell these; gold or silver table mats; and wrote on brown paper gift tags with silver or gold pen for name places.
Find more tips from Dani Tucker at www. thesocialkitchen.org
Oil comes in all sorts of attractive containers which will look great on your festive table.
Who wouldn’t adore a doughnut bar?
Make your own Chanukah gelt by pouring white chocolate into moulds and then spraying them gold, and keep dreidels on hand to play with.