A Fresh and Fun Hanukkah Dessert Table and Wrapping Station

Beginning December 16, friends and family will come together for eight days to celebrate Hanukkah. How about giving your celebrations a fresh spin this year with a dressed-up dessert table and gift wrapping table? Each table features easy-to-arrange decor and simple seasonal projects in traditional Hanukkah colors. From decorative gelt pouches and sweet and savory homemade snacks to a wrapping supplies display as thoughtful as the gifts they’re for, these ideas will give you more reasons to celebrate the Festival of Lights. Professional crafter Brooke Pratt of St. Louis shows us how she does it.

Festive Dessert Table

I always do a sketch before setting up a dessert table so I can be sure I have all the key elements I like to see in a dessert display: a centerpiece, a decorative backdrop, some symmetry and varying heights of food and serving pieces.

For this dessert table’s backdrop, I thought it would be fun to decorate the wall with gift tags. Most of them are handmade and hung with washi tape. I also hung gelt pouches shaped like dreidels on the wall.

My dessert table is filled with a combination of homemade and store-bought treats. Jelly donuts, a traditional Hanukkah treat, are a must. A festive blue tablecloth quickly transforms any table.


These dreidels are actually pouches filled with gelt. Every year I make them for the kids who come over for our Hanukkah party and personalize them by putting each child’s name or initial on the outside.

They’re simple to make:
Fold a piece of paper in half and cut out half a dreidel along the fold so the final shape will be symmetrical.Trace the paper pattern onto a heavier card stock and cut out two identical copies. Trim one copy so that the paper from the other piece is visible on all sides.Stuff with gelt and sew the pouches shut with a sewing machine. If you don’t sew, you can use glue or a stapler. Lay them out on your dessert table, hang them on the walls for decoration or send them home as party favors.


It’s been years since I’ve gone without flowers at special events. I prefer a few simple, inexpensive wildflowers to large arrangements. Little blooms in tea light containers or jars placed on buffets, tables and countertops always brighten up a celebration. There are lots of yellow flowers available around Hanukkah time, so you can keep with traditional colors.


Use plates and forks you have on hand or compostable wooden plates and forks. They look great and make cleanup easy. I always use nondisposable serveware, though. It’s nice to have special pieces to use every year, and I continue to add to my collection.

Menorah Beverage Napkins: Crate & Barrel; forks: Stars, Sucre Shop


Having a variety of scoops at your dessert table helps to keep little hands out of the candies. (Those are minty-chocolatey York bites in the small dish.) Scoops and serving pieces can be used year after year.

Scoops: Sucre Shop


The cake I used as a centerpiece on my dessert table is a store-bought plain iced cake, which I covered from Aleph to Tav in blue and white sprinkles. I like to bake, but it gets busy around Hanukkah, and I always try to remind myself that the point of having people over is to celebrate with friends, not make myself crazy with preparation. I bake if I have time. If not, I go to the store.

Our celebration is for the first night of Hanukkah, but I couldn’t pass up the fun symbolism of putting Hanukkah candles on top of the cake.

See how to make the easiest, most versatile cake stand ever


I think a good dessert table needs at least five different food options. Breaking up the sweets with something salty and something savory is a must. Chocolate gelt, jelly donuts, frosted cookies, mini candies and candy-covered pretzels are all favorites.


My family looks forward to making these candy-covered pretzels every year. We make huge batches of them and gift them to our friends. I use Wilton Candy Melts, which are kosher and easy to use. You just melt them in the microwave, dip pretzels in the melted candy and set them on foil. Shake on some sprinkles or drizzle with white chocolate, package them up and you’re done.

The Hanukkah boxes shown are 3D cards from greetabl. You can put your gift inside the box, which opens into a greeting card.


If my dessert table looks a little bare, sometimes I’ll separate one of my items and put it in two places. No one will wonder why you have gelt or forks in two places on your table. It’s OK for things to get a little disorganized; when things are color coordinated, “sloppy” becomes a beautiful mess.


Decorative Gift Wrapping Table

I aim for similar characteristics in our gift wrapping table as I do our food table. I like it when things are color coordinated but not too matchy-matchy, and when there are varying heights and some sparkle.

When setting up your gift wrapping table, make sure you have plenty of scissors, tape and glue, and provide plenty of choices for wrapping paper, gift bags, markers and ribbon.


Stock your wrapping station with a few types of wrapping paper, plenty of gift bags and tissue, and fun things to accessorize packages with, like ribbon, glitter and decorative tapes.


Having patterned items for gift wrapping is fun, but I always make sure to have rolls of plain paper too. It gives the kids a chance to be creative and think big. If they need suggestions for things to draw, it can be a good time to talk about the story of Hanukkah, the memories they have from past years and what the holiday means to them. But they’ll probably be having too much fun drawing and coloring to ask for help.


It’s so much fun to set up a gift wrapping station with the amazing variety of Hanukkah items for sale from small businesses. I love to shop small businesses for cards; Etsy has a great assortment, and 9th Letter Press has Hanukkah cards and gift labels with great designs.

I tend to stick with a pretty traditional blue and white color palette and add metallic silver and gold whenever possible.

Tell us: How do you decorate for Hanukkah? Share pictures in the Comments.

More: Another spin on the Hanukkah dessert table

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