Make a menhorah headdress for Hanukkah

If you re looking for something creative to do to celebrate Hanukkah then why not try this beautiful menhorah headdress?

The menhorah is a special candle stick which people celebrating Hanukkah use to light Hanukkah candles on each of the 8 days of the festival. You can learn more about Hanukkah here.

You will need:

• A4 paper (or A3 if you have it)

• Tape or glue

• A pencil

• A ruler

• Colouring pens or pencils

• Scissors

Step 1 - create your headdress base

First take two pieces of A4 paper and join them together along the long side with tape or glue to make a larger piece of paper (or use A3 paper if you have it). Once joined together, fold it in half (landscape - back into A4 size). Draw the shapes you see in the illustration below. Make sure that the curved triangular shape at the top of the page is at least 3 inches above the half-heart shape at the bottom to make sure your base is strong. Next, cut them out. When you unfold the paper again you should end up with a base the shape you see below.

Create your paper menhorah

Next you will create your menhorah shape. For this take another two pieces of A4 paper, join them together on the long edge, and fold in half so it looks like you just have one piece of A4 paper again.

You will then draw the shape of half the menhorah on the paper - there will need to be four candlestick shapes plus one half in the middle. You can also draw the candles shapes. Try to make sure the menhorah is the same shape as the bowl shape at the top of your cut out base.

Once you are happy with your menhorah, candle and flame shapes cut them out. When you unfold your paper you will end up with something which looks like this:

Make it colourful and bright!

Now it is time to decorate. Colour in your menorah and candles any way you like. You could make each candle a different colour if you want and add sequins and glitter if you like.

Next, cut out nine flame shapes. The easy way to do this is to use orange or yellow paper. If you have an A4 piece of paper cut it in half lengthways and then fold each piece to quite a small shape. You can then design your flame shape and cut it out once. You will end up with lots of flames to glue to the top of your candles.

If you don't have orange paper, it is not a problem. You can use white paper and colour them in orange and yellow to really make them appear to be alight!

You can also add the Star of David to the headdress. To make the stars draw two triangle shapes as you see in the picture below. Make sure each side of each triangle is the same length. Once you have cut them out you can draw over your pencil lines to make them really colourful. You can stick these onto your menhorah shape or on either side of the base.

Put your headdress together

First, get your base and stick the menhorah shape onto the base. The bottom part of the menhorah should stick above the heart shape.

Next measure the base around your head. If it needs trimming down you can trim the sides before sealing with tape. If it is too small, cut another two strips and glue them on to fit the base round your head. Then seal it once it is the right size.

That's it! Doesn't it look brilliant? Please share your makes with us!