I have always loved Sukkot, not only because it is my birthday, but the spirit of the holiday really resonated with me. I love eating outdoors, and the feeling of the cozy, lit sukkah at night is incomparable. Sukkot is the harvest holiday and it is traditional to decorate the sukkah with the Shivat Haminim, the seven special fruits that Israel is blessed to grow: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranate, olives and dates. My father recounts that when he was young, they used to hang small glass jars with each of these species inside from the sukkah roof! We went with a more basic version, and used foam door hangers that are waterproof and will withstand the rain.

Full disclosure—we did this project last erev Sukkot! I took the pictures then too. Since I figured that by then everyone was done making Sukkah decorations, I decided to save this article for this year. How interesting it is how much has changed in a year! Some people may be putting up a sukkah for the first time instead of going away, and others are looking for ways to keep their kids busy and involve them in holiday prep. Either way, this project was a lot of fun and looked great hanging up.

Instructions

Time (active): 30 minutes

Age: 5-10

Materials:

7 foam door hangers (I have seen these recently in the craft aisle at Amazing Savings)

Dimensional fabric paint (“puffy paint”)

Sharpies

Process:

Sketch or trace images of the shivat haminim on the door hangers. I found that pencil does not erase from foam, so try to keep your lines as close as possible to the way you want them to be in the final image.

Outline your shapes with the fabric paint squeeze bottle and then fill in by squeezing some paint in the center of your shape and using a paint brush. Do not use water-based paints, as they can be ruined in the rain! You can also use Sharpies to add details or instead of the paint. Add the names of the shivat haminim in Hebrew or English. We wanted to glue on foam letters but found that the ones we had were too large for the words to fit on the hangers, so we wrote them by hand with a Sharpie.

Rena Ray is a graphic designer and the founder of jewishkidscreate.wordpress.com. She creates simple crafts that kids can do to spark creativity and inspire Jewish learning.