Decorative Paper Dreidels

A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top used during a traditional Hanukkah game played in Jewish homes around the world. Each side of the dreidel features a letter of the Hebrew alphabet (Nun, Gimel, Hey, and Shin), each with a different meaning. Every year, friends and family gather around to spin the dreidel, collect chocolate coins, sing songs, and celebrate a variety of Hanukkah traditions. We invite you to create your own four-sided decorative paper dreidel to honor the holiday traditions and memories you hold dear. Remember, each side can represent a different cherished memory!

Decorative paper, scissors, glue, ruler, yarn, beads and buttons

Materials

  • Assorted paper (four pieces)
  • Yarn or any type of string
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Pen
  • Ruler
  • Buttons, beads, or other embellishments

Steps

  1. Explore your home for four unique pieces of paper to use. These could be options like old holiday cards, wrapping paper, magazine pages, or printed family photos.
  1. Use a pen and ruler to carefully draw the outline of a dreidel onto one of the pieces of paper. Make sure the top of the dreidel is at least an inch wide.

  1. Pile all four sheets of paper. Place the one with the dreidel outline on top.

Decorative Paper Dreidels Steps 1-3

  1. Carefully cut along the dreidel outline, cutting through all four sheets at once.
     
  2. Separate the dreidel cutouts and fold each in half longways.
     
  3. Grab your string and beads and/or buttons. Tie a knot at the end of the string and begin to thread your embellishments making sure to tie knots between each to create space. Leave a tail of string without embellishments or knots at the bottom that is about the length of your dreidel drawing.

Decorative Paper Dreidels Steps 4-6

  1. Lay the tail of string along the center of one of the dreidel cutouts and glue it down.
     
  2. Take another dreidel cut out and glue its right half to the right side of the first cutout. Make sure the center of each dreidel is touching and glued together.
     
  3. Do this action two more times. Make sure each added dreidel’s sides are glued to the neighboring dreidels’ sides.
     
  4. Cut off the remaining string from the bottom of the four-sided dreidel and trim any pieces of each cutout that don’t line up.
     
  5. Tie a loop at the top of the embellished string and hang your four-sided decorative paper dreidel somewhere in your home.

Decorative Paper Dreidels Steps 7-10

Share your Decorative Paper Dreidel with us! Use the hashtag #Skirball to show us how yours came out!