Inside: Celebrate Hanukkah with this adorable Hanukkah art with Pointillism project which is a great way to honor the Festival of Lights.
In our home, we celebrate all the things.
We celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah in our interfaith family.
Related: What every interfaith family should know about the holidays
But Christmas can often over shadow the Hanukkah festivities since there’s always more Chrsitmas lights than Hanukkah menorahs.
But teaching my kids to enjoy Hanukkah and celebrate it’s traditions is important.
Realted: 8 Things You Need to Know About Hanukkah
So every year when Hanukkah rolls around, we try to pause the Christmas madness and focus on the 8 nights.
To really celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah.
We spend time to make Hanukkah more meaningful.
We help our kids celebrate being kind with these 8 Nights of Kindness Hanukkah activities.
We read Hanukkah books and give our kids Hanukkah themed presents.
And we create dreidel art and menorah art so our home is decorated with more than Christmas trees and Santas.
What is Pointillism Art?
When I was in college and took the mandated Art History courses, I discovered, and then fell in love with Pointillism.
Maybe it’s because it reminded me of those Hidden Magic Eye Puzzles from the 90s.
My professor showed us a tiny, zoomed-in piece of art and all we saw was dots.
Little tiny dots.
Then he zoomed it out to the gloriousness that is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
And once I saw the painting hanging in the Art Insitute of Chicago, I was in love.
The tiny dots that magically turn into gorgeous art is mesmerizing.
I ran across the street from the museum and bought my tiny daughter the board book, Sunday With Seurat
And when my kids were older, we graduated to these kid-friendly art history books on Seurat.
This awesome YouTube Video of Art with Mati and Dada and Seurat is a great way to further explain Pointillism to our kids.
If you have younger kids who don’t have the fine motor skills for Q-tips, get them these Dot a Dot Art Markers and they can create their own art.
And since we love Hanukkah and I love Pointillism, we connected our menorah to pointillism with this menorah craft made entirely out of dots.
Want more books to connect to this project?
Here are our favorite Hanukkah books:
Supplies Needed for the Hanukkah Art with Pointillism:
- small canvas or cardstock paper
- Q-tips
- orange, yellow, gold and blue acrylic paint (tempra paint is fine for the cardstock paper)
- pencil
How to Make the Hanukkah Art with Pointillism
1. Draw a menorah on your canvas, pressing lightly. Remind your kids to draw the shamash, or center candle holder higher than the 8 other candles.
2. Dip a Q-tip into the gold paint and one dot at a time, outline the menorah.
If you are using acrylic paint, let your kids know it’s “forever paint” for clothes.
And remind your kids not to smear the paint by using the Q-tip like a paint brush. Instead, show them how they can make tiny dots close together to make it appear like a line was formed.
Encourage them to finish the base of the menorah in gold paint dots.
3. Use blue paint to dot the outlines of the candles.
4. When the candles are finished, use yellow and orange dots to “light” the menorah. Your kids can complete the art work all at once or light an extra candle for each night of Hanukkah.
5. Use the menorah art as a Hanukkah decoration or as a Hanukkah card for family.
Painting the lights is the perfect way to celebrate the Festival of Lights.
And if you are an interfaith family and celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas (or you’re a teacher and need a Hanukkah and Christmas craft that doubles as a great holiday gift), you can also make this Christmas tree with Pointillism.
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