Festival of Lights

Use blue and silver to create a beautiful table setting for your Hanukkah meal. Start with a simple white table cloth. Add silver placemats, white plates, and wine glasses. Serve the latkes and lamb on large silver platters and pour the cocktail in martini glasses. A few festive touches, like dreidel place card holders, chocolate gelt, and a modern-looking menorah, are celebratory and elegant. Place candles in low blue glass votives and fill a blue glass vase with white flowers.

What's your Hanukkah decorating scheme? Please share with us below!

While I'm a huge fan of experimenting with exotic cocktail recipes and new spirits, sometimes nothing beats a classic beverage like the martini. For Hanukkah on Friday, why not pour your guests vodka martinis?

Vodka pairs well with smoked salmon and potato latkes. It's also a great way to get a party started and help people loosen up a bit. With dinner, consider pouring wine. To look at the vodka martini recipe, read more

As much as I love biting into a piping-hot, jelly-filled, sugar-crusted doughnut, homemade sufganiyot is a lot of work to make. Since the frying cannot be done in advance, these traditional Israeli doughnuts aren't an ideal party dessert. Opt to serve rugelach, the crescent-shaped cream cheese pastry cookie, instead. Rugelach is a classic treat that must be made the morning of your Hanukkah dinner. While the buttery dough can be filled with a variety of spices and sweeteners, this recipe combines walnuts with dried blueberries, cinnamon, and blackberry jam.

The resulting bite has just the right amount of richness. Check out the recipe and read more

Hanukkah begins this Friday at sundown, and to celebrate, I recommend hosting an informal yet elegant dinner. When guests arrive, offer them a drink and a buckwheat blini with smoked salmon, crème fraîche, and salmon roe. It's the perfect bite to kick-start a party. For the main course, skip the traditional brisket in favor of Dijon lamb lollipops with red currant-mint dipping sauce.


Potato latkes are crispy and flavorful, and a simple mixed-green salad with kumquats rounds out the menu. To get these recipes, keep reading.