Hanukkah Cuteness

When I was a little girl, one holiday season I ended up being given a dreidel. A dreidel is a four sided top that is often played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
How a little Mormon girl who was surrounded entirely by Mormon's, and no one of any other religions, ends up with a dreidel as a gift I don't know. But it was a neat toy that I really liked.

It was also one of my first introductions to Hebrew and Judaism (unless you count stories read from the Old Testament in primary/Sunday school). As an adult, about eight years ago I think, I started to have a growing interest in Jewish traditions and art.

So anyway, this year as I've been picking up the art of sewing I decided while looking a lots of holiday patterns and instructions for making all sorts of soft toys, I decided a soft toy driedel would be really cute.

So off I went to search the internet for info on how to do that. To my surprise there wasn't any. But to my even bigger surprise I decided to make my own pattern, and succeeded quite nicely!

Isn't it cute? Okay, it doesn't spin very well. But it's a stuffed soft toy, it's meant to be cute...not useful.

One of my newest friends, Asher, is Jewish, so I plan on making some more of these up for his kids for Hanukkah...and maybe some for him and his wife too. Hey, grown ups can have soft plushie toys too! (Since Asher will probably read this we'll see what he thinks about that...lol.) I know I'm keeping one for myself. :)

I've also posted instructions on how to make these on a crafting website here http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/hanukkah_dreidel_plushie so others can make them too.

Oh, and just in case anyone reading this is looking for more Hanukkah crafts, Ms. Martha Stewart has a few here. (I really liked the wooden driedels covered in glitter to be used for holiday decor.)