Pay tribute to the Festival of Lights with these menorahs and dreidels made from Legos, action figures, toy dinosaurs, glow sticks, test tubes, and more. December 1, 2013 11:12 AM PST This Tardis dreidel spins just like that big blue police box in the night sky. (Credit: TardisBuilders.com) Some celebrate Hanukkah with age-old traditions, and some celebrate with Lego and "Star Trek." Some of the more unique dreidels out there include spinning tributes to "Star Wars," and "Doctor Who." But as long as you have the letters in the right place, anything is possible. "Building a dreidel builds other stuff, too, like enthusiasm for the holiday and a deeper appreciation of those four important letters and what they stand for," says J Create Magazine. "The letters on a homemade dreidel need to be arranged in the correct order going right to left. Nun, gimmel, hey, shin are the abbreviation (an initialism, actually, if you want to get all nerdy) of 'nes gadol hayah shom: a great miracle happened there.' So, a shin will never be adjacent to to a gimmel, for example." Menorahs used in the Festival of Lights can range from traditional to science-themed, such as MIT's famous one-of-a-kindTest Tube Menorah that dates back to the '70s and honors both Judaism and the school's focus on science and technology. "The design incorporates an old-style, wooden, two-level test tube rack with various styles of test tubes. A test tube clamp facilitates the moving of the shamash, the lamp that lights all the other wicks," according to the MIT Hillel Web site. "As the test tubes can hold a large amount of fluid, water fills the lower three-quarters of each tube with vegetable oil in only the top quarter. Standard wicks are used and are cut to remain within the oil-filled section of each tube." Celebrate Hanukkah in geek style (pictures) 1-2 of 11 Scroll Left Scroll Right Another unusual menorah is this steampunk job called The Grunambulorah, which, according to Instructables, is made from old radio tubes, LEDs, plumbing fittings, and knife switches, It's all powered by two AAA batteries. Click through our gallery above for some geeky Hanukkah inspiration.
Pay tribute to the Festival of Lights with these menorahs and dreidels made from Legos, action figures, toy dinosaurs, glow sticks, test tubes, and more.
This Tardis dreidel spins just like that big blue police box in the night sky.
(Credit: TardisBuilders.com)
Some celebrate Hanukkah with age-old traditions, and some celebrate with Lego and "Star Trek."
Some of the more unique dreidels out there include spinning tributes to "Star Wars," and "Doctor Who." But as long as you have the letters in the right place, anything is possible.
"Building a dreidel builds other stuff, too, like enthusiasm for the holiday and a deeper appreciation of those four important letters and what they stand for," says J Create Magazine. "The letters on a homemade dreidel need to be arranged in the correct order going right to left. Nun, gimmel, hey, shin are the abbreviation (an initialism, actually, if you want to get all nerdy) of 'nes gadol hayah shom: a great miracle happened there.' So, a shin will never be adjacent to to a gimmel, for example."
Menorahs used in the Festival of Lights can range from traditional to science-themed, such as MIT's famous one-of-a-kindTest Tube Menorah that dates back to the '70s and honors both Judaism and the school's focus on science and technology.
"The design incorporates an old-style, wooden, two-level test tube rack with various styles of test tubes. A test tube clamp facilitates the moving of the shamash, the lamp that lights all the other wicks," according to the MIT Hillel Web site. "As the test tubes can hold a large amount of fluid, water fills the lower three-quarters of each tube with vegetable oil in only the top quarter. Standard wicks are used and are cut to remain within the oil-filled section of each tube."
Another unusual menorah is this steampunk job called The Grunambulorah, which, according to Instructables, is made from old radio tubes, LEDs, plumbing fittings, and knife switches, It's all powered by two AAA batteries. Click through our gallery above for some geeky Hanukkah inspiration.
