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Hanukkah messages and wishes, for all eight nights

Short wishes for anyone, longer messages for the family whose candles you’re missing, and a line for every night, from the first candle to the eighth.

Updated

Hanukkah lasts eight nights, which is a lot of nights to spend away from the people you’d usually light the candles with. A message can’t pass round the latkes, but it can bring something of the evening with it. Here are short wishes for anyone, longer messages for family far away, and a way to send one for every night.

Short Hanukkah wishes

For a card, a message, or the first line of a letter.

Happy Hanukkah. Wishing you eight bright nights and at least as many latkes.

Chag sameach. May your candles burn bright and your doughnuts be filled all the way to the middle.

Happy Hanukkah from our home to yours. Wishing you light, warmth and very good gelt.

Wishing you a Hanukkah full of light, family, and dreidel games nobody can agree on the rules of.

Chag urim sameach: a happy festival of lights to you and everyone round your table.

Happy Hanukkah. Sending light from here to you, all eight nights.

For family you can’t be with

Say what you’re doing tonight, and what you’d be doing if you were there. The small details carry the most.

Dear Bubbe, Night three. The latkes were a triumph. The kitchen was not. I used your recipe and only set off the smoke alarm once, which I think is a family record. Happy Hanukkah. I miss your kitchen.

Happy Hanukkah, Mum and Dad. We lit the menorah in the window tonight and the kids argued about who got to light the shamash, which felt exactly like home. Save the good dreidel for next year.

Happy Hanukkah, all of you. It’s strange lighting candles without the whole family crowded into the kitchen, so there’s a photo of every night in here. You can watch them burn down with us.

For friends and colleagues

Warm and simple is right, especially if you’re not sure how someone celebrates.

Happy Hanukkah. I hope you have a lovely eight nights with your family.

Wishing you and yours a happy Hanukkah, and plenty of light in the darkest part of the year.

Happy Hanukkah. Thank you for the sufganiyot in the kitchen; the office has talked about little else.

A message for every night

Eight nights means eight chances. A short line each evening, as the next candle’s lit, says you’re thinking of them all week, not just once. If you’re stuck, here’s one idea per night.

  • Night one: the first candle, and what you’re hoping for this year.
  • Night two: a memory of a Hanukkah when you were small.
  • Night three: what you cooked, and how it went.
  • Night four: a photo of your menorah in the window.
  • Night five: something you’re grateful to them for.
  • Night six: the dreidel results, disputed.
  • Night seven: a joke from the youngest person in the house.
  • Night eight: every candle lit, and a plan to be together next year.

You can send them as eight envelopes, each set to open on its evening, or as one envelope with a letter for each night inside. They open it once and take out tonight’s.

What to send with it

  • Photos. The menorah in the window, one more candle each night.
  • A film. The blessing, the candles, and the children spinning the dreidel with the seriousness it deserves. It’s the part they’ll watch twice.
  • A recipe. The latkes, and the argument about what goes on them.

When to send it

Hanukkah follows the Hebrew calendar, so it moves each year, usually falling in December. In 2026 the first candle is lit at sundown on Friday 4 December, and the eighth night is Friday 11 December.

If you’d like your message to arrive at a particular moment, send it early and keep it sealed until then: as the first candle’s lit, say. They’ll see the envelope, and a countdown, until then. A Hanukkah envelope starts from $1.29 for a letter, and opens on any phone, anywhere, with nothing to install.

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