Why is This Night More Fun Than All Other Nights?

With Passover quickly approaching most of us are so focused on spring cleaning and menu planning that we often forget about some fun ways to prepare for a family Seder that can be the real highlight of the holiday.  

My children spend weeks in Jewish day school preparing for Passover.  They learn the order of events, scour their classroom cubbies for bread crumbs, and sing every known tune about frogs in Pharoh's bed.  They come ready to the table with their personalized projects and the evening usually culminates with their performance of the Four Questions. Nothing is unexpected.

This year I challenge you to turn the tables.

Instead of sitting back and waiting for them to bring all the excitement to your table, surprise your kids with some fun Seder activities that bring this holiday ritual to life and keep them engaged even after they secure their Afikoman prizes.

These fun Seder ideas will delight your kids with the knowledge that you did more to prepare for commemorating the Exodus from Egypt than grind the apples to make the Charoset:

On My Way Out of Egypt, I Couldn't Live Without My... 

Gather some random items around the house and place them in an old suitcase or funny looking bag.  Make sure the other adults at your table dont see what you have selected. Items you put in the bag can range from obvious to ridiculous; some examples are sunglasses, stuffed animals, band aids, plunger, comic book etc. The prep for this game is particularly fun to do with the kids; they'll love being the ones to select the items and force the adults to do some improv.  

Pass the bag around the table at various points throughout the Seder and have the person who gets it dig in to pull out an unidentified item and quickly come up with a reason to explain why they couldn't leave Egypt without this essential item. The fun of having no idea what object you are going to get and the spontaneity of having to perform in front of your company will no doubt generate big laughs.

Seder Bingo

What better way to capture all the details during the seder than to turn it into a Bingo Game?  My sister ingeniously created this Passover Bingo Board for her website FunInJerusalem and suggests playing it with marshmallows as Bingo markers (reminiscent of the marshmallows our father distributed to us anytime we participated in our childhood seders- while sneaking a few of his own).

Bingo can be played by young and old and include everyone at your seder table. The kids will love competing with their grown relatives and friends.  The board is filled with Passover images that appear throughout the story of the Haggadah, and is a great way to get the kids into it long after the Four Questions are over.

Passover Personalities 20 Questions

A backward version of charades, each person at the seder is cast in the role of a Passover character, but the catch is they don't know who.  Create paper crowns with a card attached to the front facing the crowd so that the table can see the players character even though he cant see it himself.  The player then gets the opportunity to ask 20 questions he can come up with in order to figure out which Passover character he is playing that night.  


Some obvious ones include Pharaoh or Moses, but you can also add some fun ones, like wild animals from the 10 plagues or the wicked child of the Four Sons. Kids love guessing and leading each other with clues to figure out their Passover characters.

Frog Finder
What's the Passover story without a recounting of the frogs that plagued Egypt and found their way into every crevice of Pharoh's palace?  Buy a simple sheet of green stickers such as these circular labels made by Avery and quickly stick them in various hidden and obvious spots all over the house.  Wait until the kids get antsy and announce that the plague of frogs has taken over the house. As the Egyptian clean up crew, they are challenged to see how many frogs they can collect on a plain white sheet of paper.  


The winner with the most frog stickers collected wins some special honor at the table or a replica of Moshe's staff, anything to keep them proud.  This one can go on for quite a while and give them some time to stretch their legs, though the warning of course is that you may find little green frog stickers for months to come depending on how meticulous your little sleuths are.


Most importantly have fun, it's the best way to show your kids how much you care about the day.


What are some of your best Passover Seder hints to liven up the festivities? 

Ok Kids, Time to Play With Your Food!

Thanks to my sister for sending along this fun dinner idea she saw on the web. I’ve recently been inspired to  try some of these more outlandish culinary experiments, a great diversion for kids on a long Sunday afternoon.

This one in particular looked pretty self-explanatory.  After the requisite hand washing, I put a bowl of raw spaghetti and a bowl of cut hot dog pieces in front of my kids and told them to go to town.

It took a few minutes to get the right system down and prevent the spaghettis from snapping.  But after some practice, (and intervention from Dad’s analytical brain) we started to place the hot dog pieces on a bunch of spaghetti all at once, making for the perfect kebobs.

Sweet Sunday Soiree

Introducing guest blogger Suzanne, a fellow foodie, friend and consummate hostess. Enjoy for the scrumptious contribution...

Thanks to LifesSweetLemons Entertaining inspiration for helping me decide to throw a brunch-- for 12, on a recent Sunday morning at my home.

Brunch food is always a favorite, and these foods did not disappoint! I've collected brunch recipes for a while, and was happy to put them to good use. The best and worst thing about brunch is that there's not a lot you can prepare in advance, since these foods all taste better right out of the oven, so Sunday morning ends up being hectic, to say the least.

On the table, set with a created runner made of white tea towels with red borders, white ceramic plates piled on either end of the table, and small bunches of yellow seasonal flowers scattered about we dined on many local delicacies: 5 types of bread from Fairway (one thing the East Coast has over the West, in my opinion!) including cranberry walnut, Ciabatta, 7 grain, and lavash, accompanied by strawberry butter (http://www.marthastewart.com/318755/strawberry-butter), homemade tomato jam, and sweet orange marmalade.