Holidays in the Valley : How Jews Celebrate the Festival of Lights : Hanukkah: The eight days commemorate the Macabees overthrow of the Syrians and are marked by food, song, gifts and games.

While other holidays carry much more weight in Jewish tradition, any Jewish child will tell you that Hanukkah is the most important.

Of Jewish holidays, Yom Kippur is perhaps the most holy and Hanukkah the most joyous with its food and song, gifts and games--which helps explain its enormous popularity. That, and the fact that it often falls during the Christmas season, which makes it a natural for helping Jewish children--as a minority in a Christian culture--feel part of the festivities and lavish gifting while still retaining Jewish custom and culture.

Hanukkah, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas. In fact, it predates Christ’s birth by some 160 years, when the small forces of the Macabees, a leading Jewish sect, overthrew the domination of their Syrian enemies.

After their victory, the Jews sought to restore their Jerusalem temple, which had been defiled. To rededicate the temple, they needed pure oil to light the lamp. As the story goes, a boy found only enough oil in the temple to light the lamp for one night. However, the lamp miraculously burned for eight nights--the miracle commemorated during Hanukkah and the source of the holiday’s nickname, the Festival of Lights.

Celebrated for eight days beginning on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually falls in December, Hanukkah is celebrated in a variety of ways.

Some families adhere closely to tradition, lighting the menorah candles each night, exchanging modest gifts, and gathering family and friends to play games and eat special dinners.

At the other end of the spectrum are families who incorporate a Hanukkah bush to approximate the Christmas tree and hang blue-and-white stockings by the mantel.

Most celebrations fall somewhere in between.

Since Hanukkah isn’t a major Jewish holiday, gifts traditionally were simple, such as gelt--small bags of pennies or chocolate coins--and perhaps some needed personal items such as small articles of clothing, grooming items or a children’s book.

Today, many families are just as likely to buy a Nintendo set as a necktie. While high-price toys are hit items, there also is a new wealth of Jewish specialty shops that carry items such as cassette tapes of Jewish stories and songs, plastic dreidels (spinning tops) with flashing lights, Hanukkah stickers, and menorahs of all styles and sizes.

Most families incorporate a blend of gift-giving. For the first nights, many give children simple items such as Hanukkah candy, books, dreidels or cookie cutters in Hanukkah shapes. Then, on the last day, adults and children alike exchange expensive presents.

Some parents strive to mitigate the commercialism of Hanukkah by encouraging children to designate a charity to receive a gift one or two nights during the holiday.

Whatever other customs are included, the kindling of lights is the foundation of the holiday. In olden days, people used little oil lamps. Today, menorahs with candles are more common, and the family gathers round and chants a blessing as the shamash (servant candle) is kindled. It then is used to light the first Hanukkah candle. On the second night, the shamash and two candles burn, and so on, until all eight Hanukkah candles burn bright and clear.

Many families let children choose the color of candles to be burned in the menorah each night; others let each child have his own menorah to burn in addition to the family lights.

Some menorahs are of classic candelabra design; others are modern works of art. Still others are simple handcrafted items. In fact, creating personalized menorahs is a great way to recognize another tenet of the holiday--family time together.

Craft a menorah out of a simple wood plank with bottle caps, nut shells or drilled holes to hold the candles, or use a discarded auto distributor cap or mounds of modeling clay. The only rules of design state that the candles be far enough apart so that the flames don’t touch and that the shamash be somehow set apart from the Hanukkah candles--either lower, higher or off to the side.

In addition to the prominent placement of the menorah in the home, many families choose to decorate with blue-and-white banners and streamers, balloons and table linens. Stationery stores stock entire lines of Hanukkah decorations and wrapping paper, party invitations and paper plates, and children can craft construction paper chain links and Star of David mobiles to hang from the ceiling.

Aside from the menorah, nothing says Hanukkah more than the smell of latkes frying in oil. These potato pancakes, usually slathered with applesauce or sour cream, are the traditional staple--but any food cooked in oil is an appropriate reminder of the oil that miraculously burned in the temple.

Other traditional holiday foods are beef brisket, smoked salmon and buttery cookies.

Every night after the meal comes time for storytelling and games. A favorite tale is a lengthy version of the Hanukkah story, often read from a child’s new book, that recounts how Antiochus IV decreed that Jews renounce their customs and how the courageous Maccabees fought for years to defeat him. Others tell tales of family Hanukkahs past and sing special songs.

While adults continue telling tales and perhaps playing cards or dominoes, children spin the dreidel, a four-sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side-- nun , gimmel , heh and shin . These are the first letters of the Hebrew words Nes Gadol Hayah Sham , which means “a great miracle happened there.”

There are many different games played with the dreidel. In one, each child is given an equal number of tokens--such as pennies, nuts or wrapped candies--and then must put five into a community pot. Each child then takes a turn spinning the dreidel. The letter that shows when the top has finished spinning directs the child’s action.

Nun means that he takes nothing from the pot, gimmel means that he takes all from the pot, heh means that he takes half of the pot, and shin means that he puts half his pile into the pot. At the end of a specified period of time, whoever has the most tokens is declared winner.

Dreidel can also be played just as a spinning game--whoever spins the longest is the winner.

Besides dreidel games, familiar pastimes can be turned into Hanukkah games. The opposing pieces in chess or checkers become the Maccabees battling the Syrians, for example, and in Hanukkah Scrabble, players get 25 bonus points for words related to Hanukkah, such as candle , miracle or light .

Even hide-and-seek has special meaning at Hanukkah because it reminds how the Maccabees hid from the Syrians in the hills and caves of Judea.