From candle lighting to cooking a Hanukka feast, this year, your smart
phone can take part in nearly all holiday festivities. To honor the
Festival of Light, Appaholic has compiled five great Hanukka apps to
help eat, sing, play and dance your way into the spirit of the holiday.
In Tune
This
Hanukka, don't let Christmas jingles eclipse your holiday spirit. If
you can't help but feel a bit outdone by the yearly Christmas cheer
dominating December, we've got just the app to help you make Hanukka a
serious contender this holiday season.
Hanukkah Ringtones will allow you to customize your phone's ring tone with any number of classic Festival of Lights tunes, jingles and songs.
Choose
your favorite song from a host of Hanukka classics – in both English
and Hebrew – and allow every incoming call to put you in the spirit of
Hanukka. Also, even post-Hanukka, the app has utility, featuring a
number of classic, year-round Jewish tunes, including Shalom Aleihem and
Hava Nagila. Enjoy, and let the rhythm get to you.
Cost: $1.99
Supported formats: iPhone, iPod touch, iPadThe heart of the matter
As
with any Jewish holiday, food is an integral element of Hanukka
festivities, right up there with your hanukkia, candles and dreidel. As
with everything, don't discount your smartphone in assisting you in this
delicate matter. Our favorite Hanukka recipes app is
Hannukkah Recipes HD, which taps into the Jewish love of eating by offereing over a 100 fun Hanukka and Jewish-themed recipes.
Recipes
include classics such as latkes, homemade applesauce and doughnuts, as
well as holiday-inspired recipes that will certainly become favorites,
including gelt double-fudge cake,Hanukkadreidel cookies, Moroccan
Hanukka doughnuts and mint flavored Hanukkagelt.
Cost: $1.99
Supported formats: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
Virtual hanukkia
Designed by The Jewish Museum in New York,
Light My Fire,
definitely tops our list of favorite virtual hanukkia apps. First,
choose your hanukkia – but wait, not just any hanukkia. Choose from a
number of antique and modern hanukkiot from the museum's collection. We
personally went with the 1803 Karl Bitzel hanukkia from Ausburg,
Germany.
Next,
choose the background image you'd like for your special hanukkia; the
app offers options ranging from star-lit skies to beach scenes. Then,
light the perfect hanukkia by swiping a finger across the screen and
watch the candles burst into flame.
Cost: Free
Supported formats: iPhone, iPod touch, iPadAdult’s play time
Not all game apps are designed with children in mind, and
Dreidel Labyrinth–
a challenging Game-Center supported app with a gambling twist – is
definitely for the older crowd. Combining pinball-style hand-eye
coordination with the classic Hanukka dreidel game, this app may have
you addicted faster than you can tally the gelt (money) you've won.
Cost: Free
Supported formats: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
A little color
This year, get the young ones into the Hanukka spirit with the smartphone coloring app
123 Color: Hanukkah Edition.With
nine different Hanukka-themed cartoon drawings, as well as a host of
winter and autumn-themed drawings, your kids will certainly feel the
spirit of the season.
We especially liked this app because it
comes with several different coloring settings. Your child can choose to
either color freely, or choose a paint-by-numbers setting. In the
latter setting, you can increase your child's familiarity with either
numbers or upper and lower case letters. Regardless of the setting, this
Hanukka app will certainly entertain your child.
Cost: Free
Supported formats: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
Appaholic
is a bi-weekly column which thematically reviews mobile apps with a
Jewish or Israeli twist. If you have an app to suggest, send details to appaholic.jpost@gmail.com
The writer is The Jerusalem Post‘s Social Media Manager