How Jonathan Adler Saved the Hanukkah Aisle at Michaels This Year

By Rabbi Yael Buechler, for KVELLER

(Kveller) – After last year’s Hanukkah fiasco at Michaels, the bar for 2026 was pretty low.

As a refresher, in 2025, the craft retailer somehow managed to sell a Hanukkah garland featuring the Hebrew letter chet, which isn’t one of the four letters on a dreidel.

And the mistake didn’t end there: Michaels photographed the garland with the chet backwards, then enlarged that very photo for its in-store Hanukkah displays. Yikes!

But this year, Michaels didn’t just raise the bar. They brought in Jonathan Adler.

As a huge fan, I couldn’t wait to see what he’d designed. But first, a little Jewish geography.

Like my bubbe, Adler grew up in South Jersey. His great-grandparents settled in the region as egg farmers, and his great-grandfather even helped establish the Garton Road Shul in the 1890s, which, incidentally, looks just like one of the new Hanukkah “gingerbread” houses I spotted at HomeGoods! The Jewish agricultural colonies of South Jersey are a fascinating, often overlooked chapter of American Jewish history.

Adler has long incorporated Jewish traditions into his designs, creating some truly spectacular Judaica. His hanukkiyot, in particular, often look more like modern sculptures than traditional ritual objects. We actually keep his Mustique hanukkiyah out year-round. The man knows what he’s doing!

After tracking down the collection at a local store, here’s what caught my eye.

Acrylic Hanukkiyah

It’s been a quiet year for new hanukkiyot. Enter Jonathan Adler’s blue acrylic creation: a translucent block with the familiar curved branches of a traditional hanukkiyah embedded inside.

What works: I love that it looks like a cool piece of modern art, but it also happens to be a functional hanukkiyah. It’s clever, beautiful and very Jonathan Adler.

What doesn’t: It’s surprisingly heavy, although that’s hardly unusual for Adler’s designs. His brass hanukkiyot could basically double as free weights! Some of the corners also feel a little sharp.

Verdict: I loved it enough to buy one, sharp corners and all.

Hanukkah Candles 

The collection includes three candle varieties: shades of blue, blue-and-white and gold.

What works: The gold candles are shiny and shimmery, with three different textures in the same color. It’s like a game of SET, but with Hanukkah candles! Adler managed to make something as simple as a box of candles feel genuinely special.

What doesn’t: Hanukkah hasn’t started yet, so I can’t say how well they’ll burn. And perhaps more importantly, will the wax come off the hanukkiyah easily?

Verdict: I bought two boxes. Can we get a silver version, too?

Gelt Coins

There’s also decorative Hanukkah gelt, ranging from translucent acrylic coins featuring Hanukkah symbols in blue and gold to hefty metal coins in two sizes.

What works: I love that Jonathan Adler is bringing back the OG gelt! By the late 1800s, children were receiving actual coins for Hanukkah, while foil-wrapped chocolate gelt didn’t take off in America until the 1920s. Plus, the designs are gorgeous and the Hanukkah imagery is accurate.

What doesn’t: Since they’re not chocolate, we’ll still need the edible kind for our high-stakes dreidel games and, of course, our annual Hanukkah hot chocolate.

Verdict: These are perfect for decorating my living room console, without worrying about chocolate gelt melting into the furniture.

Ceramic Bowls

There are two adorable little gold-rimmed ceramic bowls: One features blue dreidels with the Hebrew letter shin, while the other has smaller Jewish stars nested inside larger ones in shades of blue and silver.

What works: Typically, a Hanukkah product featuring only one dreidel letter would raise questions for me. Last year, Pottery Barn’s set of four dreidel-shaped appetizer plates all featured hey. Four plates, four dreidel letters. What a missed opportunity!

But I’m confident Adler knows his dreidel letters. Here, the repeating shin feels like an intentional stylistic choice, with the shape of the letter becoming part of the design itself.

What doesn’t: The Star of David version feels a little more conventional than its shin-covered counterpart.

Verdict: To my own surprise, the shin bowl is one of my favorite pieces.

Hanukkah Table Runner

Last but not least, there’s a vibrant, reversible blue-and-white table runner featuring the same nested Jewish stars as the ceramic bowls, alongside geometric patterns.

What works: The circular pattern on one side reminds me of tiny blue-and-white cookies, perhaps the Hanukkah cousin of the classic black-and-white cookie.

What doesn’t: The runner lacks the creative spark of the acrylic hanukkiyah or shin bowl. The Jewish stars on blue give me major blue velvet tallit-bag vibes.

Verdict: Not something I’d rush to bring home.

Overall, the Jonathan Adler x Michaels Hanukkah collection is beautiful, thoughtfully designed and basically Fifty Shades of Blue.

My biggest wish for next year? A little less reliance on Stars of David and a lot more of the unexpected creativity that makes Adler’s designs so distinctive. He already designs mah jongg sets for Michaels, so why not lean into that? Give us a mah jongg-inspired hanukkiyah, or dreidels with mah jongg-inspired designs (and the correct Hebrew letters, of course)!

Oh, and one final request: a Jonathan Adler Hanukkah garland. As we’ve established, Michaels could clearly use the help.