Britannica
Sources used in this answer
What is Hanukkah gelt?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Hanukkah
Lighting the menorah in celebration of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah gelt refers to gifts of money traditionally given to children during the festival of Hanukkah. While the term gelt is Yiddish for money, in the context of the holiday, it is frequently distributed in the form of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil.123
These chocolate coins are often used as tokens during the popular children's game of dreidel, where players use them to contribute to or take from a central community pot based on the outcome of their spin.14