Skirball Hanukkah Festival Lets Kids Build a City of Light

The centerpiece is a miniature City of Light, and it is a group build rather than a finished model to walk past: visitors help assemble the city themselves. The Light Lab and the Shadow Story corner are the festival's two light-and-shadow stations, and the art making areas cover the rest of the crafts. Between builds, kids take a spin at the Dreidel Lounge, and Skirball Storytellers keep the Hanukkah story running through the afternoon.

The rest of the five hours is communal. Mostly Kosher, a Los Angeles klezmer band, plays live, festival food runs through the afternoon, and the day ends with a community candle lighting at sunset. Festival tickets also open the museum that Sunday: the Oxman menorah in the main lobby, Visions and Values, Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution, and Judy Baca's Great Wall of Los Angeles. The museum opens at 11 a.m., an hour ahead of the festival, and the galleries stay open through the event.

Tickets go on sale Thursday, Nov. 5, at 10 a.m. Pacific. Pricing is $23 general, $18 for seniors and full-time students, $16 for children 2 to 17, free for members and children under 2. Advance tickets can sell out, and when they do, a limited number of walk-up tickets is released first come, first served. Noah's Ark works the same way, with limited walk-up tickets until they are gone, and the Archaeology Dig is closed that day. Every child needs an adult with them, and parking on site is free at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.