How to Host a Hanukkah Olive Oil Tasting - Hanukkah Tablescape Ideas

crate and barrel hanukkah tablescape with rebekah lowin

Disclaimer: This post is part of a larger paid sponsorship with Crate and Barrel. Opinions and creative direction are my own.

HOW EXCITING IS THIS?! 😭 I’ve been waiting forever (well, a month-and-a-half, but that’s forever in blog world) to tell you all about this very exciting partnership and reveal this pretty tablescape. Back in early August, I received an email from a lovely creative team over at Crate and Barrel, asking if we could work together to create an authentic, meaningful Hanukkah inspiration tablescape. Uh, YES!?!? I nearly passed out. The catch: I only had nine days to ideate, bring the whole thing to life, shoot it, edit the photos, and send ’em back to Crate and Barrel before heading off on that quick end-of-summer road trip we took out in Wyoming—and, oh yeah, we still didn’t have any apartment furniture in our new place.

Oh my. 😅

Of course, I’d feel crazy to turn down the opportunity to work with a dream brand and bring some Hanukkah beauty to the masses. So I said yes!! And luckily, it all worked out. (I did end up using a neighbor’s folding table under the tablescape here, though—that was the level of “no, really, we haven’t moved in yet” I was working with.)

olive oil tasting tablescape ideas olive oil tasting party

I was honestly completely blown away by the whole experience—both the general coolness factor but also by the Crate and Barrel team’s willingness to let me completely take the reins and do things in a way that felt authentic to me. (Well, as authentic as celebrating Hanukkah in August can be. But seeing as I am perpetually seasonally confused, I’d say we kept things pretty real.) After our first meeting, I kept coming back to a faux olive tree branch I’d seen on the Crate and Barrel site, and decided to base my whole table off of that beautiful piece of greenery. I dreamt up an olive oil tasting complete with tiny bowls of various oils, those faux branches, and other interconnected details…then leapt into action to make the most of my tiny timeline, designing the cute little tasting sheets and printing them on fancy paper, lugging out my favorite silver dreidels and other must-include tchotchkes, and generally setting up my home for the holidays.

(The olive oil aspects felt super relevant: Hanukkah centers on a miracle made possible by oil, which is also why we eat so many fried foods—latkes, sufganiyot, etc.)

I’m so thrilled to present the final table here with you, along with a few other ideas you can find over here in my Hanukkah section (I also decorated my mantel with Crate and Barrel, put together some DIY gift wrap using their glittery new paper, and generally spruced up my no-longer-empty apartment in ways both big and small and seasonally confused). You can also check out their dedicated Hanukkah page over here with some of my picks—their team put so much thought and effort into this, and I’m pretty blown away by it. Can’t wait for you to see.

(P.S. If you love what you’re seeing or decide to host your own tasting, send me a note on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.)

Sending you love, gratitude, and boatloads of hot choc as we step into this next season of celebrating.