How to Choose a Menorah: A Buyer's Guide to Materials, Tradition, and Price

Key Takeaways

We make heirloom-quality menorahs—one at a time, by hand—in our small family studio. Each piece blends Jewish tradition with thoughtful design, using solid hardwoods, real craftsmanship, and a lot of heart.

No mass production. No shortcuts. Just meaningful Judaica, built to last.

• A Hanukkah menorah (hanukkiah) holds nine lights: eight in a straight line, plus a raised or offset shamash.
• Solid hardwood outlasts veneer, MDF, and particle board, and it is the single clearest marker of quality.
• Candle menorahs suit most homes. Oil menorahs offer a closer connection to tradition but require more setup.
• Candle cup material matters. Solid brass, nickel, and copper hold heat safely and will not loosen over time.
• Menorah prices generally run from around $120 to $600 or more, driven by wood species, edition size, and hours of handwork.
• Modern design and halachic tradition are not in conflict. A sculptural menorah can still be entirely correct.
• A well-made menorah is a decades-long object. Buy once, and buy for the person who will inherit it.

Explore the full collection or commission something personal. If you're looking for a menorah with soul, you're in the right place.

Choosing a menorah sounds simple until you start looking. Prices swing from ten dollars to several hundred. Materials range from stamped metal to solid burl. Some designs look like they belong in a museum, others like they belong in a toy box, and it is not always obvious what separates them.

I make menorahs by hand, so this guide is written from the bench rather than from a catalog. Below is what actually matters when you are choosing one: the tradition that shapes the form, the materials that determine how long it lasts, the practical difference between candles and oil, and what you are really paying for at each price.

A Hanukkah menorah holds nine lights: one for each of the eight nights, plus the shamash, the helper candle used to light the others.

This is the piece people most often get wrong when shopping. The seven-branch menorah you may picture from the Temple is a different object. For Hanukkah you want a hanukkiah, with nine.

Tradition also shapes the arrangement. The eight lights should sit in a straight line at an even height, and the shamash should be set apart, either raised above the others or offset from the row. That separation is what marks it as the helper rather than one of the eight.

Beyond that, there is enormous room to move. Nothing in the tradition requires a particular material, silhouette, or style. A menorah can be a clean minimalist bar, a live-edge slab, or an abstract sculpture, and still be entirely correct. When you see a design described as modern, that usually refers to the form around the lights, not a departure from the guidance.

Solid wood, not veneer or composite

This is the clearest quality signal available to you, and it is easy to check. Ask what the body is made from.

Solid hardwood moves with the seasons, takes a repair, and can be refinished decades from now. MDF, particle board, and thin veneer over a composite core cannot. They chip at the edges, swell if they get damp, and cannot be brought back once the surface fails.

Some fine menorahs do use veneer intentionally, particularly for rare burls where a solid piece would be unstable or prohibitively expensive. That is a legitimate craft decision and quite different from veneer used to disguise cheap material underneath. The question to ask is what is under the surface.

Wood species

Species affects both appearance and how the piece ages:

• Walnut runs to deep chocolate brown with smoky ribbons of figure.
• Cherry starts light and darkens steadily over years of light exposure. The piece you own in ten years will not look like the one you unwrapped.
• Maple is pale, dense, and durable, and it shows curl and quilting beautifully when the board has it.
• White oak is steady, classic, and strong, with a pronounced open grain.
• Burls such as mappa are the wild ones. Burl grows where a tree responds to stress or injury, so the grain swirls and clusters in patterns that never repeat. No two pieces are alike, which is why burl work is usually limited or one of a kind.

Candle cups

Look for solid brass, nickel, or copper, fitted rather than glued in place. These metals handle repeated heat without deforming, and a properly seated cup will not wobble or work loose after a few seasons.

Standard Hanukkah candles should sit securely without needing to be forced or shimmed. If a cup feels loose in your hand, it will only get looser.

Finish

A menorah needs a finish that resists heat, wax, and handling. Hand-rubbed oils, conversion varnishes, and conservation-grade lacquers all work well when properly applied. What you are looking for is an even surface with no cloudiness, no rough patches at the edges, and no visible glue.

Most people should choose candles. They are simpler, cleaner, widely available, and they fit securely in a properly sized cup. If this is a first menorah, or one that children will help light, candles are the practical answer.

Oil menorahs offer a closer link to the original miracle, which involved oil rather than wax. They ask more of you: filling wells, trimming wicks, and cleaning up afterward. For people who want that connection to the ritual, the extra work is the point rather than a drawback.

Oil menorahs are also less common, produced in smaller numbers, and generally harder to find. If that is what you want, plan ahead rather than shopping in December.

Think about where the menorah will actually sit before you buy.

Traditionally a menorah is placed in a window or near a doorway so the light is visible from outside. That often means a narrow sill, which rules out wider designs. Measure the space first.

A few practical points:

• A wide, heavy base is more stable, which matters with children or pets in the house.
• Keep the piece clear of curtains, and never leave burning candles unattended.
• Wax will drip. A design that lets you lift or scrape wax off easily is worth more than one that traps it in crevices.
• If the piece will live on a shelf year round rather than going into a box each January, buy something you want to look at in July.

Our own pieces run from roughly $120 to $600 and up. That range is not arbitrary, and understanding it makes comparison shopping easier.

What drives price:

• Wood species and rarity. A walnut slab and a mappa burl slab of the same size are not remotely the same cost to buy.
• Hours of handwork. Curves, tapers, and asymmetry take far longer to shape than straight cuts.
• Edition size. A design made once is priced differently from one made in small batches.
• Hardware and finish. Solid metal cups and multi-stage finishes cost more than plated hardware and a single coat.

What to be skeptical of: a very low price on something described as solid hardwood, and a very high price with no explanation of what makes it rare or labor intensive.

A menorah at this level is not really a seasonal purchase. Spread across the decades a good one lasts, the cost per year is small, and the object accumulates meaning rather than losing it.

Menorahs make particularly good gifts because they mark beginnings: a first Hanukkah, a new home, a wedding, a conversion, a milestone anniversary.

A few things help when buying for someone else. Lean toward a design that suits their home rather than your taste. Consider whether they already own one, since many families keep several. And if the piece can be signed, numbered, or engraved, that turns a good gift into a specific one.

For a fuller walkthrough of choosing by recipient and occasion, see our menorah gift guide.

Wooden menorahs are easy to look after, and a little attention keeps one looking right for decades.

Let wax cool fully, then lift it away rather than scraping at it while soft. Wipe the wood with a soft dry cloth. Keep it out of direct sun and away from heat sources, which can dry and fade the surface over time. Every year or so, a light application of an appropriate wood oil or wax will keep the grain rich.

Store it somewhere with stable humidity rather than a hot attic or a damp basement.

You can buy a menorah for ten dollars. Whether you should depends on what you want the object to do.

A mass-produced menorah lights candles. So does a handmade one. The difference is everything around that function: the grain that exists nowhere else, the weight in your hand, the fact that a specific person shaped it and signed it, and the likelihood that it still exists in fifty years.

We make ours one at a time in a small family studio. Every piece is cut, shaped, sanded, and finished by hand, and the ones that leave the bench are the ones we would keep. That is the whole standard.

Explore our full menorah collection.