Dreidel is a traditional Hebrew game played during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. It shares its name with a four-sided top that has four letters. Together, the letters are a Hebrew acronym for, "Nes Gadol Haya Sham" or, "a great miracle happened there." With a dreidel and some tokens, you can take part in this holiday tradition, too!

[edit] Steps

Get a group of people together. You can play with as few as two, but the more the merrier!
Distribute the tokens evenly among all of the players. The tokens can be any little thing: pennies, nuts, raisins, matchsticks, etc.
Direct each player to place one token in the middle of the circle to create "the pot."
Take turns spinning the dreidel. (In some variations of the game, it always starts with the youngest player.) The dreidel will land in such a way that one and only one letter shows on top. According to the letter appearing, the player should perform the following action:
- Shin
  
  Shin ("shtel" or "put in" in Yiddish) - Put one more token in the pot.
- Nun
  
  Nun ("nisht"or "nothing" (in Yiddish) - Do nothing.
- Gimmel
  
  Gimmel ("gantz"or "everything" in Yiddish) - Take all tokens from the pot.
- Hay
  
  Hay ("halb"or "half" in Yiddish) - Take half of all tokens lying in the pot. In case of an odd number of tokens, round up.
Pass the dreidel on to the next player.
Keep playing until someone wins by collecting all the tokens in the pot!

[edit] Tips

If the pot empties, or has only one token left, each player should put another token in the pot.
If a player runs out of tokens, he either leaves the game or takes a loan of tokens from another player.
A fun variation is to use chocolate instead of coins, so you can eat your winnings when the game ends.
In Israel, the letter shin is usually replaced with the letter peh for the word "poh" to create the phrase "a great miracle happened here."
In another version of the game, you may match the pot when Shin appears, and put one in when Nun appears.
In Yiddish, the dreidel is also called "fargle" and "varfl." In Israel, the Hebrew term "sevivon" (from the root meaning "turn around or spin") is used.