West Coast legend Short Dogg is best known for NSFW raunchy sex jams, but in 2012 he took a page out of Run-DMC’s holiday jam playbook (“Christmas in Hollis”) and got in on the seasonal action with this jam that will make your holiday extra lit. “This ain’t Rosh Hashanah/ This ain’t Passover/ It’s Hanukkah, baby/ Now move that ass over,” he raps on the slow jam — in which he makes some gelt and pinches all the tuchus.

Leave it to Jewish a cappella masters the Maccabeats to always keep the festival lit with timely updates on traditional songs. This year’s entry is a tribute to the KPop Demon Hunters phenomenon in which they pay homage to the holiday’s crispiest, oiliest treat: latkes (aka potato pancakes) sung to the tune of songs from the wildly popular animated Netflix smash, including, of course, “Golden,” repurposed here to re-tell the holiday’s story of defiance. “‘Cause the recipe’s rad, and the kitchen is clean/ Put the applesauce next to the good sour cream/ Now the batter’s good to go/ So crank the flame beneath the pan up to a blaze,” they sing on the tune that also stops at dreidels while offering a bouncy history lesson.

Last a cappella group this year, we swear. But in keeping with ripped-from-the-pop-culture-headlines trend, this group unearths the parallels between the Hanukkah story and box office phenomenon Wicked, which they note are both about “fighting against the odds [and] overcoming oppression and vilification.” Sung to the tune of beloved Wicked tracks “Defying Gravity” and “Popular,” they croon, “We know we’ll thrive, defining destiny/ We won’t stand by, defining destiny/ And they won’t bring us down/ Now, Hannukah illustrates well/ The way we rebuild from disaster.”

While this one is, technically, not a Hanukkah song, it was part of Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl and producer Greg Kurstin’s second installment of their “Hanukkah Session” series in 2022. For the series, they covered songs made famous by Jewish musicians, tapping P!nk to run through her 2001 bar/bat mitzvah staple “Get the Party Started.”

What is Hanukkah without a serving of Kosha Dillz? The chosen MC just dropped his first-ever children’s song in collaboration with the “world’s funniest kosher dill pickle puppet.” The adorable, enthusiastic jam describes all the ways that eight is great: Hunukkah is eight beautiful nights, the menorah has eight slots, kids receive eight nights of gifts and eight tells the story of the Maccabees. “Eight is the boss/ I could eat eight latkes and eight jars of applesauce,” the singing gherkin croons on the tune, which features some speed-rapped bars about the holiday’s history from Dillz halfway through. (Bonus/minus: there’s also a cute, timely 6-7 joke. Sorry, not sorry.)

The Maccabeats aren’t the only a cappella Jewish vocal group who are here to spin you right round, round, round like a dreidel. This six-man group bring a little Motown swag to their remake of the Jackson 5’s iconic “I Want You Back.” The lyrics tell the story of the holiday with bouncy joy, as the guys harmonize, “Oh Judah here’s your final chance (to light the Menorah)/ Don’t want the Temple, to sit in the dark/ For eight days all the lights will shine and glow (light it up baby)/ But now that we have one little spark,” before transitioning into their version of the Michael Jackson-led group’s “I’ll Be There,” and ending with a high-energy, food-centric take on “ABC.”

This oldie-but-goodie from 2009 was dubbed the “greatest Hanukkah song of all time” by the Jewish Standard in 2016. Is it? Not really, but the bizarre tune from this LeeVees spin-off band is a mesmerizing Presidents of the United States-style indie rock jangle jam about whatever a “Dreidel Bird” is. “Some dreidels have four sides/ Well this dreidel sings/ Some dreidels can spin upside down/ Well this one has wings,” the group sing in the video that consists of grainy footage of the holiday’s signature spinning top bouncing across a wood floor.

No list would be complete without a visit from the ghost of Chanukah (or Hanukkah, either one is fine) past in the form of Jay Kelly so-star Sandler’s all-time great look-at-who-else-is-Jewish anthem. He’s revisited the pretty simple premise a number of times over the years, but in case you missed it, here it is: a list of famous people who celebrate the holiday. His fourth go-round includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jake Gyllenhaal, Adam Levine, Drake, Seth Rogen, Scarlett Johansson, Rush singer Geddy Lee, soccer legend David Beckham, Vermont ice cream magnates Ben & Jerry and polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk. Not too shabby.