Starting about 20 years ago, Suzette Cohen would set out with her family each year on a Hanukkah hunt.

The hunt would be a search for anything related to Hanukkah - especially the ever-important menorah.

"We would do it with our children and it became a kind of adventure," said Cohen, an educator with Mothers to Mothers in Atlanta and wife of Mitch Cohen, synagogue associate at Shalom B'harim in Dahlonega. "Instead of feeling bad that there was very little Hanukkah compared to Christmas, we created the challenge of finding really cool Hanukkah things and that is how it started."

Now the Cohen family has about 20 menorahs.

"So each of my children (three sons) got them when they were born," Cohen said. "Then I would find them especially at after-Christmas sales ... I would buy them for the next year and that is kind of how it started."

Over the years, many Jewish families find themselves accumulating more menorahs than family members. The Hanukkah lamps arrive in the form of gifts for pivotal life moments like Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and weddings.

"I think most people get a lot (of menorahs) inadvertently," said Raice Fox, who has more than 20 menorahs. "I didn't wake up one day and say, ‘I want to be a menorah collector,' but as you progress in years, your collection becomes more dramatic and unique."

The inspiration for the ritual of lighting the lamps dates back more than 1,800 years to a battle in which ancient Israelis reclaimed a temple from the ruling Greeks, spurring eight days of festivities.

The Hanukkah holiday now involves lighting a candle for eight continuous days, and menorahs are often passed from generation to generation. This year, Hanukkah starts Tuesday evening.

Jennie Rivlin Roberts noticed many young Jews acquiring multiple menorahs on their own, to suit their more modern tastes, and started an online company selling "hip Judaica" to serve them. She said the nadir of menorah design was in the 1980s, when brassy models were popular.

"I have a really ugly brass menorah from my family," she said. "I take it out every year and light it, but it's not at all my aesthetic taste."

Early American lamps were revivals of European Baroque or Rococo styles, said Susan Braunstein, curator at the Jewish Museum in New York. After World War II, descendants of the sleek Bauhaus style became common.

Today's menorahs have more modern flair. Israeli designer Shlomi Schillinger created cone-shaped models and a series of cubes that can be assembled in different patterns.

"The playful part of Hanukkah I experienced as a child - spinning dreidels, chocolate coins, great sweet food - I try to put in my menorah designs," Schillinger said in an e-mail. "I don't know why so much Judaica must be so unfashionable."

Cohen said the styles and colors of the menorahs at her home vary dramatically.

"We have the gamut - we have your traditional one that is made of silver and actually uses olive oil, and then we have contemporary ones. We have one that is made out of wire in the shape of a motorcycle."

Cohen also described an elegant menorah from china and crystal manufacturer Lenox and a curvy and white porcelain piece with a dove for adornment.

But every year there is a special moment when she pulls out a menorah purchased by her son Eric, 17, when he was 4.

"My favorite one is that my youngest son found at Saks Fifth Avenue when we were in New York," she said. "It's a traditional one with silver filigree and it's just beautiful and we like to use that one because he found it ... and it was 80 percent off. He had his Hanukkah money to spend, so he got excited to find something so cool that they could afford."

Now her three boys are living in three different cities, and the menorah lighting this year will shrink to just one menorah with the others out for display.

"When the boys were little they each lit their own, so we had the three of them, and then we would light them so we had four," Cohen said. "We are probably going to light just one this year."

Staff writer Ashley Bates contributed to this Associated Press story.