By Mark Mietkiewicz, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

Chanukah is approaching but if you can’t wait and want a quick holiday fix, just head over to the Apple iTunes store. You’ll find an assortment of free and low cost apps for your iPhone and iPod Touch to put you in the holiday mood.

Menorah is not only free, it’s great. You can choose to read the Chanukah blessings in Hebrew, English or transliterated into English script. And if your Hebrew is rusty, you can listen to all the blessings as well as Maoz Tzur. And during the holiday, the animation will show you which direction to light the candles (http://bit.ly/chapp1).

Mobile Menorah (99¢) lets you light the candles yourself — and makes sure you to do so in the right order. You can choose how many candles to light and even “select the desired candle burn time (http://bit.ly/chapp21).”

Chanuka Guide (free) has a great deal of valuable information about the holiday including its history, customs, stories, essays and even some humor.

Unfortunately, I can’t give it a complete thumbs-up because I found the interface confusing. To get the most out of the Guide, you will to need spend a few minutes learning how to maneuver through this (http://bit.ly/chapp25).

History of Hanukkah (99¢) does a good job if you really need the information at your fingertips. But I suggest you save your money and just do a simple search online. You’ll find much more comprehensive information that’s free (http://bit.ly/chapp26).

Where would Chanukah be without its games? If you don’t happen to have a real dreidel around, Dreidel, Dredel, Dradel (free) can come in handy. Double-tap on the screen to watch the virtual dreidel spin and eventually stop. You’ll have to keep track of your bets and who’s winning and losing manually. And yes, that is how it is this app is spelled (http://bit.ly/chapp16).

Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel ($1.99) gives you another version of the game (along with more consistent spelling). Sure, the game works fine but I am perplexed by a game that has a dreidel spinning and landing on sheets of matzahs (http://bit.ly/chapp27).

I did do a double-take when I saw the oh-so serious warning in the iTunes store: “Rated 12+ for the following: Frequent/Intense Simulated Gambling.”

Save your money for Super Dreidel (99¢). Finally, a game that lets you select the number of players (up to eight), enter their names, choose how much money you want in your bank and keeps score too. You can even select variations of the game including: Traditional, Vegas and Turbo. My only gripe is that some of the Hebrew letters are printed backwards on the dreidel (http://bit.ly/chapp28).

Dreidel tap (free) doesn’t really have anything to do with Chanukah but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. You are presented with an assortment of dreidels careening around the screen. Your goal is to tap them as quickly as possible without hitting any of the floating burning candles (http://bit.ly/chapp29).

I found Hanukkah Match (free) even more addictive. In the manner of the old Concentration memory game, you tap on the screen and are presented a glimpse of symbols of the holiday (menorahs, gelt, latkes, etc.) Your goal is to remember where each symbol is and match it up to its twin as quickly as possible (http://bit.ly/chapp30).

Almost all the apps that I came across were designed for iPhone and iPod Touch. But if you happen to have an Android-based phone, you’re in luck. Happy Chanukah (free) lets you “light” the candles on the go (http://bit.ly/chapp13).

Although many Apple apps cost only 99¢, sometimes I felt even that low price was way too steep. For example, do I really need an app like Hanukkah Gift Tracker just so I can write down all the Chanukah gifts that I have received (http://bit.ly/chapp11)?

And although I’m sure that Days to Hanukkah does precisely what it sets out to do, I think I’ll save the buck and check out my calendar (http://bit.ly/chapp12).

Mark Mietkiewicz is a Toronto-based Web site producer who writes, lectures and teaches about the Jewish Internet. He can be contacted at highway@rogers.com.