St. Lucia Day Craft: Bubble Candle Wreath
St. Lucia Day (or St. Lucy’s Day) is a popular holiday celebrated in Scandinavia and Sweden and many other parts of the world on December 13th. Traditionally, the eldest girl in the family will dress up in a white dress with a red sash (representing St. Lucia), wear a wreath of candles on her head and carry a tray a rolls and coffee to her parents while singing. It’s a pretty sweet custom so we thought we’d try our take on it as a craft.
We created a fire-safe wreath out of felt and cardboard that is sure to light the way to a very lovely breakfast treat on the darkest day of the year.
Click through for a step-by-step tutorial!
Supplies you will need:
- a cardboard round, punched with five holes that will sit on your child’s head (hole puncher will work with a little strength)
- green felt (you’ll need to cut probably 100 or more 2-inch leaves so buy 5-10 sheets)
- a glue gun* or kid-safe white craft glue
- four or more pop-apart ornaments (we ordered ours online but you can find them in craft stores around the holidays)
- four or more battery-operated votive candles
- floral wire
- small red pom-poms
- glitter spray (optional)
First, we cut our cardboard rounds by using a bowl to cut out the middle. We punched five holes in the wreath evenly spaced apart for the candles later. Then we cut out our leaves. You can save time cutting leaves by cutting 2-3 sheets at a time. Have patience though. A full wreath is worth a little extra time prepping.
Glue the leaves along the side of your cardboard round first around the outside and then around the inside (or any way you like to do it, it really doesn’t matter). Don’t cover up your hole punches but try to glue the leaves as close as possible so you don’t see cardboard showing through. Once all the leaves are glued down, garnish the wreath by glueing down some red pom-poms to look like berries. Don’t forget to cover the underside of the wreath too because that will show when your wreath is worn.
When everything is covered, you are ready to attach your bubble lights. We lightly sprayed our plastic ornaments with some glitter spray on the bottom to give them more of a warm light glow but it’s not necessary. Pop your battery-operated votives inside and then take a piece of floral wire and wire the sides together through the clasp hole. Then stick this wire through the holes you punched in the wreath and twist your wire underneath to hold the bubble candles secure. You should be able to still pop the ornaments apart even when they are secured to the wreath so you can turn them on and off when you need to.
Now your wreath is ready to wear! Dress up in your favorite white dress, tie on a red sash and you are ready to deliver some sweet treats!
We also created a little wreath for St. Lucia’s attendants to carry their own individual candle. This was done using a simple circle, adding leaves like the wreath and then adding one candle to the middle. So easy even an eight-year-old could do it!
*A word about glue guns: Obviously hot glue is very dangerous and can burn but you can buy special glue guns that melt the glue sticks at a lower temperature and are easier and safer for kids to craft with. If you are in doubt whether your kid is old enough to use a glue gun, you should err on the safe side and have a responsible adult handle hot glue.
