Christmas Candles: Do-It-Yourself Ideas for Homemade Christmas Candles

Making your own Christmas candles is fun and economical. You can create candles for your own home or as gifts for friends and family.

Here are two projects for making homemade candles or candle holders. One is an easy project for kids. The other makes elegant and fragrant beeswax honeycomb rolled candles.

Stained Glass Candle Holders:

For the kids candle holder project, you will need the following:

1. Small water glasses or baby food jars, big enough to hold tea candles.

2. Scissors, liquid starch, and glue

3. Different colors of tissue paper, especially red and green

4. Glitter, ribbons, lace, small artificial flowers

To get a stained glass effect:

1. Cut the tissue paper into small shapes.

2. Dip them in the liquid starch and apply them, overlapping, onto the side of the glass or jar.

3. Sprinkle them with glitter while the starch is wet, and let them dry completely.

4. Glue any other decorations you want onto the outside of the container.

5. Put the tea candle inside, attaching it to the bottom with a little bit of melted wax.

Now you have a great candle for your home or for gifts!

Beeswax Honeycomb Rolled Christmas Candles:

For the beeswax honeycomb rolled candles, you will need the following:

1. Sheets of pure honeycomb beeswax, from craft's stores or online. Pick a size that matches the height you want your finished candles to be.

2. Wick. If your candles will be small, choose a 18-ply flat braided wick. If you are going to make big pillars, chose a 24-ply flat braided wick. Cut the wick 1/2" longer than the height of the candle, leaving 1/4" sticking out of each end.

3. Decorative items such as petite flowers or pine cones, glitter, and little bows.

To make the candles:

1. Cut the sheet of beeswax to the height you want. If you want to make tapered candles, cut the sheet of beeswax on the diagonal.

2. Press the wick into the side of the sheet of beeswax that will be the height. Tightly roll the beeswax over the wick. It's best to be working in a warm room so the wax doesn't crack.

3. Trim the bottom wick and rub the bottom of the candle over a warmed skillet. This will give your candles a nice, flat bottom.

4. For the tapered candles, you can very gently flute the edge that runs up the side of the candle and stick little flowers into the edge.

Have fun making your own holiday candles for your home or for your friends and family!