Candle Ornament

I am obsessed with candles, and when I was a moody teenager, I loved to turn off all the lights, light up a bunch of candles, and sit around thinking deeply. I’m not quite so melodramatic about it anymore, but I do still love me a candle. I’m just more likely to use a scented one to fight kitchen stink these days.

I wanted to include candles on this tree (although of course they should never be lit because of the fire hazard) because I loved the symbolism of candles at Christmas. If you are a Christian flavored religious person, then a candle is a symbol of Jesus Christ as the Light of the World. My Jewish friends see a candle as a symbol that God will always remember them, and my atheist loved ones see a candle as a symbol of the power one good deed has against the darkness. It’s a symbol that resonates to all of us.

I bought some plain glass votive holders in the wedding section of my craft store, and then needed to create a way to hang them on the tree, and adding a little extra sparkle never hurt anything. I decided to make a simple wire basket the candle could sit in.

Start by cutting a piece of thick craft wire 2 feet long. Bend a curve in the middle of the wire to make your basket handle, then run the two pieces of wire down the sides of the votive, and bend them around the bottom. Bring the two pieces of wire together and cross them, bringing them up to the other two sides of the votive, as if you were tying a ribbon around a present.

Bend the wire about an inch from the top of the votive, and wrap it around the outside.

Pull it tight against the wires that create the handle, and bring it around to meet the wire across from where it started. Wrap it around a few times and cut off any excess.

To add a little extra sparkle, string some clear glass beads onto a thinner gauge of wire, and wrap it around the handle. Drop a bead every couple of turns, and wrap the handle and the top rim of the basket.

I really wanted to take advantage of the dangling factor of an ornament, so I added a chain of a few more beads to the bottom for some more sparkle.

The best part about this ornament is that you can use it so many more places than a Christmas tree. You could light these candles and nail them up around a porch for a little mood lighting. Or even hang them from an outdoor tree above a picnic table for a scene right out of a magazine.