Thursday is the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year, winter solstice. We will celebrate by lighting candles in the evening to represent light and warmth on this winter day. We will make some warm comfort food for dinner and do an offering to our wintering animals. Unfortunately we do not live in a forest, so we will offer our neighbors cat, Potter, a warm blanket to sleep on and offer the birds and squirrels some seeds and nuts to stock up their food supply. We have also made a warm scarf to bring to an elderly neighbor. What a wonderful day this will be as we celebrate winter.
We made these sweet candles by just gluing coffee beans and twigs on votive candles. Some we wrapped for gifts and the others will be lit on Thursday evening. The coffee beans and vanilla candle combo smells amazing. You can get creative with these candles, they make wonderful gifts. Roll them in glitter for a festive look or use a larger candle and glue cinnamon sticks to it. For a pretty centerpiece simply pour the coffee beans into a glass vase and add the candle to the center. Cranberries would also be pretty for this.
While our candles were drying Emma found another use for the coffee beans and some yummy smelling gingerbread playdough she received from a friend at school. I never thought coffee beans could be so exciting. Children are just amazing, love the simple joy they have.
Happy Winter Solstice!
I love this! we are going to set up our yule log this week and make candles. red and green (and white) are all traditional yule/solstice colors so those work great too!
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