Seasonal Crafts: How to Make Luminarias

Brighten the night. Here's how to make luminarias anytime you want the outside of your home to look festive. Line a driveway or a sidewalk, or set out on a deck or porch railing.

Resuable Luminarias

• Collect large metal juice cans.
• Punch holes in the sides of the cans using a nail or hole puncher.
• If you're handy, you can punch out designs such as stars.
• Next, paint the cans with flat black paint. (Spray paint makes this easy, but use cautiously with small children around.)
• After the paint dries, pour 2 inches of sand into the bottom of each can. Settle a votive candle into the sand and light.

Simple Luminarias

You can also make simple luminarias by setting votive candles in sand inside white paper bags. These require a bit more vigilance and are best used when there is snow on the ground.

The Magic of Candles

Here are other ways to bring candle light into your home.

• Float tea lights in shallow bowls of water along with some flower petals.
• Use small terra-cotta pots as candleholders. Paint them with craft or fabric paint and add a votive candle or tea light.
• To make any candle a scented candle, add a drop of essential oil to the melting wax just next to the wick. Consider cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh, pine, or bay for traditional holiday fragrances.