How To Make My Home-made Christmas Candle bowls!
Whether it's a last minute gift for an unexpected guest, a cheeky Christmas treat for yourself or you're midway through wrapping the presents and you've realised you forgot to get the fussy aunty something, home-made Christmas candle bowls can make the perfect gift.
Things you will need:
YHY 8.5'' porcelain pasta bowl (set of 6) in white are the ideal size and depth, or several wooden/bamboo bowls with flat bases measuring between 20cm to 30cm in diameter or between 8.5'' to around 12'' depending on how big you want to make the candles and how many decorations you want to add to it. Remember also, the bigger the bowl, the more expensive it is going to be. The pack of porcelain bowls comes as a set of 6, wooden bowls tend to need to be bought individually so keep an eye on the cost of this.
2kg bag of soy wax, you may need 3, possibly 4 bags depending on how many candles you wish to make and whether you’re also making decorations for the top. 3 bags will be enough for the candles alone if you are using the porcelain dishes, but you will need another bag if you also wish to make decorations for the top.
Christmas essential oils, these are very concentrated, so you only need a few drops per batch of melted wax.
Candle wax dyes, again these are concentrated so a little goes a very long way.
Wicks, glue dots and threads. These are generally sold in bulk and in various lengths of wick to reduce wastage.
Wick trimmer. Some packs of wicks come with this, but you may need to purchase one separately.
A clear Pyrex glass jug or glass jug with cup measurements on for melting the wax.
A variety of heat proof Christmas themed decorations to adorn the end product, such as frosted cranberries, pine tree ends, cinnamon sticks, Star Anise, snowflake sprinkles etc.
Optional: silicone moulds in Christmas tree shapes and various other Christmas shapes
Method for making a home-made Christmas candle bowl:
1. To make the candle, first, wipe the bowl clean so you have a “bit free surface” to work with and dry with either a dry towel or piece of kitchen paper.
2. Take 4 of the adhesive glue dots and place them inside the bowl to form the outer corners of a square measuring around 3.5'' by 3.5'' or 4'' by 4'' depending on the size of the bowl with the centre of the square being the centre of the bowl. These adhesive dots are what the wicks will be placed on to give you an idea of how far apart they need to be. Please note, if your bowl is smaller than this, only use 3 wicks and form a triangle instead of a square with the centre of the bowl being the centre of the triangle. If your bowl is smaller again, just stick to 1 wick in the centre. This is to prevent the candle burning too quickly.
3. Once the glue dots are firmly in place, peel the adhesive backing off them and place the metal plate of the wick down firmly into the adhesive with the wick string sticking up.
4. Place the wick supports across the top of the bowl and place the wick ends through the holes. If you don’t have wick supports, then placing 2 utensils very close together running side-by-side with 2 of the wicks in the middle of the 2 utensils, then repeating this on other side of the bowl with 2 more utensils running side-by-side with the 2 further wicks between them will do the same thing as the wick support. The idea is to keep the wicks upright and stop them falling into the melted wax as it is poured into the bowl.
5. Measure out your wax 2 cups / 250gr at a time. Soy wax beads are the preferred choice as they are non-toxic and will burn for a lot longer than paraffin wax so are worth spending a little extra on as you are getting better value for money. The easiest method to use to measure out the beads is a cup measurement directly in the glass jug. Once you’ve measured out 2 cups, put this in the microwave at 30 second intervals until completely melted. The liquid will look slightly yellow when melted. Don’t worry, your wax is not actually yellow, this is just its colour in liquid form. When it dries into a solid it turns back to white.
6. While it is still liquid, this is your opportunity to add scented oils and even colours if you so wish. I’ve found though that the larger candles are nicer when left white and scented with Christmas scents such as cranberries, forest pine, mulled wine, apple and cinnamon etc. Choose the scent that you most like and add a few drops to the liquid wax, then gently pour the liquid wax into the bowl. You will need to repeat this step until the wax is about 1.5cm from the top of the bowl.
7. Once the wax has started to dry but isn’t quite hard, add some decorations. I’ve found that cranberries, a few clippings from snow flocked pine branches and pinecones look idyllic on a nice big candle. You could also purchase a few Christmas-shaped silicone moulds used for ice cubes, chocolates and soap making and make some decorations for on the top of the candles using these. All you need is some of the melted liquid wax and the wax dyes (leave about 50gr of the uncoloured wax as this will be needed to set the decorations on the candle). Colour the wax whatever colour you wish or divide the wax into multiple smaller jugs and colour each batch a different colour and add this to the moulds. Once hardened, release the shapes from the mould and check you are happy with them. Please note, all decorations should be arranged around the outer edges of the candle and away from the wicks.
8. Arrange your decorations around the outer edges of the bowl(s). Once you’re happy with the arrangement, heat up about 50gr more wax and slowly and carefully pour the melted wax onto the top of the candle to essentially glue your decorations to the top of the candle. Note: Don’t worry if you have melted too much wax, you can simply pop any leftover melted wax into a silicone ice mould, wait for it to set, then add the set wax shapes back into the bag with the wax beads.
9. Once you are happy with your creation, take your wick trimmers or a very sharp pair of scissors and snip the wick leaving about 1.5cm of wick on the top of the candle.
10. Your home-made Christmas candle bowl is now ready to gift to your friends and family.
I was really stuck for something to do with the kids over the holidays and found this activity great. It needs supervision but it meant that the kids could make personal gifts for the grandparents, aunts and uncles for only a few pence - their Christmas money is always limited so we're always looking for novel ideas for a limited budget. This idea could be expanded for birthday presents etc.