Christmas Candles with Sand Art!

As part of our Christmas advent activities we made a Christmas candle holder! Our thought for the week is that Jesus is the light of the world. I figured an actual candle holder we could use as decoration would be perfect. Plus, what kid doesn’t like playing with fire?

All you need is some clear containers (I used old jelly jars), colored sand (mine was leftover from my son’s birthday party where we made sand art necklaces) and a candle! {If you don’t have colored sand, dyed rice would be cool!}

Asa with his blindfold on his head and a candle in hand from our previous activity!

Because our jars were wide mouthed we used spoons to layer sand into the jars. I have to admit, I really did Asa’s jar so I picked my own color pattern–red, green, white! I let Lydia choose hers and she wanted yellow because it’s “golden” like a candle!

Now, I thought this craft would need no instructions. I mean, you just scoop sand into the jar, right? But Lydia did not understand the concept of making a big enough layer to fill the bottom and support the layer on top. Her first 5 scoops were of all different colors and looked more like yellow pepper than anything else. So, we had to dump hers and start over. But after a layer or two, she was an expert putting her spoon in the corners to make it the exact width she wanted!

After we got all the layers in, we grabbed a bamboo skewer and slid it down the sides. It made a nice zig-zag pattern!

We stuck a candle inside, lit them and displayed it for everyone to see! A beautiful reminder of the real light of the world–Jesus!