The Luminaries

Luminaries for Christmas Eve

So I was watching a recent video about gel-printing luminaries.  One of the most recent ones.  Very nice by the way.  The luminaries in the video were, I expect, meant to be in your home rather than outside but I think they could also be outside.  These above are outside ones.  

When she finished with the demo I realized that mostly what people would see is the dark outline (silhouette) of the snowflake against the candle light inside.  So I went and got some dark paper...this happens to be blue Christmas wrapping paper which is fairly thin.  And I cut myself 8 fun snowflakes and glued them down with gel medium. 

The candles sitting in front of them show the size of the candle in the kits.  Our park sells kits of 8 bags, candles, and sand to raise some funds for other projects.  $6/kit.  We bought two kits or 16 this year but I only decorate half.  So on Christmas Eve our park of about 1,200 homes has their 9 miles of streets totally lined with candles.  It is magical.

Most of us have discovered over the years that it's not enough sand to really support that large a candle and so folks improvise all sorts of "holders" inside the bags.  A friend made us some wooden candle sticks that work slick.  Small bathroom paper cups slit on the bottom and used upside down also work pretty well.

Sometimes if it is not windy or rainy the candles are still burning in the morning!  Amazing!  Gorgeous weather in central FL right now with 85 today and right through Christmas.  

It will be a lovely Christmas Eve...we plan to attend the candlelight service at our church at 6 pm.  Then have some friends back later for "grasshoppers".  

Monday is my hubby's birthday and we'll have a nice little party for him on Monday night.  Tuesday is my daughter Julie's birthday.  She is far away in Madison, WI.  Boo hoo. Only 27 on her birthday there!