Making the Children’s Year is crammed full of creative things to do with your hands all year round, with lots to do during dark afternoons and rainy days indoors. We’ve picked out a taster for you to try, a Candle Lake, sure to bewitch small people, while brightening up your day too.
Candle Lake
Imagine a darkened room with lots of greenery, heavy with the scent of resin and wax. Small candles light up a glistening, sparkling little lake on a table. Crystals and pebbles shine as if alight themselves. Quiet small faces are transfixed by the magic.
YOU WILL NEED
- A large bowl, a baby bath or large deep plastic tray (could be a photographic tray)
- A low table
- Aluminium cooking foil
- Crystals, pebbles, shells, small stones, 1 or 2 large stones
- Sprigs of evergreen in small vases
- Dark blue fabric to drape around the outside
- Night-light candles – 1 or 2 for each child – don’t remove them from their aluminium case
- Pins, tape, Blu-Tack
1. Keep all your children out of the room till you are quite ready – that way it will be a real surprise. Put the bowl onto the low table. Drape the cloth around the outside of the bowl and secure with tape, pins, Blu-Tack.
2. Cover the inside of the bowl with aluminium foil and wrap it over the rim to cover the top edge of the blue cloth. Place pebbles and shells across the bottom of the bowl and make some little hills with the stones.
3. Fill the bowl with water, leaving the tops of the islands dry, until it looks right.
4. Put the greenery and crystals on the islands and around the edge if your bowl has one. When it is completely dark outside, place one candle in the water and light it.
5. Switch off all the lights. Quietly welcome everyone in to see the candle lake. Give each child their own candle, light it and then they can float it in the warm quiet.
Pure magic!
Please note: Never leave a lit candle unattended.
Sign up to our newsletter for more little treats throughout the seasons and 20% discount with your first purchase from this website.
Making the Children’s Year: Seasonal Waldorf Crafts with Children
Marije Rowling
Making the Children’s Year reminds us that making things by hand brings inner and outer rewards, and encourages joy in creating and in acknowledging the rhythms of the year. Read more…
