Happy St. Lucy Day!

We had been making paper St. Lucy crowns the past two years, but this year I had a different idea - and one I actually came up with on my own for once! ;)

It is a St. Lucy crown that really lights up - safely, with no flames! And it was surprisingly easier to make than I thought it would be.

I came up with the idea when I saw those new LED tealight candles - a package of six for under $3 at Wal-Mart. I thought it would be fun to attach them to a crown for St. Lucy's Day! So I bought styrofoam wreath forms at the craft store along with a garland... I love my Michael's coupons and the 60% off items!!

We pulled off the leaves from the garland and stuck them into the wreath form using pins. Caroline did this completely on her own, while Cecilia needed some help.

If I were to do this again, I would attach the candles first, and then let the girls stick the leaves on around them. My initial idea with the candles was to paint some toilet paper tubes white and attach the tealight candles to the ends of them, but the candles have a slightly smaller diameter than the tubes and so that wouldn't work. I then thought I could use white cardstock to make some tubes and attach them, but then there would be the dilemma of turning the candles on and off... the switches are located on the bottoms of the candles. Once the candles were inside the tubes and then secured to the wreath, we would not be able to reach the switches. Perhaps I could have cut a notch at the tops of he tubes large enough for a finger to go in and get to the switch, but that might have messed up the visual aspect of it and also might have made the candles not stay in the tubes as well. So... I went with the easies option of all and just hot-glued the tealight candles directly to the styrofoam! So, the candles are shorter than I would have liked, but it was super-easy this way, and they still look nice!

The girls thought they were fun, although a little heavy after a bit... the only problem is that they don't stay on their heads well, even when tied under the chins with yarn. I think elastic under the chins would be the ticket, but I only had a very short, thick piece of elastic. I may get some thinner pieces and attach them to see how theya will work, because these wreaths can certainly be reused for many years!

The completed crown!

Supplies needed:

battery-operated tealight candles

fake ivy leaves

styrofoam wreath form

pins

hot glue gun

Since I have been making the little wooden saints to go along with An Alphabet of Catholic Saints as we work our way down the Alphabet Path for Kindergarten, I made a couple of them into little St. Lucy dolls. We can use one of them in January when we get to letter L, since Lucy is the saint for that letter! These were a surprise for the girls, waiting for them on the breakfast table this morning.

Caroline, having read of the tradition of the oldest girl dressing in a white dress with red sash to serve the breakfast, did her best with what we had. She put on this grey dress from the girls' dress-up clothes basket and tied a red ribbon around it. She actually took the ribbon to her room last night to prepare for the next morning - it was so cute! And after this photo was taken, she decided she was too cold and went to put on her regular clothes! It didn't get above freezing all day here!

We had our favorite Lucia Bread which we've made for three years now on this feast day. I use the same recipe but sub about 2/3 of the total amount of flour for whole wheat flour, and I make less glaze because it really goes a long way!

Yum!!

Hope everyone had a happy St. Lucy's Day!!