Prayer Candle Craft and Activity

This simple prayer candle idea is one I got from my friend Laura Alary. She taught it to me when discussing her new book Breathe: A Child’s Guide to Ascension, Pentecost, and the Growing Time . Breathe talks about candles and even the curlicue of smoke that rises from a candle after it’s blown out.

I love using candles during my prayer time, and I’ve taught it to my children as well. This candle craft is so simple and so effective. It’s perfect for just about any season of the year, and the candles make great gifts. It’s easy enough for all ages, and there’s not a lot of waste or packaging. Hooray, hooray! So much to love about this one.

Materials:

Mini-Cookie Cutters (like THESE)

Sheets of wax (like THESE) — I planned on 1/2 sheet of wax per candle and that proved to be a good calculation. Some decorated their candles very generously, while others were more sparse. The wax sheets are the most pricey part of this activity.

Small pillar candles — I got ours at the dollar store instead.

Parchment paper or aluminum foil (to keep the wax sheets from sticking to the table or each other)

Plastic spatula (I used this to cut the sheets of wax and to scrape some of the wax from the table)

How to:

1. Set out materials:
   1. Sheets of wax in a single layer on sheets of parchment or foil. (I cut the longer sheets in half so the colors could be distributed among tables.)
   2. Mini cookie cutters
   3. Candles
2. Cut out shapes and press them to the wax candles. If you press very gently, the shape can be removed and moved to a different spot on the candle. Once the shape is where you’d like it, press firmly all around so it sticks very well to the candle.

THAT’S IT! I had the materials lying out before church and some people started to work on them early. One woman said “you know, for us crafty people, this is sort of self explanatory!” YES! That’s one of the best things about it.

I know these prayer candles will take on very special meaning when we light them or give them to others.

NOTES

1. Summer is coming up. If you do this for VBS or any other summer activity, I’d make sure to do it in a cool area or on the coolest day you have. It was less than 65 degrees outside when we did this, and I worry that if it were done on an 80 degree day, it would have been
2. For a wonderful lesson or prayers to go with the candle, see Laura Alary’s book Breathe or pryaers from Prayers for Faithful Families.