Kristin Maxwell
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Non Traditional Advent Candles
While my family always using their Christmas countdown chains, I love to light the Advent candles each Sunday. However, the traditional “wreath” is kind of lost on me, so I decided to put together some not so traditional. Epsom salt is one of my favorite crafty items to use at Christmas time, so of course I pulled it out for my candles.
While the wreath itself has significant religious meaning, I just prefer this particular set-up better.
I’m such a rebel.
I haven’t quite figured out how to add the Christ candle yet, but I’m thinking I will add a larger mason jar to the side on Christmas day.
The idea behind the tradition of the Advent Wreath is to light one candle each Sunday in Advent. There are various traditions within specific Protestant religions. For more information on the history, check out this article on Wikipedia.
It was super simple to pull together.
I laid out my new runner from Target (here), and placed a old goldish wood frame on top. The mason jars are filled with epsom salt and a candle, and tied at the top with twine.
The greens are part of my Ikea faux greens that my children decided to pull apart.
Simple, rustic, beautiful!
Stop by tomorrow when I’ll be linking up with Jennifer Rizzo’s Christmas House tour!
Do you celebrate Advent?
My family on my dad’s side, is having it’s first ever family reunion and we are missing 3 very important people…my paternal grandmother, who passed away in 2013, my dad’s oldest sister, who passed away in 2004, and her eldest child, who suddenly passed away 2 years ago. So I wanted to see if I could come up with an idea for Mason jar luminaries for each of them. Kind of short on time so not sure how to star. But yours are beautiful!
Sounds like you have a beautiful tribute planned. These would be so easy – just grab some epson salt from the pharmacy department of your local Target or Walmart. Use any kind of jars you like, and plave votive candles inside. Super easy!
These are so gorgeous and simple. I needed a project like this — but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do until I saw your candles. I love them. Thanks for the wonderful inspiration !!
Thank you Amanda!
Cute idea! Really beautiful!
Thank you Angela!
This i s such a great idea! I was not raised religiously, so I only know this as a Swedish tradition in my family. We have the traditional Swedish red candlabra but I think I’m going to try this, this year!
Thank you for posting!
-Trish
I really like the non-traditional approach – but couldn’t abandon the pink/purple. I added food coloring ONE DROP AT A TIME!! to the epsom salt and mixed it up until it was the right colors for me! Looked so pretty sparking in the salt and with the white candle.
Love them! I’ve been looking to reinvent the Advent wreath myself and that’s a great idea! What size jars did you use? Do you think it would work to dye them pink and purple (or blue and “white”) using one of those tint-a-mason-jar recipes from Pinterest?
These are lovely! I’ve collected so many jars for projects that I haven’t had time to do, but I’ll definitely give these a go. Thanks for the idea!
Simply beautiful! Love all you can do with mason jars!
I like the runner, the mason jars look so nice on it!
I like it. I think it turned out great. I don’t do the wreath either. I leave that to the church.
Jess
Beautiful! My family didn’t do advent when I was growing up so it’s been a challenge trying to figure out what works best for our famiy. I think we’ve finally figured it out this year and it is so nice. Helps keep the focus on Jesus and family instead of presents.
Looks beautiful, Kristin. 🙂