Advent wreaths are a Germanic tradition, from medieval times. They are Christian and I am not, but the symbolism of the candles and bringing in the greenery to celebrate Yule goes way back before Christianity (probably)
To make, you gather greenery, in particular Holly and ivy, but I’ve also included rosemary, sage, bay and Palm. I gathered all of these on my walk this morning.
It’s formed into a ring shape, but it’s not hung. It sits flat because it contains four candles. You light one candle for the first week, two for the second etc. You start four weeks before Christmas. Our local Aldi stocks a lot of German products including these really neat candles, they are different sized, the first one you light is the tallest one, then for the second week it should have burned down to the height of the next tallest one, and so on.
We light the candles at dinner time and it’s a nice ritual to approach Christmas. This year of all years we need celebrations.
The construction of this was really easy, you can start with a wreath base and wire everything on, but since it’s not going to be hung or moved much, it was enough to just arrange the greenery in a ring. Over the next four weeks it will dry (but still look good) so for safety you really should have the candles well away from the foliage-i put them in glasses.
I finished off with some glitter to give a frosty look. I’m my world, there’s never a reason not to use glitter.
We had advent wreaths when I was a kid.
I always think of them with pink and purple candles (weird at Christmas), but I don’t remember the particulars.
I love it. I also grew up with these, but I am no longer religious. Still trying to figure out ways to do the things I enjoy and forget the rest. I love that you made this your own.
I didn’t grow up with them, they weren’t part of the Irish Catholic tradition, I think it makes it easier to make this my own, connecting with the types of greenery.
It’s lovely! My mum used to make one every year. She used the same candles year after year because with all those kids and pets running around she never felt it was safe enough to light them.
