8 Great Chanukah Activities: Day 2 Melt and Pour Beeswax Candles

Happy Second Day of Chanukah! I'll keep today's post short and sweet as honey. This activity is the bee's knees--we're making our own melt and pour beeswax candles! We tried it for the first time late in the summer before Rosh Hashanah and decided then and there that we would do it again over Chanukah. This is an activity that requires some supplies and ingredients you may not already have at home. I'm introducing it early in the holiday in case you want to gift the results, but it's a great one to do on a snowy (or rainy day) or even store in the vault for another year or holiday. I love the idea of candle-making for Chanukah since it is definitely a holiday with a lot of candles involved and even after the menorahs have gone out, these lovely scented keepsakes will bring light and warmth to your home (or to someone else's).

To make your own Melt and Pour Beeswax Candles, you will need:

• a crock pot and metal bowl that fits inside or a double boiler*
• beeswax (I use this product from Amazon, but you can often buy pellets or bars at craft supply stores)
• a designated jar (I like the 4oz ball jars, but you can use recycled baby food jars, a shallow tin, a glass candle holder, etc.)
• pre-tabbed candle wicks
• essential oil, scented oil, honey, cinnamon sticks or dried botanicals (optional)
• hot glue gun (optional)

*A few notes before I begin with instructions on how to melt and pour your candles: I use a small crock pot (the $10 version from Walmart) and a tin bowl I bought secondhand at the thrift store that happens to fit in the crock pot since melted beeswax does not easily come off the vessel it's melted into. Because we keep a strictly kosher kitchen, we use the crock pot and bowl only for non-food projects. (You can also use this setup for melting your own crayons, making your own lotion bars, lip balms, soaps, etc.) Pre-tabbed candle wicks are available online from Amazon or from craft supply stores. The first time we did this, I didn't have them at home and actually just took apart some Shabbos candles we had by pulling the tab from the bottom and using the wicks in our melt and pour candles. I used a hot glue gun to affix the tab of the wick to center of the bottom of each jar before we poured the wax in so that it wouldn't move when we were pouring. And now you're ready to begin!

Instructions:

1. Melt your beeswax in the Crock pot or double boiler. In a crock pot, this is a slow process, so you will want to allow for a couple of hours over low setting for the wax to melt before you're going to pour your candles. Four bricks of the beeswax above produced two 4oz candles, so you'll want to decide upon your jar size and how much wax to use accordingly.
2. Pour your melted wax into the jar. An adult should do this part and use a potholder! You may want to cover your work surface if you are concerned about wax dripping. Fill your jar leaving at least an inch of wick exposed. If your wick is particularly long, you may want to trim it at the end.
3. Add your scent before it hardens! If you are adding one scented oil to all of your candles, you could even add it directly into the pot of melted wax. When we made our Fall candles, we used a cinnamon scented oil and honey drizzled into each jar. You can also individualize your candles each with their own scent while the wax is still melted/soft. This is a part kids can help with. They will love scooping and sprinkling dried lavender buds or breaking cinnamon sticks into each jar or even shaking drops of scented oils into the jar.
4. Allow candles to harden and enjoy your handmade gift! Once the candles are completely hardened and cooled, children can even decorate and personalize the outside of the jar or tin with permanent markers or stickers.

Adult supervision and support is a definite must with this activity and with any lit candles and use of matches. We'll be back tomorrow with our next activity. Until then...

Happy Chanukah and Happy Playing!