Advent Crown, ring or wreath

To start our traditions at Advent we always make an advent wreath or crown.  This is one of the many things I remember doing as a child, however, I remember the Blue Peter version of wire coat hangers, tinsel and open flames!

This is the one we make each year as a family and burn at the dinner table each with supervision.

Materials

• Circle of card/I have used a cake tray under it as it is solid
• Salt dough
• Cookie cutter in a star shape
• Green Paint
• Gold paint
• Glitter
• Greenery
• 4 tea light or votive holders and candles (my holders were 89p for four from Ikea) and the candles (£1.99 for 12 from Ikea)
• Pine Cones
• Gold spray (£1.00 at Poundworld)

Instructions

Make a batch of salt dough

Basic recipe

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 1 cup of warm water
• I also add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to make the final decoration harder.

Mix the flour, salt and lemon juice adding water until you get a firm dough. Then knead the dough. The more you knead the more pliable the dough will become.

Roll out the dough and cut out the decorations with a cookie cutter.  You can keep any the remaining dough in a bag in the fridge to make Christmas Decorations.

We wanted to make star shaped decorations, so used two different sized cutters, bit you could use whatever shape you want. We bake our dough at the lowest oven temperature for 3 hours, then leave overnight before we paint and decorate them.

When completely dry paint them gold and cover one side in glitter.

Paint the base dark green and allow to dry – I used cardboard glued to a cake board

I also covered the card in PVA glue or Mod Podge once the paint had dried.

Stick your stars to the base allow room for your 4 tealight, votive holders or pillar candles.

We used purple and pink candles here, but This year Ikea have some lovely pillar candles marked one to four which we are going to use without the votive holders.

Place your candle holders on the base and add some greenery around it. We use a cake stand to add some height to our display.

We also add a taper candle to the centre of the display in Christmas Day.  

An advent wreath is traditionally made of evergreen material to signify eternal life and of renewal.   The circle is to remind us of God, of his endless mercy and eternity without beginning or no end.  The candles signify the light of God coming into the world through his son Jesus Christ.