Create Your Own Paschal Candle

Last year I wanted the families in GIFT (Growing In Faith Together) to make Paschal candles.  There are several ideas on the internet (here, here, and here) but they were not what I was looking for.

I needed something that did not use paint.  Our class is right after Mass so I didn’t want to risk them getting paint on their Sunday clothes.  I also knew that the paint would not have time to dry before they headed home so there could potentially be a mess waiting to happen in the car!

With a lot of families participating, I needed to keep the cost of supplies low so colored decorative wax was out of the question (but it does make a beautiful candle!)

I finally decided on this design.  The families loved it!

The pillar candle is 3″ x 9″.  I used this size because that is what we had left over from a much bigger project the church had done years earlier but you could use any size and adjust the size of the cross to fit that candle.

The cross is made out of gold thumbtacks.  The families had the choice of silver or gold thumbtacks.

I provided a lot of different colors of ribbons to decorate towards the top and bottom of the candles.  Thumbtacks, map pins, and pearl pins were used to hold the ribbons in place.

Red map pins were used for the 5 grains of incense.

Permanent markers were used to draw on the year and the alpha and omega.

There were enough choices (colors/types of ribbons, color of thumbtacks, pins to hold ribbons in place) that they were all able to create a candle that fit their family.

I encouraged each family to light their Paschal Candle for Easter, all the Sundays in the Easter season, birthdays, baptismal days, Thanksgiving, Christmas, anniversaries,…any special day for their family.

Creating a Paschal Candle is a fun way to prepare for the Easter season…and beyond!