Making a Baptism Candle

baptism_candle_craft

A white candle is an essential part of the Sacrament of Baptism. It is lit from the big Pascal Candle and is a symbol of hope and the light of Christ that the newly baptised now live by. The Candle can become precious keepsakes for your children and can be lit on their feast day, or when they make their other sacraments like First Reconciliation or First Eucharist. A little forethought goes a long way in this regard! So we have complied a list of ideas and inspiration to help you decide the best option to make this special candle.

Step 1: Choosing a Candle.

Some people go for a simple thin taper with a ribbon on it, others choose a pillar candle. Remember: it has to be held during the Baptism Rite so you don’t want it so large that it is unmanageable. We highly recommend that you don’t just duck out to the dollar shop and grab something. This is a candle you will probably want to keep somewhere as your child grows up so spend a little bit more money and get a nicer quality candle. They will burn better and last longer. The colour must of course be white.

Step 2: The Fun Part- Decorating!

There are so many options out there so we’ve compiled a short list of some of the simplest and nicest ideas. This is by-no-means comprehensive and your imagination and ingenuity can run free here. Let us know what ideas you’ve tried and work really well or your favourite ideas candle-decorating tips in the comments below!

1. Ribbons, Lace and Sparkly Things!

This is, by far, the simplest thing to do. All it requires is some short pins or a hot glue gun, and some silk ribbons. You can trim the ribbons into a cross shape, wrap them around the candle, add lace, pear strings and little metallic elements like crosses or doves. Have a look at these examples we found on Pinterest and go nuts.

2. Print and Pin!

The other option is too that you could design something yourself and print it onto some tracing paper, trim it and pin it to a candle! You can use simple, discrete sewing pins or thumb tacks, or you could even go and find something more elaborate from the scrapbooking section in your local craft store. You can also easily add names, dates and Godparents with this method too. The other awesome thing with this method is the flexibility, if the candle burns too low, or the design gets damaged, you can replace it! If you plan ahead, you can even create designs for your child’s other sacraments and add those to the candle as they grow up and make them. To make this method even more dead simple, we have a series of three candle label collections . Each collection has four designs. We’ve packaged them up as high quality jpeg files in a zip archive. The label is designed to fit Avery Clear Laser Labels and are 33.6 mm wide x 99.1 mm tall. For maximum flexibility, we suggest you select the labels you want, and lay them out in a word document set up to print labels.

Download Here

 3. D.I.Y Design

Again simple, but allows you to express your creativity. It’s as simple as drawing and writing on wax paper, wrapping it tightly around the candle and setting it with a hair dryer. Check out the instruction in the pin.


There you have it! Our favourite simple DIY ideas for a baptism candle. Tell us you you do your baptism candles and what has worked best and lasted the longest.

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Kiara Pirola

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