Light up your garden, steps, or walkway this winter with sparkling ice candles. This easy, fun, and inexpensive project is a beautiful way to create a winter wonderland outside (which may be enjoyed from a cozy window seat inside) during the cold, long, dark nights of the season. Here’s how to make ice candles in 5 easy steps.
Ice candles illuminate a farm house in Maine. Learn how to make ice candles below!
Tim Ames
HOW TO MAKE ICE CANDLES
Materials | How to Make Ice Candles
- Plastic containers. Choose whatever size you’d like. For a dramatic effect use several large buckets in scale with the surroundings.
- Water
- Candles
- Plastic cups or empty coffee cans. Choose containers large enough to hold the candle you intend to place in the ice.
- Sand/gravel to fill cups.
Directions | How to Make Ice Candles
- Pour cold water into the plastic containers, leaving enough space at the top for the smaller cup or can to reach the rim.
- Fill the cups/cans with sand to anchor.
- Set the sand filled plastic cups in the center area of the buckets of water containers. The sand will anchor the cup in place while the water around it freezes solid.
- Place the container outside in the freezing temperature or in a freezer on a level surface. Allow the water to freeze solid. This may take several nights if using large buckets outside depending on the nightly temperatures.
- After the ice is frozen solid, remove the container from the cold temperature temporarily and remove the sand filled cup from the container. If the frozen ice will not allow easy removal of the cups, allow the ice to melt at room temperature or run warm water around the containers to loosen. Remove the sand filled cups from the center. For added shimmer roll the wet ice block in fresh snow before placing candles in the openings. Arrange outside and light to illuminate your garden, yard, or walkway and enjoy the quiet glow of the winter wonderland!
Have you ever decorated with ice candles?
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