Making an Advent Wreath

An Advent wreath is a wonderful tradition, and growing up my family always had one. I probably thought that every family lit an Advent wreath in preparation for Christmas! We had it on our dining room table since we always lit it at dinner. Dinner is a great time for the family to do their Advent prayers and reflections since everybody is already together. I like to stick with what I know; I prefer my Advent wreath to be a circle, have taper candles, and be on my dining room table

I used to have a little Advent wreath I made out of items from the dollar store. I had four taper candle holders surrounded by four mini wreaths which I pushed together to make it look like one big wreath. If I couldn't find Advent candles I'd paint white ones with melted crayons. (Hint: If you're looking for Advent candles try craft stores like JoAnn Fabrics or Hobby Lobby!) However, last year my wonderful husband burnt that one down. I noticed that the candles were getting low, so I blew them out. He came around later and decided he wanted to light them. We are now down one Advent wreath and one bookshelf! We are thankful we caught it in time, it could have been much worse! We may have lost an Advent wreath, but we gained a family story. 

The good thing about the great Advent fire of '13 is that now I get to craft a new Advent wreath, which is something I've kind of been wanting to do. I started with a basic plain Advent wreath. 

From the craft store I got:

pink and purple glitter poinsettia picks

pink and purple ribbon

faux pine garland

First I wrapped the wreath with the fake greenery. I found that the garland was too big and thick to wrap around my wreath, so I cut off individual fronds and wrapped those around. It took me about eight in between each candle holder. No glue necessary, the garland holds in place all by itself!

Next I twisted the pink and purple ribbons together and wrapped them around the wreath. Once again, no glue necessary, I just tied it to the wreath at the beginning and end. 

Now we need some glue to put the flowers by each candle holder. I tried cutting off the stem of the pick, but there was a metal wire in it which made that difficult. Luckily it wasn't that hard to just pull the flower part off of the stem! I used a hot glue gun to affix each flower to the wreath.

And voila! A new Advent wreath to light as you pray and reflect to prepare for the coming of Jesus! A new candle is lit each Sunday of Advent, with the pink one being lit on the third Sunday. Just keep an eye on how low those candles get! 

This post is linked up on the Catholic Bloggers Network 2014 Link Up Blitz, the Catholic Bloggers Advent LInkup, and the 2013 -2014 Celebrate the Seasons Liturgical Link Up -  check it out!