Holiday Decorating Ideas
Christmas Candles and Lights
How To Light Up Your Home for Joy
As days grow shorter and cooler and the suns sets
earlier, even in sunny Southern California, people
naturally crave the warmth and comfort of light,
especially natural sources such as a bonfire or the
flame of a Christmas candle.
Christmas Lights: Symbolic of Spiritual Life
Our family has created or adapted several traditions to
celebrate light in the darkest season. We begin our
Christmas festivities with a family tradition we adapted
from the Scandinavians. The original Saint Lucia's Day
celebrates the Italian Santa Lucia with a mixture of
pagan rituals honoring the winter solstice. Traditional
Scandinavian Lucia's Day festivities, celebrated all
over Sweden, Norway and on the Swedish speaking parts of
Finland, take place on December 13th.
We celebrate with a Lucia Dinner on our shortest day of
the year, usually December 21. We don't have our
daughters wear candle wreaths in their hair like the
original Lucia girls, but we do have a bonfire at dusk.
The only light we use, Christmas lights and candles,
including luminaries, create an enchanted setting,
perfect for Christmas songs and expressing gratitude.
In our historic neighborhood in small-town Florida, we
started a Christmas Eve tradition: luminaries and open
houses. Light up your walkways with luminaries as a
welcoming sign to friends and family and welcome
neighbors into your home for refreshments. Some
neighborhoods might want to plan a "graduated holiday
dinner" and each host separate courses of a meal.
Many cultural holiday traditions include placing a
lighted candle in front windows to be seen from the
outside. Comfort yourself with a candle placed in any
dark window at night. Rather than peering into a dark
void, you'll focus on the cheerful flame and feel
comforted and uplifted.
Candlelight Carol-Sing
Recycle last year's greeting cards by cutting each into
a disk or rounding the edges, punch a hole in the
center, and slide a taper candle half-way through the
hole. Gather your friends and family around the piano or
hearth and sing familiar Christmas carols as each person
holds their own candlelight. Pause to reflect upon the
fact that each individual brings their own special light
to the world and recognize the common spiritual light in
each of us.
When it's time to settle the children down to bed on
Christmas Eve, calm them with a soothing candlelight
ritual. My daughter’s children walk to bed, each
carefully carrying a lighted candle through a dark
hallway, singing "Silent Night."
Candlelight Haven
Create a nightly quiet ritual for yourself in a quiet
place away from distractions and the hustle of the
holidays. Place candles around your bathtub and unwind,
or by your favorite reading chair and instead of reading
sit in the quiet and reflect upon the brightness of a
single candlelight. Listen to quiet music or simply
enjoy the peace and stillness. Ponder the joys in your
life and express gratitude. This quiet time may be your
most treasured gift to yourself.
Create your own family celebrations and personal rituals during the holidays
and include candles that remind you of the spiritual
side of Christmas.
***
Warning about
Candle Use!
Mary Findley,
owner of Mary
Moppins, warms people about the use of candles. She
has received many letters about how to clean up after
fires caused by forgotten candles.
Always watch a
burning candle! Take care not to get distracted by the
phone and fun activities.
Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.
Jeanette Fisher, author of Joy to the Home Journal and
interior design and real estate books, has researched
the effects of environment on emotions for over 15
years. Besides flipping houses, Jeanette teaches college
courses on Design Psychology and professional real
estate investing seminars. For free Design Psychology
ebooks, visit
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