Learn how to make a Christingle at Home. Growing up the Christingle Service at my Church School was an integral part of Christmas. It was always so magical and the fact that we got to eat the sweets probably added to the reason why I loved it so much!
This year things are going to be a little different and large groups can not gather, so I am going to share with you how to make a Christingle, so you can make your own at home with your children and also what the significance of it is.
Last year over £1.2million was raised for The Children’s Society from 5000 Christingle carol services (which have taken place for over 50 years) held in churches across the UK. This year these services are not allowed to be held physically. This is why I am adding my support virtually and have made a donation to The Children’s Society to help them continue our frontline work in these difficult times.
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Make a Christingle at Home
Materials
- Orange
- Red ribbon or red tape
- Sticky tape or double-sided tape
- cocktail sticks
- Raisins or Jelly Tots (sweets)
- Charm Sized Candle
How to make your own Christingle
A Christingle is an orange (representing the world) wrapped in red tape or ribbon, decorated with sweets with a candle on the top (to shine the light for children and young people living in the darkest situations). It is a very simple and fun Christmas craft activity for children and their parents to do together with a special and recognised Christmas meaning; the first Christingle was made in 1747!
Take your orange (or smaller fruit if you have a younger child) and fasten a piece of red sticky tape/ribbon/wool around the middle. If the fruit is wobbly, then using a blob of blu take is a great idea. I also like using red ribbon and pre-measuring it for younger children and adding double-sided tape. The orange represents the world and The red ribbon (or tape) symbolises the love and blood of Christ.
Cut a small cross in the top of the orange and wedge the candle, which candle represents Jesus’s light in theworld firmly into the orange.
Load four cocktail sticks with a mixture of dried fruits or sweets so that the points are covered, and insert around the base of the candle. The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God’s creations.
One of the other traditions from when I was young was making Jelly baby Jesus Cakes – Have you made them?