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DIY St. Lucia Crown for Dummies

“The night treads heavily
around yards and dwellings
In places unreached by sun,
the shadows brood
Into our dark house she comes,
bearing lighted candles,
Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.”

Break out the candles and lingonberry branches!

For those of you who need a quick refresher on the Swedish celebration, the official Vimeo channel for Sweden summed it up beautifully, with an awesome video, “Swedish Lucia for Dummies.”

What the video does not cover is the making of the tradition St. Lucia crown. While you can browse the internet and find some pretty fancy crowns, we appreciate the simple route, so here’s our take on a simple St. Lucia Crown.

Supplies needed:

• Wreath base
• Florist wire
• Floral tape
• Greenery
• Candles
• Hot glue, sticky tack

Directions:

1. Create the foundation.

Find a base that suits you and fits your head. While you can use a number of the options below, since this is a tutorial for dummies, we are going with the “major cheat” option.

Some options:

• Embroidery hoop
• Plain grapevine wreath
• Styrofoam wreath base
• The ultimate DIY move: an old hanger
• Major Cheat: most craft stores sell Christian advent wreathes with fake branches and candle holders built in

2. Affix the candles.

Since we don’t want a lit candle toppling off our head mid-procession, the first focus is getting the candles securely onto our base. And thanks to our “major cheat” of using an advent wreath with pre-made metal candle holders, this couldn’t be easier.

To make sure the candles are extra secure, add some hot glue or a generous amount of sticky tack to the bottom of the holders, then add your candles.

3. Spice up the greenery.

Since our advent wreaths-turned-St. Lucia crowns came with faux greenery, we are going to supplement with some of the real stuff to give it a more authentic look.

Use the wire and florist tape as needed to weave in the fresh greenery with the fake branches.

Try adding some:

• Evergreen
• Red berry bush sprigs
• Bay leave branches

4. Light it up!

Put on your best white smock, grab a red scarf to tie around your waist, place the wreath on your head and get a friend to light the candles. Find a procession and hop right in.