You Can Make a Clementine Candle!

Please excuse the black ink.  It is from a prior project: making expressive citrus fruits... but that's a post for another day.

We did it! And it was so easy and fun.

When I was poking around online for ideas for our Our Lady of Altagracia playdate earlier, I found this video:

 

Perfect! I thought. We have oranges and hubs can easily pick up some cheap olive oil and a stick lighter while on his way home from taking Nina to an appointment.  And so it was, we were ready!

We watched the video.  We brought out the knives.  We sliced, and inadvertently squirted one another eyes' with orange juice while trying to slip the skins from the oranges (which, I might add, was not quite as easy as the video makes it appear to be!)

Separating the skin from the rest of the orange was a challenge!

And, then, we had success!

 

Grrr.  It really was lit even if you cannot tell in this shot.

Once.

Our other orange candles did not work so well.  They either would not light or did not stay lit.

Determination only goes so far.  Luke's candle would not stay lit.

So began a quick review of what fire needs to burn (heat, oxygen and fuel), some suppositions and suggestions and a few attempts at getting our second and third candles to burn brightly and consistently.

Our efforts were without much luck however.

Not to be chagrined, we decided to try a similar fruit we had handy:  clementines.

Score!

The skins came off so easily.  The wicks lit quickly.  The candles burned to everyone's delight.   

In fact, our success motivated us to try our orange candles again to see if we might have luck with another go.

The one on the plate is a clementine candle.

Nope.  Only the first one, which had worked right away stayed lit.  The rest would not.  But, our first clementine one did and so did the ones we made later in the day.

Later in the day, we lidded the clementine candle with the other half of the peel like the orange candle video suggests, but I forgot to snap a picture of it.  It really was charming -- a lovely, natural warm light on a cold snowy evening.

Making clementine candles is so easy and fun.  We'll definitely be doing it again!

What other fun, quick and easy ways have you found to make natural candles with kids?

Sharing at Frugal Homeschool Family and Family Fun Friday.