We did it this year. For years my new parish had evergreen-decorated candle stands (about eight feet high) and used those with the usual three violet, one rose candle. There was interest in a “real” wreath this year, so after lots of discussion, one parishioner constructed a five-foot plywood circle about six inches wide. He mounted it on metal legs and cut square holes to insert our processional candle stands. To receive greens, he wrapped the plywood with denim strips for easy insertion of branches.
We invited parishioners to contribute branches from home or campus. The wrap means we can place branches both above and below the wreath for a really full look. We still have room for about thirty, forty branches, but the top is quite fluffy.
The problem then was the candles I made for the wreath this week. One cracked, and I trimmed it to about fifteen inches. The other three came out okay, and it was a good thing I waited until today to size them and bring them in. The fifteen-inch candle is too short. It doesn’t emerge high enough from the wreath; in fact one fir branch ups it by an inch or two.
Back to the big candles. I have three. I pieced two broken halves together earlier this afternoon. That will hold till I can get the wax back to my workbench and brew up another candle. One other purple one developed a crack, so I’ll have time to redo that one, too. Good thing purple #3 held up okay or Rosie might have had to advance in her turn today.
Rosie and the good candle came from these nice carpet rolls I picked up last weekend at JoAnn Fabric Store, one of my wife’s favorite haunts. The mold peeled off like those biscuit tubes and left a nice spiral raised line along the candle.
Now that we’ve made it through this experience–almost–I’ll save the recipe, add the improvements and post it and some pictures next year. Once I get my phone camera sending to the net again, I’ll add images of this year in a few days.
Catholic Sensibility 