Glow Stick Ice Luminaries

Inspired by a much larger version called a Scandinavian Ice Candle, these glow stick luminaries are of manageable size and the perfect height from dropping in a glow stick for night time winter fun! You’ll need to start early in the day as the water needs approximately four hours of freeze time, so be sure to plan accordingly! Remember, glow sticks only last for one night, so you can always use LED tea lights inside these as well. A great way to light up your walk this holiday season!

For these ice luminaries you will need:

Tall cans or plastic containers
Water
Glow sticks

The outdoor temperature will need to be below freezing. Alternatively, you can use your refrigerator’s freezer if you have room for the containers to stand upright.

Fill containers with water and place them outside. After about an hour, they will have begun to freeze over.

After 3-4 hours, depending on how cold it is outside and the size of your container, the ice at the top of the container will be solid. The sides should have frozen as well, and chances are you will see a couple of air bubbles under the ice. That’s because the center hasn’t frozen yet. Now it’s time to take them inside.

Allow them to sit inside on the counter for about ten minutes to thaw slightly. Holding the container over the sink, place your hand on top of the container and turn the container upside down. Depending on how much it thawed, your ice may or may not slide right out. You can give it a tap or two on the bottom and try to coax it out. If it just isn’t budging, give it another five minutes or so to thaw.

Keeping it over the sink is important. Once your ice slides out of the container, depending on how frozen the bottom is, water will be released from the center of the ice. If the bottom is still solid as pictured above, tape it gently in the middle with a butter knife to create a hole about the size of a quarter and pour the water out.

If the ice on the bottom of the container was fairly thin, you may have the entire bottom open like above. Either way is fine!

Take your ice luminaries outside and place them wherever you are going to use them (in the snow, along the sidewalk edge, edge of steps, etc). The reason it’s important to place them where you plan to use them is because the ice has thawed a bit. Once you place it back outside the ice will harden and the bottom of the luminary will freeze to whatever surface it is placed on!

Hint: If you would like to be able to reposition your luminaries, place them in some snow that’s t least a few inches deep, rather than on a hard surface. They will still freeze, but you will be able to pick them up and move them to a different location.

When it gets dark, crack your glow sticks and drop them into the center of the luminary!

If you would like to see how large Scandinavian Ice Candles are made, watch this video! The process is the same, but in much larger form.

Project created by Amanda Formaro for Kix Cereal. Amanda is a well-known craft expert and has been writing and crafting on the Internet for over fifteen years. Find out more on her blog, Crafts by Amanda, where she shares tutorials with step-by-step photos for adults and kids alike.