In the dark winter morning of December 13th, homes, schools, and offices everywhere in Sweden are preparing to bring light into the darkness with the Lucia procession. A young girl or woman wears a white dress tied with a red ribbon. Upon her head is a candlelit crown of lingonberry leaves. Surrounded by her maids, star boys, and gnomes, the Lucia makes her way through the darkness singing the songs of hope and joy, bringing the spirit of celebration to one and all alike.
Along with singing the traditional songs of Santa Lucia, we have already prepared ginger cookies and saffron buns to eat during this very much cherished time with our families and within our communities.
Enjoy this favorite celebration by creating a Santa Lucia crown for the special Lucia in your life.
Materials
Red roving to make little berries.
Dark, medium, and light green roving to wrap around the Lucia Crown.
White roving for the candles.
Yellow roving for the candle flames.
Dark green and lighter green thick felt sheets. These can be found near the needle felting supplies in your local craft store. These will make the leaves for our crown.
Grapevine wire found in the floral or bridal dept of the craft store.
Four white pipe cleaners.
Green thread
Glue gun
Create the Leaves
This makes four leaf groups.
Using the pattern provided, cut out eight leaves from the light green felt sheet and four from the dark green.
Sew them together using a light green leaf in the middle and two darker leaves to the sides. I anchored two leaves together first and then added the last side leaf, making sure not to only sew the bottoms of the leaves but a little bit up each of the sides as well.
Felting Lingonberries
Makes four berries.
Make a bowl of hot soapy water (4 T of liquid dishwashing soap, clear with no scent, to 6 cups of hot water.)
Take out a cookie sheet to catch any water.
Begin with a small wad of red roving, dip it into the hot water and smush together. Wrap a very little bit of dry roving around it and start rolling it into a ball. Keep rolling vigorously.
As the soap and water decreases from your hands, dip the ball in the soapy water again. Continue to do this process until your ball is the size of a berry or a little larger. Rinse in cold water and set aside to dry.
Making the Crown
Measure the head of the crown-wearer with the grapevine wire and add ¾ of an inch to this length. Form the wire into a circle for the crown.
Take four pipe cleaners and fold them in half.
Attach the pipe cleaners to the crown.
Insert a small piece of yellow roving through the top loop of the pipe cleaners. Turn it around and up and down until it looks like a flame. Do all four candles like this same way.
Take the white roving and pull it apart until it is fluffy. Wrap each candle in the white roving. It helps to insert the top portion of the roving into the loop and wrap it around the candle and attach it at the bottom.
Take the dark, medium and light green roving and blend them together by pulling them apart.
Wrap the multi-green roving around the crown. Don’t worry about covering the white of the candles on the crown. These will be covered up in our next step.
Take one leaf combination and sew it in front of the candle on the crown. I work from the back of the leaves and through the candle. I also work from the back to connect the bottom of the leaf grouping to the base of the candle. Do this for all four candles.
Heat up your glue gun. Once heated, glue on a berry to each leaf grouping.
Now adjust the candles and you are ready to crown your Lucia.
I hope you enjoy many happy Lucia moments.
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Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book, derives the greatest pleasure from taking the books she reads and helping them come alive with her family, book club, friends, and workshops. An advocate for literacy, Valarie spends many quality hours helping at risk readers. She spends her days with her husband, three creative children, and one adored cat. Together they live in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. You can also visit Valerie on her blog, A Place Like This.