5 Minute Dollar Store Advent Wreath

Here's a quick and easy project! Dollar Tree wreath for 9 bucks! You can use leftover materials from previous years, or find materials from a local craft store too... I just happened to be at the local Dollar Tree and was determined to make one inexpensively!

MATERIALS:

1. One Garland (or better yet--if you have leftover garland at the house, use that! Form a couple layers of a circular shape large enough to fit 4 glass candle-holders in the center)

2. (Two sets of) Holly and Pine Cone Bouquet ornamentation: cut off the bouquet pieces, leaving a long stem for weaving into the garland. You can hot-glue down, but I just shoved it in the garland without further securing it.

3. 4 Taper Candles (traditionally seen in 3 purple candles, and 1 pink). I even bought 4 LED taper candles because I have two little ones around the house.

4. 4 Glass Taper Candle-holders. I like the ones at Dollar Tree, because they are tall and actually very nice for a buck.

Stick the cut holly and pine ornamentation pieces into the garland evenly in a holly-pine cone-holly-pine cone fashion. Place the glass candle-holders in the center of the garland and firmly stick the taper candles into the holders, making sure it fits very snuggly so it doesn't risk tipping over later on. No one wants a house fire. (Another reason I bought the LED ones as well.)

Light a new candle each sunday, as the candles represent each week of advent. They are usually seen in purple, with the single pink one being the last Sunday in Advent. Mine is in red, because it matches...although while researching about the Advent wreath, it is traditionally in red. Our wreath is a table wreath, and does not have the white candle in the center.

About the Advent Wreath:
SHAPE: The circular shape of the wreath, without beginning or end, symbolizes God’s complete and unending love for us—a love that sent his Son into the world to redeem us from the curse of sin.  It also represents eternal life which becomes ours through faith in Jesus Christ.

NUMBER: The Advent Wreath traditionally holds four candles which are lit, one at a time, on each of the four Sundays of the Advent season.  Each candle represents 1,000 years.  Added together, the four candles symbolize the 4,000 years that humanity waited for the world’s Savior—from Adam and Eve to Jesus, whose birth was foretold in the Old Testament. Some Advent wreath traditions also include a fifth white “Christ” candle, symbolizing purity, that is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas day.  Many circular wreaths can incorporate a white candle by adding a pillar candle to the wreath center.

COLOR: Violet is a liturgical color that is used to signify a time of prayer, penance, and sacrifice.  Advent, also called “little Lent,” is the season where we spiritually wait in our “darkness” with hopeful expectation for our promised redemption, just as the whole world did before Christ’s birth, and just as the whole world does now as we eagerly await his promised return.


Happy Advent, folks! To those who do not share the same faith, hopefully it's still inspiration on what you can do with dollar store goods.