Make an Inexpensive Waldorf Birthday Candle Ring

There is a lot to love about Waldorf inspired birthday traditions. No matter how you decide to modify and adjust things to your family needs, the focus is on an important life in your growing family and relationships. Even the focus of the table is not the cake, and certainly not the presents. The below idea & technique could be easily adapted for any kind of count-down celebration, too, like Advent or the Nativity Fast.

I really like the use of a candle ring, a circle or spiral candle holder with places for the age number of candles, and you can decide the fill the rest of the spots or not to your liking and needs.  I have seen beautiful examples of these, and many handcrafted wood ones that are well worth buying, but outside of my budget. So I decided to make one that was within my budget and skill set.


I got this wooden, blank 11.5" clock face from Michael's (also available at Hancock Fabrics), and some wooden candle cups at Hobby Lobby. (Note: those stores give a teacher discount, so don't forget your homeschool teacher id card)

I decided on candle cups that would take a standard size taper, which in the US is 7/8", because it will always be easy for me to find candles in the future. I would have preferred something smaller, but I'm trying to make this easy on myself. I used stain, sealer, and scraps of sandpaper I had left over from other projects, so the cost for the new supplies (wood pieces and wood glue) was about $13.

Many people will drill the candle holes right into the ring, but I opted to just glue wooden handle holders right on. I chose a wood glue that would accept stain just in case it became messy (which it usually does).

I started by marking my circle in quarters, then pencilled a rough idea of the center circle to cut out. I used my rotozip to do the cutting, and I am comfortable with the lines not being perfect -- in fact, I think it adds to the charm.

Then we took the cut pieces in and sanded them. In general, I have found there's always at least one kiddo who wants to help with the sanding, maybe more. It is so important to model and share making things by hand with your children. The center piece got sanded and added to the wood building blocks/toys.

The next part was staining it. I thought about all kinds of color schemes and ideas that would be fun, but in the end I decided to stain and seal it with things I had on hand. Reminder to self: keep it simple & fast & doable.  Note: to save time I just dipped the pieces right into the stain and then wiped off the excess. Although this did work, and was fast, it took way longer to dry than if I had just rubbed the stain on with a cloth. Then, I just glued the candle cups in place and let it dry. 

Ta da! I'm actually quite proud of the finished project, and I expect it will contribute to many celebrations in the coming years. It took less than an hour of my actual time (not counting letting things dry and set in between steps). I love how it can be arranged in many different shapes/configurations.


(It was suggested that this would make a great project as a candle holder for the various feasts and fasts of the year, especially the Nativity/Christmas Fast, or Phillips/Phillipo Fast. Simply put on the number of candle holders you need.)