In other words, Light Party!
Mostly this post is how to make a sweet little lantern, just like my mum taught me when I was a kid. There are also lots of fun ideas for glow sticks and other light-based frivolity. And there’s news about a party!
Glow stick Ideas
Glow bunting. Pop glow sticks in balloons, then blow them up and string them as bunting
Glow football. Use the glow-in-the-dark balloons (above) to a game of mad football. Have a dozen of each colour and the winner is the first team to kick all of their balloons into the goal.
Glow-in-the-dark treasure hunt. Hide glow sticks all around the room. Split players into tag teams. One from each team has to find a glow stick and put it in the team’s bucket, then tag the next player. Winner is the team with the most glow sticks, or first to find ten.
Jam jar lanterns. Decorate old jars with tissue paper and dilute PVA. Light with electric tea light or glowstick.
Glow-stick bowling. Half-fill pop bottles with water and add a glow stick. Then knock them down with tennis balls.
Noughts and Cross in the dark. Use the long glow sticks with connectors to make Os and Xs. Then lay out a board and play.
Hoop-la. Make glow stick Os and toss them over a brolly that your teammate is holding.
Paper lanterns
Materials: Coloured or white A4 paper, tea light, scissors, glue sticks, decorations.
- You will need either two sheets of coloured A4 – one yellow, one whatever – or two sheets of white. You can also make mini-lanterns starting with half A4.
- If you are using white paper, start by decorating one in bright colours, (mine is bluey-green). Colour the other in yellow, preferably neon.
- Cut two strips about 2cm wide from the long sides of the yellow paper.
- Write, big and bold, ‘Jesus is the light of the world‘ across the yellow paper. My example is not bold enough and it’s too tall. Keep it to the middle third of the paper. Might be good to print this on paper beforehand.
- Fold the blue paper in half lengthwise and cut 2cm strips from the fold almost to the edge (leave about 2cm uncut).
- Put glue all along to top and bottom edges of the yellow paper. Glue the blue paper on, with the folds pointing out. Leave the last 2cm unglued!
- Use the unglued section to join the yellow paper into a cylinder, then tack down the corners of the blue paper.
- Glue the two yellow strips back-to-back and glue the ends inside the lantern as a handle.
- Add decorations as required. Add tea light / glowstick and admire.
In other news, I’m having a book launch for my upcoming Advent/Epiphany book. It’ll be in the afternoon of Sunday 25th October. If you live near Northamptonshire and would like to come, drop me a line and, numbers permitting, I’ll send you an invitation.
Clickable links take you to Amazon, where I may earn a tiny commission. It’s also the cheapest place to buy currently with a fab pre-order price.
