Luminarias

Luminarias aren't really a Danish thing as such, but I did see a picture of a Danish house decorated with luminarias in one of our books, and since this was something I'd wanted to do anyway, that was good enough for me. :) Anyway, the Danes do love their candles---I read that they use more candles per capita than any other country in the world! So I'm sure they would approve.

I don't know if I actually remember the luminarias (or are they farolitos?) from when we lived in New Mexico, but I've at least been told about them so often that I think I remember. They line the houses and sidewalks in whole streets and neighboorhoods at Christmastime, and I love their soft light. So beautiful!

I had battery-operated candles, and white bags, so without really knowing what we were doing, we set out to make designs in our luminarias! (I suppose I could have looked up instructions online . . .)

We just stuffed dishcloths into our bags

Then punched holes (with a yarn needle or an awl) along the outlines of the designs we'd drawn lightly in pencil.

On some of the bags, we traced cookie cutters and cut out whole designs (like stars or trees).

They looked very pretty!

And they look even better outside! You can't really see the designs from far away, so the plain bags look about the same as the punched ones. But we love them all!