Striped Chocolate Cherry Valentine Candles

My family thought that these striped chocolate cherry candles smelled divine when they came home. They were disappointed when they realized I wasn’t actually baking any sweets though!

For this project I used about a half pound (230 g) of premixed container soy wax. Then I split that in half so that I could add different scents and colors to each.

Half a chip of brown and red candle dye went into each once I took the soy wax off the burner. Then, I added the candle fragrance. Next time I’ll probably go heavier on the brown dye. Chocolate fudge and cherry seemed to suit Valentine’s Day, so I used about a teaspoon of each scent.

This soy wax doesn’t need to be heated above 150 F (65 degrees Celsius) and it’s so much easier to clean than paraffin wax. Other benefits are that it sets fast and holds more fragrance. I only had to wait for about twenty minutes for it to set enough so that I could pour the second color to create the candle stripes. In keeping with the Valentine’s Day theme, I finished by gluing a red heart rhinestone to the candle holder.

As if Diwali weren’t colorful and fun enough, The Festival of Lights: A Lift-the-flap Diwali Celebration by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Darshika Varm, makes it even more fun to read about with flaps and things to lift and pull to see more information or details in the illustrations.

The book is a story about a family getting ready for Diwali and what happens on the different days of the five-day celebration. There’s cleaning, shopping, crafting, food preparation and getting the home altar ready for the big day.

It covers decorating the outside of the house with rangoli, diyas and lanterns, buying sweets to share with family and friends, the sights and scents of the mandir (home temple), getting dressed up in new fancy clothes, the story of Diwali and celebrations with relatives.

Flaps (there are more than 140 in all) give you vocabulary words for different foods and definitions, as well as fun things like what’s inside the shopping basket or where the cat is hanging out. They also help illuminate the story of Diwali, which is the triumph of good over evil as Lord Ram defeated the demon Ravana to save his wife, Sita.

This pretty and colorful book helps kids understand what Diwali is and how it is celebrated, regardless of whether they practice it at home. This would be a nice book to keep in a classroom (it’s rated for kids ages 3-7) or to have at home to teach kids about Diwali even if it’s not something you celebrate. Where I live there are a lot of people from India so we are probably exposed to Diwali more than some other regions of America, but it’s a nice holiday to know about wherever you live.

Combine with the book Diwali and check out some fun lantern crafts and printables for kids to round out your experience.

About the book: 24 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail prices $22.99.

Have you read?