Ever since I was little, my cousins, sister, and I would always make gifts for the aunts/uncles/grandparents, etc. It was usually an ornament that we would make 10 of and we would proudly hand them out on Christmas day. As I’ve gotten older, I have realized the goodness in this and I continue that tradition as do most of my cousins.The more people I can give gifts to, the better. With money being tight and my giftee list hovering at 30, I give gifts that let people know I love and care about them but also don’t leave me looking at a huge bill come January 1. My parameters include 5 things. 1) It must be a gift that I can make as a batch 2) It can’t take up too much of my precious pre-holiday time 3) it has to be affordable to make on a large scale 4) it can’t involve sewing because I can’t and 5) it must create minimal waste. I have found this usually ends up being some kind of consumable.

After doing too much research, I settled on beeswax candles this year. Folks who tout beeswax candles as being the end all bee all (see what I did there?) say they are a natural way to purify the air. They are free from toxins. And for mine, I didn’t scent it with any fragrances or essential oils, to let folks enjoy the sweet, floral scent of organic beeswax. (Not to mention that also kept the cost down.) I used the basic recipe from mommypotamus.com but instead of using wick with tabs/stickers, I bought plain cotton wick in order to keep it as minimal waste as I could, i.e. no tabs/stickers. I ran into a challenge with this though because I was struggling to get the wick to sit straight in the jar. I did some more research and found someone who solved this problem by first dipping the wick strands into the melted wax. This made the wick stiff and able to wrap around a broken chopstick to sit perfectly suspended in the middle of the jar. It worked like a charm and I felt very pioneer woman-esque/homesteader-y. For me, buying the beeswax, cotton wick, coconut oil and jars, and making 30 candles the per candle cost came out to be around $3.80. One other note I should make if you are unfamiliar with beeswax, it is almost impossible to clean up so be prepared for whatever you use for this, will probably always need to be used for beeswax purposes forever and ever, amen. Also, keep beeswax out of your plumbing system. Instead, scrape it into your trash/compost.

Here’s the recipe to make 6 (4 oz) candles::
-1 pound organic beeswax* (*I’ve included links at the bottom)
-1/2 cup coconut oil melted
-cotton wick*
-Heat-safe Jars- I used 4 ounce jars to get 6 candles but feel free to use whatever size you want
-4 chopsticks you have sitting around from takeout joints that you forgot to ask the cashier not to include in your meal because it’s more waste. Break 3 of these in half and use the fourth to stir the melting wax.
– stainless steel bowl that you will never use again for any other purpose except beeswax or a large metal coffee can or a 32 ounce canning jar that will also only ever be used again for beeswax.
– a pot or pan to use as the bottom of your double boiler.

Instructions:
1) create a double boiler by filling the bottom pot/pan with water and place the other vessel (bowl/coffee can/32 oz canning jar) in it, filled with beeswax, and bring to boil to melt beeswax.
2) add coconut oil to the bowl of melted wax and stir with chopstick
3) cut 6 strips of the cotton wick about 6-7 inches long and dip them into the wax, letting extra wax drip off. Let dry.
4) wrap wick around a broken chopstick and position in the middle of the jar, letting it just barely touch the bottom of the jar.
5) pour melted wax/oil mixture into jars, making sure the wick stays as centered as possible so that the candle burns uniformly.
6) After it has set for about 2 hours, cut the wick 1/4″ above the wax. Don’t move them too early or they will crack on top. Let candle sit for 2 days before use

Those are the directions as I did them. Let me know if you have any questions or if it’s unclear.

I have more batch gifts coming up so stay tuned!

links for beeswax and cotton wick
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006LTUBOE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A4EFQL0/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1