Santa’s Belly & Belt Candle

This free Christmas craft project shows you how to make a candle that looks like Santa's belly.

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What you need

1 Large red pillar candle
Black felt or black 1.5 inch wide ribbon.
Grey felt or metal buckle.
Craft Glue

Instructions

Sometimes the simplest Christmas crafts are the ones that make me smile the most. A red candle, a little black felt and a buckle are all it takes to suggest Santa’s familiar outfit—no face painting or complicated decorating required.

This DIY Santa belt candle is a lovely little project for adding a playful touch to a Christmas shelf or putting together an inexpensive handmade gift. I like that you can keep it beautifully simple and still have something instantly recognisable. That bright red pillar does most of the work!

It’s also a handy way to use small felt scraps left over from other Christmas projects. Add a handwritten gift tag if you’re giving it away, including a reminder that the decorated candle is for display only. For a version you can illuminate with the belt attached, choose a red battery-operated LED pillar instead.

Take a ready made store bought red pillar candle and remove any packaging.

Measure around the candle to find it’s width/diameter and then add 3 inches. Our candle was 8 inches so we cut our black felt or ribbon to a length of 11 inches. This extra length allows you to wrap the belt around the candle like a real belt through the buckle.

If you are using felt then cut the length so it is around 1.5 inch wide.

At one end of the felt or ribbon belt cut the corners off to form a nice finish at the belt end as shown in the photo. (this is optional).

Cut out a felt buckle by cutting a large rectangle or square and cutting out the middle as shown in the picture. If you have a spare brass buckle from an old belt that would look great too. Wrap your felt belt around the candle so they your belt end is just off to the side at the front.

Wrap it around the candle and secure it with glue by placing some glue on the overlapping ends.

Finish up by gluing your felt buckle into place on the front and in the middle as shown.

Remember this candle is decorative only. You will need to remove Santa’s belt before burning the candle.