Christmas Eve Luminaria

[chicagoans]

Merry Christmas! I wanted to share a tradition our little town started forty-some years ago of putting out luminaria on Christmas Eve. The luminaria are simple brown paper bags with a few inches of sand on the bottom and plain white plumbers candles inside. Sales of the luminaria benefit the local chapter of the Infant Welfare Society.

It looks beautiful to see a long stretch of luminaria all the way down a street. We love driving around after church on Christmas Eve and seeing all the luminaria and decorated houses.

I believe this custom started in Latin America and is not uncommon there and in the Southwest US. Our town in the only one I know of locally to do this on a broad basis (almost every house sets them up.) Does anyone else do this?

Filling the luminaria:
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... aFOR"><img src="http://inlinethumb18.webshots.com/43601 ... 425Q85.jpg" alt="bags"></a>
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... Fftv"><img src="http://inlinethumb38.webshots.com/42661 ... 425Q85.jpg" alt="Candles"></a>
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... ISPq"><img src="http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/45994 ... 425Q85.jpg" alt="candle in bag"></a>

Lighting the luminaria:
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... pxQa"><img src="http://inlinethumb53.webshots.com/24820 ... 500Q85.jpg" alt="Nate lighting 1"></a>

Luminaria lit:
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... dhZF"><img src="http://inlinethumb05.webshots.com/47940 ... 500Q85.jpg" alt="luminaria lit 7"></a>
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... yJYJ"><img src="http://inlinethumb59.webshots.com/25210 ... 500Q85.jpg" alt="luminaria lit 6"></a>
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... KSOo"><img src="http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/18086 ... 500Q85.jpg" alt="house 4"></a>
<a href="http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/pho ... pOUq"><img src="http://inlinethumb31.webshots.com/5342/ ... 500Q85.jpg" alt="house 7"></a>

Merry Christmas!

[Tracy in WI]

That is really beautiful and so simple. Thanks for sharing the pictures and Merry Christmas to you!

[XOXO]

We do that for relay for life. It really is nice to see. Merry Christmas!

[bubblybrenda]

That is beautiful. Thank you for sharing. And what a great fundraising idea.

[Terry]

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing the pics. Enchanting.

[loria]

so pretty! merry christmas katie!

[toni]

This is really pretty! Worry wart that I am, do they ever blow over and catch fire? The sand stabilizes them enough? And wind isn't an issue? I'd like to try it. Thanks for sharing.

[lprof]

Those street scenes are lovely, but it looks so COLDDDDDD; luminaria cast a beautiful glow no matter the season but in winter's snow may be the best!
Wishing you the continued joy of Christmas throughout the new year... may it be your best ever!

[Lex]

There's a town in southeastern Massachusetts, Taunton, that has a tradition of lighting luminaria on Veterans Day:

http://www.tauntongazette.com/photos/x7 ... ony?foto=0

[AH]

What a lovely tradition. Thanks for sharing.
AH

[chicagoans]

This is really pretty! Worry wart that I am, do they ever blow over and catch fire? The sand stabilizes them enough? And wind isn't an issue? I'd like to try it. Thanks for sharing.

toni: sometimes they do catch fire, especially if it's windy. But the fire is tiny and burns itself out pretty fast. We almost always have snow for Christmas, and if there's no snow it's usually pretty wet out. I think I've only seen a bag actually burning once or twice in many years of living here. Try it!

[GraysonDave]

It is a beautiful sight.

The neighborhood we used to live in did that a couple of times. Everybody in the neighborhood had Bermuda grass. That stuff goes dormant in winter and is like dry straw. It got a little windy one night and folks who scrimped a little on the sand had a near disaster. Two lawns burned up completely but the fire dept was able to put them out before the houses caught fire.

We didn't do that any more.

[pipanale]

They're always so nice looking but I'm so happy I don't have to do them anymore.

My brother and I never enjoyed standing in the cold on Christmas Eve filling bags of sand...out in the yard (because we could not make a mess in the house).

My mother would buy the wrong candles and we'd have to try to figure out how to evenly saw them down to a reasonable height. I think we ended up chewing them down to size because we were not allowed to get wax on the saws.

There was never a working lighter in the house...so we'd be stuck with a pack of cardboard ShopRite matches.

All the while, our father would stand in the doorway, the storm door frosted over except around his head. the heat of rage he omitted would clear a circle of anger in the glass. We'd light our jackets and hands on fire while he sipped a drink and cursed his 2 failures of sons.

Wait...I'm in the wrong thread I think.