Winter Solstice Star Lantern

Winter Solstice is the longest, darkest night of the year. Every day after this night the day gets a little bit longer until the Summer Solstice. Light is an important theme across winter holidays in most cultures, many of whom tried to coax the sun back with fires, lights and lanterns. We always make ice lanterns for our Solstice Spiral, but wanted lantern that we could carry this year. 

This Star Lantern was inspired by the “parol” a type of Christmas lantern traditional in the Philippines, it’s made with bamboo and rice paper and is meant to represent the star of Bethlehem, but has become an art form of its own. We swapped the bamboo for sticks to make our lantern more rustic looking and I am delighted with how it turned out. It’s hard not to feel magical carrying it. It’s a wintery glowing five pointed star- perfect to light your way on the longest night. 

Making the star lantern is fairly simple with bamboo and a little bit wonky with sticks because nothing lines up quite right. Accept that wonkiness at the outset and roll with it.

Winter Solstice Star Lantern

Materials:

• 10 sticks around 12ish inches long (or all approximately the same size)
• 5 sticks around 2ish inches long (depending on how wonky your star sticks are you may need longer or shorter spacers)
• Rubber bands
• Hot glue
• Rice or tissue paper
• Battery powered LED lights
• Wire or string for hanger

Method:

Make a V shape by attaching two of your sticks at the end with a rubber band. Repeat with a second set of sticks and make a second V.

Lay them on a table and and connect them with a 5th stick to make a five pointed star. Attach each point with rubber bands. (see below)

Make a second 5 pointed star in the same way.

Lay your two stars on top of each other and line them up as best you can. (This is where the wonkiness of the sticks can get tricky.) Connect the two stars together at the points with another rubber band.

Use the shorter spacer sticks to push apart the two stars at the hexagon on the center.

Once you have all the spacer sticks in place glue both the spacer joints and the rubber banded joints to reinforce them. (you could also cover them with something more decorative)

Start gluing around each section of the star and covering with paper. You can either cover the sticks which is faster, or you can leave the sticks exposed which I like better, but is tedious. Cut away any excess paper.

Before you close up the back, put your led lights in. I glued the stick to the edge of a stick so I could access it, a remote controlled type would work well too. Cover the back with paper in the same way.

Wrap a wire or string around the top point for carrying and light up the night!