On the 10th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...ten hanging candles ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ nine door knob hangers ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ eight dozen pretzels ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ seven Christmas movies ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ six wish list items ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ fiiiiiiiiive pounds of chili ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ four clear glass bulbs ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ three quick breads ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ two craft projects ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ and an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪

 
This is my beautiful mother dancing at my wedding.

This is my absolute favorite picture of her ever.  It shows her personality to a T.

 
My mother loves giving people presents and used to make these wonderful Christmas ornaments... 

...out of earthenware cookie molds...

...and Yankee candle tarts.

I remember giving them to some of my friends' parents and most, if not all, of the teachers and administrators at my small private school one year for Christmas.  My mom said she made about 60 of them over the Thanksgiving weekend.  And then she had a migraine from you-know-where because of all the potent fragrance.

My mom is the best.

I asked her if she would help me make some this year to pass out as presents.  She drove all the way to my house (about an hour from her house) to help me make them.  Have I mentioned that my mom is the best?

What you'll need for this project:

• Earthenware cookie molds  (Ours are by Brown Bag Designs and Longaberger.  We've found that Terracotta molds do not work as well.)
• About two wax tarts per cookie mold  (I'm sure any kind will do.  We have only ever used Yankee Candle tarts.)
• A double boiler - one that you don't mind not using for food after the project is complete.
• Toothpicks/coffee stirrers
• Thread/string/thin ribbon

Directions:

In a double boiler, melt two tarts.  Or three-four if you're going to make multiple candles out of the same scent.

Once melted, pour into a cookie mold(s) at room temperature.

Once you notice the edges start to set-up (the color will lighten around the edges), stick a toothpick or coffee stirrer where you'd like to place the hole to hang the ornament from.

Please forgive the Halloween tablecloth we used to protect my island from candle wax.

We've used toothpicks in the past, but you're very limited to the thickness of string you can pull through the finished project.  This year we used a round coffee stirrer on about half of the ornaments we made.  This allowed us to use thin ribbon as our hangers instead of string.

After you've inserted your toothpick/hole making device, place the cookie mold in the freezer for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your mold.

You'll know when your ornament is ready to come out of the freezer because the edges will look like this:

The ornament will also pop right out of the mold without having to tap or pry it out.

After you've taken the ornament out of the mold, gently twist your hole making device until it pops all the way through the wax. 

We let our candles sit for a bit on a wire baking rack before pulling the string or ribbon through the hole and wrapping them up. 

Here's a (poor quality) photo of ours wrapped and ready to go:

And here are some on the tree.  I just love how the heat of the bulbs fills the room with the scent of the candle.  My mom has had some for over 10 years that still smell great!

Oh, and don't worry if you mess one up.  The great thing about wax is that you can just re-melt it and try again!

*The wedding photo of my mom dancing is courtesy of the wonderfully talented Nicole Blair of Nicole Ladonne Photography.