Doodles drawn on tissue paper are melted onto candles for festive Rosh Hashanah lights

On Rosh Hashanah evening, right as the sun sets, we begin our holiday by lighting candles. Like on Shabbat, it’s a wonderful tradition to have a festive Rosh Hashanah dinner by candlelight to remind us that this evening is different. Surrounded by a special glow, the candles bring warmth, love and joy into our homes, and lighting them is the perfect way to begin our Jewish New Year.

This year, we made our own candles for our celebrations. In this simple DIY, we drew doodles on tissue paper and then melted the paper onto the candle wax.

This is a wonderful project for all ages - with littles (mostly for drawing on the tissue paper) and bigger kids can take more responsibility by helping to melt the paper into the wax. This is also a special project for making your own Shabbat candles too! Ready to bring some light and happiness into your home? Let’s go make some Rosh Hashanah candles!

DIY Tissue Paper Printed Candles for Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat

Here’s what you’ll need to make two tissue paper printed candles:

2 white taper candles
Tissue paper
Wax paper
Markers
Scissors
Hair dryer

Here’s how to make your own festive candles:

1. Take 2 pieces of tissue paper cut and sized to fit around your taper candles. Gather your markers and draw a simple picture or pattern on both pieces. It’s a good idea to test your markers on the tissue paper first, and place a piece of construction paper underneath the tissue paper if the markers bleed too much.

2. We decided to draw apples and honey bees. It’s a simple design made by drawing circles (apples) and ovals (bees).

We let the red and yellow ink completely dry before adding the little details with the black and green markers.

Here’s a close up of our doodles. Say “cheese” little apples and bees!

3. When your done drawing, it’s time to take your candle, and…

wrap the tissue paper around it.

4. Now carefully wrap a layer of wax paper around the tissue paper. You can use a little piece of tape or a tiny elastic on the wax paper to secure both layers if it would be easier to hold.

5. Now it’s time to melt the tissue paper onto the candle. Put your hair dryer on a medium high setting, and slowly run the hot air over the candle. You can adjust your setting if it’s too hot or not hot enough. This is a good step for a grown-up!

I held the layers together here will a tiny elastic hairband.

6. As the hair dryer heats up the candle wax, the tissue paper will “melt” into the wax and become shiny. Be patient though. Depending on your candle brand, it might be a very quick process or it might take a little longer than you’d expect. When you’re done, repeat with the second candle.

7. Unwrap your candles, and voila! Sweet candles for Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat too!

We loved our Rosh Hashanah candles. We made an extra set and wrapped them in wax paper and tied the bundle in Baker’s twine. They make an adorable handmade Rosh Hashanah present, and we can’t wait to give them to a special friend.

If you’d like, on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, you can light your candles with a special blessing. In Judaism, there are blessings for almost every moment, like dipping apples and challah into honey, when throwing your mistakes away during a Tashlich ritual and for lighting candles on festival days!

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha‑olam,

asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Yom Tov.

If Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, add the word Shabbat before the words v'shel Yom Tov.

On Rosh Hashanah, you can remind your little that in the New Year, they can be like the light on their Rosh Hashanah candles! Rosh Hashanah is a special time to have a fresh start, and with it, they can take the glow from the candles into their heart, and help share their own special light, love and happiness into our world on the Birthday of the World. Our world could definitely use more light and love right now, and helping our world is the Jewish value Tikkun Olam.

We hope your Rosh Hashanah is filled with light, love and happiness! Share with us how you plan on celebrating, and let us know if you make Rosh Hashanah candles!

For more fun DIYs, recipes and special outings for the holiday, visit our Rosh Hashanah Round-up!

Shanah Tova,

~Jennifer