St. Lucia's Day

I guess I'd better start this post by saying that I'm not Swedish (not entirely true... I'm a tiny bit Swedish somewhere in my family tree.)  In any case, I've never celebrated St. Lucia's day before.  I remember learning about Swedish St. Lucia's day celebrations in elementary school though, and I always thought that they sounded somewhat magical. In case you've never heard of St. Lucia's day before, I thought this video was helpful.  

Since my oldest daughter shares the name of this saint, I thought it would be fun to celebrate our own version of St. Lucia's day at home.  She was over the moon excited about preparing for the event, and was eager to make her own St. Lucia's day saffron buns and candle crown.  She put on an old white blouse of mine as a night gown and then brought us the buns in bed. I'm sure we did plenty of things "wrong," but I don't think that really matters...

We threw together this Christmas celebration by just a quick afternoon of crafting and baking after a quick run to the dollar store for some craft supplies.  Want to see how we did it?  Keep reading below!

  Our candle crown was just made by cutting a ring of cardboard and sticking a metal headband through it.

 Then I hot glued the four battery operated candles and the small "wreath" that I bought at the dollar store.

Then it was time for the buns!  I followed this recipe here.  They seemed to turn out well enough, and the girls loved smelling the saffron.  

 Baking is always a hit in my house!

 Our rolls didn't turn out near as pretty as the ones in the recipe, but they were still yummy!  I loved how the saffron seemed a bit overwhelming at first, but then became almost addictive.  We made our buns the night before, and then warmed them up in the morning.

Lu woke up eager to out on her crown and bring us the buns in bed.  I hope that this holiday and our preparations will be fun memories for her...in addition to being a great way to teach her about different places and cultures!  Yum!  Have you ever celebrated St. Lucia's day before?  What's your favorite holiday tradition?