We’ve all heard about winter solstice lanterns, but what about winter solstice hiking sticks?! These are the perfect accessory for a winter solstice nature walk and will help light up your way through your neighborhood or hiking trails. This is just the inspiration your family needs to venture outdoors and welcome back the light on the darkest day of the year!
The winter solstice is a special day that only comes around once a year. It marks the day with the fewest hours of sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere. Many people build special traditions and celebrations around this day to celebrate the first day of winter and welcome back the light!
Are you ready to brighten up the darkest evening of the year with this simple hiking stick?
Here’s what you’ll need….
Supplies:
- Dried orange slices
- Hiking stick
- Tape
- Copper wire fairy lights– We got ours from Target. This is not the exact set we got, but these have the same amount of lights and length of wire. The copper wire twists really easily around the hiking stick.
- Batteries for fairy lights
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RELATED: Check out Glow-in-the-Dark Mummy Hiking Stick
Here’s What We Did:
Step 1:
First you need to dry your orange slices. There are many methods of doing this, but I put them in the oven on a cookie drying rack. Allowing air to move through them via the rack is key! I set the oven for 225 degrees for about 3-4 hours. I have done this several times and for some reason the drying time fluctuates a bit. Just keep an eye on them and take them out once they feel dry.
You can also stick some cloves in your oranges while they are drying. Your house will smell amazing!
Step 2:
Once your oranges are ready to go, you can start assembling your hiking stick! First tape the battery pack at the bottom of the hiking stick.
Step 3:
String the dried orange slices on the fairy lights. The center of the orange provides the perfect threading hole!
Step 4:
Wrap the oranges and fairy lights around the hiking stick. We found it easiest to have one person hold the stick and spin it around while another person held on to the light string and moved it up and down the stick. We moved the oranges around on the light string as we spun the stick so they were all facing the same way and had light peeking through behind the orange slices.
Make sure you wrap the light string tightly so it doesn’t move during your hike!
I was impressed with how well the string of lights stayed in place! They didn’t slide down the hiking stick at all.
We had a great time taking this out for a test run and now the hiking stick is sitting in my boys’ room as a decoration! We will bring it out again for another hike on the winter solstice.
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I hope you give this winter solstice activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.
∼Tara
