How To Make An Ice Lantern

Brrrrrr it's cold outside! I'm not a great fan of Winter or the cold but you can take advantage of the freezing nights by using the sub-zero temperatures to make some pretty ice lanterns. These are really easy to make and look very effective.

All you need are two plastic pots of different sizes - one needs to fit into the other. We used half a drink bottle and a yogurt pot. Fill the larger pot with water and then float the smaller pot in the middle. You will probably need to put some weights (such as pebbles) in it so that it sinks down but it shouldn't touch the bottom.

You can leave the water plain or you could add food colouring - we decided to use yellow.

Then leave the pots out overnight. Hopefully they would have frozen solid in the morning. We found that ours wasn't quite solid enough so popped it in the freezer for a few hours which did the trick. Then take the plastic pots out and you will be left with a fantastic frozen candle holder. Pop in a tea-light and it brings a bit of winter wonderland into your home.

My children really enjoyed doing this and it's also a good way to introduce a bit of science by talking about liquids, solids and temperatures. You can also get as creative as you want by adding anything you like to the water - glitter, twigs or even plastic toys.