This year for the Fourth of July we had fun making safe “sparklers” from I Can Teach My Child. They were quick and easy, and the girls loved playing with them. Of course, the girls preferred to call them “magic fireworks wands.”
This year for New Year’s Eve I thought it would be fun to make some new ones with even more sparkle. You could make them in advance for the young kids who will be over celebrating or set up a firework making craft station for little ones to enjoy throughout the evening.
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Materials
Grab any silver and gold shiny beads and accessories you have. We just raided the craft supplies. Our collection included:
- Bamboo skewers with the sharp point trimmed off. You could also purchase thin dowels, but I try to use what we have on hand. I also painted the skewers with gold paint.
- Silver and gold tinsel stems
- Silver and gold paillettes
- Holographic stars-I’m not sure where these were purchased. They may have even fallen off a holiday decoration of some sort. 🙂
- Clear pony beads
- Silver and gold metallic star beads (in a multicolor pack from JoAnn’s)
Directions
We bent about the top third each tinsel stem so that the girls had a visual cue where to stop adding decorations. Leaving the bottom two-thirds empty allows us to attach the “fireworks” to the bamboo skewers later.
The girls added decorations in any patterns and combinations they chose. I did tell them that they did not have to cover the whole part of the tinsel stem though. I wasn’t sure how the stems would stand up if they were all weighted down with the beads, but it did work out well no matter whether there were just a couple of decorations or a completely full section.
After the stems are decorated simply twist the long end around a skewer. The wands pictured are made with four decorated stems for each skewer.
If the stems aren’t as secure as you’d like, you can also twist a fifth stem around the end of the wand to tighten it a bit. I did this with the wand on the left in the picture below.
Then hand over the wands and let your little ones put on their own kid-safe fireworks show, or take them along to wave at holiday parades and fireworks displays.
More Inspiration for New Year’s Fun with Kids
New Year’s Traditions for Families
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