How to Make a Tealight Candleholder from an Apple

Are you looking for a creative way to add candlelight to your dinner table? Or perhaps you just want some festive, pretty tea light holders to spruce up your mantle or side tables. Either way, you can make beautiful tea light candleholders yourself using apples. These unique candleholders are inexpensive and simple to make but look beautiful either on their own or as a centerpiece for your table.

The first thing you need to decide is what color of apples you are going to use for your tea light holders. Granny smiths are festive and fun with their bright green color, while red delicious apples can be more sophisticated and warm. When buying your apples make sure to choose apples that are large enough to accommodate a tea light candle being placed in the top.

When you get your apples home from the grocery store wash them to remove any residue and shine them up with a dry towel so they look fresh and pretty.

Take one of your tea light candles and set it on top of one of the apples, over the stem. Trace around it onto the top of the apple using a pencil or any other marking tool that won’t leave an ugly permanent mark on your apple.

Next, you need to figure out how deep you are going to need to cut into the apple so that the candle sits high enough to be seen but not so high that it is poking out of the apple. To do this, lay the tea light candle on its side and lay a paring knife next to it. Using a Sharpie (it will wash off later) mark the depth of the candle on the blade to use as your cutting guide. Set the candle aside and get ready to cut your apple.

Using your paring knife, cut around the outline that you traced on your apple going just as deep as you have marked on the blade. When you have made it all the way around the circle, pop the center piece of apple that you just cut around out of the hole. If it does not come out easily you can use a spoon to gently pry it out. With a small spoon, dig out any leftover apple chunks at the base of the hole so that you are left with a smooth surface you can set your candle on.

Repeat this process with as many apples as you would like. When they are done, place a tea light candle in each one and arrange them however you would like. For a pretty holiday centerpiece try arranging them on a bed of evergreen boughs in the center of your table and accenting the boughs with berries. You can also arrange them on a pretty glass tray, or simply line them up on a shelf or mantle on their own.