BY AMANDA HAGOOD
MAKING CANDLES AT
DISNEY SPRINGS
— WITH KIDS
The candle bar is all set for eager guests . PHOTO BY DANNY SHUSTER
Every kid is an artist at heart , finding joy in the process of crafting an idea into life . With my 8-year-old son , that creative endeavor has taken the form of papier-mâché , sand art , and good old-fashioned crayons and paper . But one thing we ’ d never tried ? Making a candle . Looks fun , but that ’ s an awful lot of hot wax …
When I heard that Bowes Signature Candles at Disney Springs West Side offered a guided candle-making experience — as in , someone to help you not burn yourself while you make a one-ofa-kind personal memento — it sparked a little confidence . Hmm , maybe we could give that a try ?
Next step : Decorate the sturdy glass containers that will hold your candles , using paint pens . We chose scent-appropriate themes ( blue ocean and green jungle for Pine Hawaii , citrus slices for my Orange Reverie ). But this would also be a fabulous opportunity to Disney-fy your candle . Shells and thingamabobs for an Ariel ’ s Grotto scent ? A looming Chernobog with lightning forks for the dark whiff of " Night on Bald Mountain "? An actual hurricane of jacarandas for the Madrigal family candle ?
My hopes were well-founded . The shelves at Bowes were jam packed with offerings , with candles in every color and every fragrance imaginable . We needed 15 minutes to smell our way around the premises : Ooooh , I like Pineapple Whip ! What do you think about Christmas Cabin ? Mom , Jamaica Me Crazy sometimes …
When we finally pulled up our chairs up to the tidy candlemaking bar , a kindly chandler — yep , for some reason a person who makes candles is a chandler , not candler — directed us in our first task : picking scents . First we donned some safety glasses ; scent solutions can be strong , so you want to keep them out of your eyes . With a list of several dozen choices , picking only one , two , or three to combine was tough . I felt rather pleased with my Orange and Ginger combo . My son went a little bolder : a heady combination of Christmas Wreath and Passionfruit he dubbed Pine Hawaii .
Safety glasses are required for some parts of the process . We agreed we looked cool and very sciency . PHOTO COURTESY OF AMANDA HAGOOD