Ice Lanterns

Simple ice-lanterns are a fun way to light up your front steps. And although they won't last long if the weather warms, they are quick and easy to make, needing only a few basic supplies and some LED lights or even candles. And it's a great way to take advantage of those unexpected cold snaps.

Materials:

• Sturdy bucket(s) - I used large 5-gallon buckets, although smaller pails would certainly work
• Note: water (unlike all other non-metallic substances) expands as it freezes. You want sturdy buckets or they could be cracked by the expanding ice.)
• LED "puck" lights or any other type of small lightsource (including glow sticks, candles, even small flashlights)
• Plastic cups (can be basic Solo-cups like I used or sturdier plastic drinking cups) - OPTIONAL
• Duct tape - OPTIONAL
• Small (sturdy) water bottle - OPTIONAL
• Water
• Sturdy putty knife, old chisel, or anything to expand & shape the light source space
• Cold weather (or a really big freezer)

Using duct tape, hang a cup in the center of each bucket. This will create a hole in the top of the lantern for your light source to go in.

Note, you can skip this step, but you will then have to chisel out the entire hole from a solid block of ice, which will take longer.

Fill up the buckets with water. As the water gets to the cup, the cup will start to lift up and float. I recommend filling a small water bottle with water and placing it in the cup to weigh it down.

Note: don't just fill the cup with water or you'll never get it out once the ice freezes. Also, use sturdy water bottles or they could crack and leak when the water freezes and expands within them.

If you are LUCKY enough to live in places that get extended stretches of sub-freezing weather, just put your filled buckets outside and let nature do the rest. Depending on how cold it is, the freezing process could happen overnight or could take several days, depending upon the size of the bucket.

I live in Maine and took advantage of a serious deep-freeze that came through in early February of this year. The water in the 5-gallon buckets froze in under 24 hours.

Once the water if fully frozen, lift the frozen bottle out of the cup.

You can pour boiling water into the cup to help dislodge it from the ice around. Pull out the cup.

Note how the Solo cup was compressed by the expanding ice. Obviously a sturdier drinking cup would hold up better, but I didn't want to risk cracking a reusable drinking cup.

Depending upon how much the ice has expanded and the shape of your bucket, it may or may not slide out easily. Despite the cold temperatures, the ice in both of these buckets came out easily.

I recommend gently turning the bucket over and seeing if it will slide out.

If not, you can either bring it inside for a while to warm the sides of the bucket or even pour hot water down the sides of the bucket.

You may want a deeper (or wider) hole than was left by the cup. Or, if you didn't use a cup you may not have any hole in the lantern at all at this point. Use a tool (I used a sturdy putty knife but anything that can chip away at the ice will work) to deepen and shape the hole.

The deeper the hole, the more light can be distributed down into your lantern. Also, you need a hole with a big enough diameter to accommodate your light source.

In my case, the hole went about 1/3 of the way down into the lantern and was about 3 inches in diameter.

I used two "puck" lights, one shining straight DOWN into the lantern and another positioned pointing straight ahead. That distributed the light to give the impression that the whole lantern was glowing.

My lanterns lasted about a week as the weather warmed. I went out each evening at dusk and put in the lights. (Note that I had a few different lights, so the lanterns were actually slightly different colors). Then, each night before bed I went out and took the lights back inside.

Cold weather can bring a lot of challenges, but there can also be opportunities in it. I hope you are able to take advantage of the next cold snap to create something simple and beautiful, too.