Easy DIY Red, White and Blue rice Candle Holders

These easy DIY red, white and blue rice candle holders are a great project to make with your kids (or grandkids), and add some patriotic decor to your 4th of July or Memorial Day celebration.

Every year I host a 4th of July party and I am always looking for simple DIY patriotic decorations that will add to the decor.

So when I saw these red, white and blue candle holders from Amy at She Wears Many Hats, I knew I had to try them.

And they turned out to be just as easy as I was hoping they would be!

What You Need

Long grain rice – I bought a 3 pound package to make 3 candle holders (of course, the amount of rice you need depends on the size of your glass).

Food color – You don’t want the gel food color for this. The old-fashioned liquid kind that you get at the grocery works best. (It is now sometimes referred to as “egg dye”.)

Flame-less candles. These ones* have a remote and a timer which turns them on at the same time every day, and turns off 6 hours later.  This is very helpful when you are having a party since you don’t have to go around and turn them all on at the right time.

Stemless wineglasses* or mason jars.  I like to use stemless wineglasses for candle holders because of their shape. However, mason jars or any other kind of glass that you have on hand will work.

How to make patriotic rice candle holders

1 | Color the rice

To make them, add about 2 cups of rice to a Ziploc bag.

Then add about 20 drops of blue food coloring.

Close the bag and shake the rice until it is coated with the color.  

If you want the color to be darker, you can add a few more drops and shake it again.

Repeat with the red food coloring.

2 | Let the rice dry

Leave the top of the bags open and let the rice dry before continuing.

This should only take a few minutes.

But if you find it is slow, you can put a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and spread the rice out on it to speed up the process. I would use 2 separate baking sheets (one for each color) so the rice doesn’t accidentally get mixed up.

3 | Pour into in a glass

Then pour the rice in layers into a tall glass or mason jar.

Start with either the blue or the red depending on which color you want on the bottom.

Add the white as the middle layer.

Then finish with red or blue (whichever one you didn’t use in the first layer).

If the layers aren’t straight, gently tap the bottom of the glass on the table to level them out.

Tips

I find that if the tablecloth or runner is a solid red or blue, the candles look best if the bottom layer of rice matches the table color.

So if the candle will be on a red surface, put the red rice on the bottom. If the candle will be on a blue surface, put the blue rice on the bottom. (If the surface is not solid red or blue, you can choose either…both ways work just as well).

4 | Add a candle

Add a candle and you’re done! 

I like to use flameless candles* since there is no melted wax mess to worry about and they won’t start a fire.

See, how simple is that?

The candle holders look really pretty on a red tablecloth for 4th of July (or Memorial Day).

I have also used them on the railing around my deck as part of my outdoor 4th of July table setting.

How to remove the rice when you’re done

If you make a mistake or want to save the colored rice for future use, I found that the easiest way to get it out of the glass is to remove it in layers with a spoon.

If you try to pour it, you will end up with a mixture of all of the colors together (learned from experience).

Using the spoon, I was able to get the rice out one color at a time. There were a few stragglers that got in the wrong pile, but those were easy to pick out.

Saving each color of rice in a separate Ziploc bag works really well.

Then it’s easy to pull the bags out and use again next year. (I’ve been re-using mine for 10 years now!) If the rice fades a little, just add a few more drops of food coloring to the bag and you’re good to go.

Have comments or questions about our DIY red, white and blue rice candleholders? Tell us in the section below.