St. Lucia Day for Kids: Candles, Breakfast and the Nap After

St. Lucia Day falls on December 13. It’s Sweden’s festival of light in the darkest weeks of winter, celebrated with candlelit processions, white gowns and saffron buns. For a homeschool, it makes an easy world-holidays morning. Get up a little early, eat breakfast by candlelight, tell the story and find Sweden on the map, and keep the rest of school light. Use battery candles for anything a child holds or wears. Then protect the youngest’s nap at its usual time and bring bedtime a little earlier, because a pre-dawn start shows up again around 4 p.m.

Here’s how I run it with an 8-year-old, a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old.

What St. Lucia Day is: the quick facts

Everything below comes from Lucia in Sweden on sweden.se, Sweden’s official information site.

Fact	Detail
Date	13 December
Where	Sweden: “in schools and preschools, churches, workplaces, town squares”
The figure	Lucia, “a bearer of light in the dark Swedish winters,” in a white gown with “light in her hair”
The procession	Lucia leads, her attendants carry candles, and star boys carry stars on sticks
The food	Saffron buns and gingerbread biscuits
The meaning	The songs share one thread: “the triumph of light over darkness”

The page also notes that Lucia’s “light in her hair” today “usually means a crown of electric candles in a wreath on her head.” So battery candles at home match the usual Swedish crown.

Why it works as a homeschool learning day

It covers history, geography and a little science in one morning.

History. sweden.se describes the custom as “a blend of traditions.” It traces back both to the martyr St. Lucia of Syracuse, who died in 304, and to a Swedish folk legend. It also gives dates that make a tidy timeline for an 8-year-old:

304: St. Lucia of Syracuse dies.
1764: “The first recorded appearance of a white-clad Lucia in Sweden,” at a country house.
1880s: The custom of Lucia serving coffee and buns begins.
1900s: Schools and local associations spread it until it becomes popular across Sweden.
1927: Stockholm proclaims its first Lucia.

On faith, our site is worldview-neutral. The day has a saint’s name and a folk history, and families mark it for faith reasons, cultural ones or both. I tell my children both strands and let them ask.

Geography. Find Sweden on a map, then find Sicily, where Lucia’s story starts. A big picture map like the Rand McNally Kids’ Illustrated World Wall Map makes the distance between the two obvious to a 6-year-old.

Science. In the old almanac, sweden.se says, “Lucia Night was the longest of the year.” That opens the question of why winter nights are long, and why they’re longer the farther north you go. If you did our stargazing lesson in the early dark, you’ve already got the start of that conversation.

A folk story children love. People on that long night “were urged to eat seven or nine hearty breakfasts,” sweden.se says, and the last person up was nicknamed “Lusse the Louse.”

Candles: battery ones for children

A candlelit breakfast is the whole mood of the morning, and it’s also December, which the NFPA’s candle safety tip sheet names as “the peak month for home candle fires.” So in our house the rule is simple: children hold and wear only battery candles.

The NFPA’s “Candles and Kids” advice is short:

“Use flameless candles in your home. They look and smell like real candles.”
“Never leave a child alone in a room with a burning candle.”
“Keep matches and lighters up high and out of children’s reach, in a locked cabinet.”

If you also light real candles on the table, the same sheet says to keep them “at least 1 foot (30 centimeters) away from anything that can burn.” Use sturdy holders that won’t tip over, and “blow out all candles when you leave the room.”

For the procession, an LED wreath crown like the Hoteam St. Lucia crown with six LED candles gives the “light in her hair” look. On the table, a set of Homemory flickering LED tea lights does the rest.

One catch with battery candles. The AAP’s HealthyChildren page on small battery safety over the holidays names flameless candles among the decorations that can hold button or lithium coin batteries, which “can cause serious and sometimes fatal injuries if swallowed”. It suggests taping shut battery compartments that aren’t secured with a screw. Its companion page on button and lithium coin batteries says that if you think a child has swallowed one, “take your child to the emergency room or call 911.” With a 2-year-old in the house, tea lights go back in their box after breakfast.

The breakfast

sweden.se describes saffron buns (lussekatter) “shaped like curled-up cats with raisin eyes,” eaten with gingerbread and coffee, tea or glögg, which “also comes in alcohol-free variants.” For children that’s warm milk or hot chocolate. sweden.se also has a saffron bun and gingerbread page if you want to bake. We shape ours the afternoon before so the morning is only warming and serving.

Keep the “early” part modest. In much of the US the sun isn’t up yet at a normal December breakfast time. Waking 20 or 30 minutes earlier than usual is plenty to eat by candlelight before the sky lightens. If your family has kept another pre-dawn meal, such as suhoor, the planning is similar, and kids’ sleep during Ramadan covers how to fold an early meal into a child’s night.

A light school day after

After breakfast, run a short morning and stop. Ours looks like this:

The story. Read or tell Lucia’s history in your own words, then have each child narrate it back.
The timeline. The 8-year-old writes the five dates above in order. The 6-year-old draws the procession.
The map. Sweden, Sicily, and where you live.
The song. sweden.se calls the main Lucia song the one “almost every Swede knows by heart.” Find a recording and listen once.

That’s an hour at most. Homeschooling through the holidays explains how we protect a lighter schedule all month.

Early start, wobbly nap? Betteroo builds a personalized sleep plan for children from newborn through age 6, so one candlelit morning doesn't unravel the nap and bedtime that follow. Take the 2-minute sleep quiz →

The nap that follows

An early start pulls the whole day forward, and the youngest feels it first. It’s tempting to let a 2-year-old fall asleep at 11 because he’s yawning over the gingerbread. Then the nap ends early, and he’s done in by 5.

What works better for us:

Keep the nap close to its usual time. Move it 15 to 30 minutes earlier at most. Betteroo’s two-year-old guide explains why an early-afternoon nap start protects bedtime: a nap starting around 12:30 to 1:00 ends early enough to keep a 7:00 to 7:30 bedtime.
Don’t let it run long to make up. The same guide suggests capping a two-year-old’s nap at about two hours if bedtime is getting hard.
Give the big kids a quiet hour, not a nap. Mine are 6 and 8 and long past napping, but after a pre-dawn start they need the quiet. Quiet time activities during the nap is our list.
Move bedtime a little earlier. The AAP’s Brush, Book, Bed page says “putting your child to bed even 15 to 20 minutes earlier can make a big difference.” On Lucia night, that’s everyone.

The next morning, go back to your usual wake-up time so one festival morning doesn’t become a new early-rising habit.

FAQ: St. Lucia Day with kids

When is St. Lucia Day?

December 13 every year. In Sweden, processions happen that day in schools, preschools, churches and workplaces.

Can children carry real candles in a Lucia procession?

At home we don’t let them. The NFPA recommends flameless candles and says never to leave a child alone in a room with a burning candle. In Sweden, Lucia’s crown today usually holds electric candles.

Is St. Lucia Day a religious holiday?

It’s both religious and cultural. sweden.se traces it to the martyr St. Lucia of Syracuse and to a Swedish folk legend, and families observe it in different ways.

Should my toddler nap earlier after a pre-dawn breakfast?

Only slightly. Keep the nap near its usual time, don’t let it run long, and bring bedtime 15 to 20 minutes earlier instead.