How To Light Up Your Porch With Floating Witch Hats This Halloween

If you'd like to make your home look just spooky and festive enough to welcome trick-or-treaters, why not try a quick DIY TikTok trick that's sure to give your porch a magical touch? There's a cute trend going around the social media platform that involves making floating luminaries out of a witch's hat and flameless tea light candle. This brings an air of whimsy and wizardry to your home but is still a bit scary for little ones.

Luminaries are historical representations of spiritual guidance and faith. They have been used in this vein as pathway lights and holiday decorations for centuries, but they've always been placed on the ground. Creating the illusion that they're floating adds a whole new magical effect to the enchanting light display. Even better, when it's dark and the luminary lights are lit, the strings keeping them afloat become invisible to passersby, making it appear as if your home is under an enchanted spell.

Floating luminaries made out of witch hats may sound complicated, but they're actually incredibly simple. The main component, of course, is a supply of witch hats. You want thin fabric hats made of polyester or vinyl that can maintain that canonical cone shape but that aren't overly fancy or expensive. Rather than look in costume stores, try places that sell party or craft supplies, a dollar store, or even Amazon.

In addition to your hats, you'll need a fishing line, a sewing needle, sturdy tape for hanging your luminaries, and one flameless tea light for every hat. Gather all these supplies and thread a long string of fishing lines through your sewing needle. Cut the length of the line depending on how high (or low) you want your lights to hang, allowing a few inches of slack to account for your hanging needs.

Feed the needle up through the inside of the hat, coming out the very tip. Tie the bottom of the line around the false flame of the tea light, or for a bit more security, super glue the fishing line to the light. With the top of the line stuck through the top of the hat, pull the light up so it is hidden inside. Adjusting the line to the desired height, stick the needle through the center of a piece of tape and pull the line through that as well, then stick the tape to your porch ceiling wherever you want.