There'll be plenty of candle wax, candy and citrus at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Dec. 17 as its members gather for a service to celebrate the season and make Christingles, Christmas ornaments with roots in 18th-century Moravia.
Tim Allen, the Little Rock parish's minister of music, grew up in a country -- England -- where they are common.
When he came to the United States, he brought the tradition to St. Mark's.
They're easy to make, he said, and they smell great.
"A Christingle consists of an orange, round the circumference of which is a red ribbon," he said. "The orange represents the world. The red represents the love of Christ -- some people say the blood of Christ -- ... that encircles the world."
Stuck in the orange, there are four tiny sticks -- "what you would call 'toothpicks' here, I think," Allen said.
Each one impales a small bit of dried fruit or candy and represents one of the four corners of the earth, he said.
"They get rapidly eaten," he said, "mostly during the service, rather than after, I suspect," he said.
A hole is made in the top of the orange, large enough to accommodate a small candle.
"That represents Christ as the light of the world," Allen said.
The service lasts roughly 30 minutes and finishes just after sunset or close to it.
"People gather at the church at about 4:30 to build the Christingle, and we provide all the materials, so you don't need to bring anything," he said.
Carols are sung. The candles are lighted.
Participants walk around the church's inside perimeter, he said.
"It's a beautiful sight," he said.
Christingles originated with Moravian Christians and are said to date to about 1747, Allen said. The etymology of the word is uncertain, though "ingle" is close to "Engel," German for angel.
Moravian Christians are also credited with inventing another perennial church observance -- Easter sunrise services.
The Christingle appears to have evolved over the years. Initially, it was just a red-ribbon-wrapped candle, according to a 2014 British Broadcasting Corp. report. A description in the 1860s -- written shortly before the advent of mass-produced toothpicks -- mentions oranges, bird quills and raisins.
The first big Christingle service in England was held at Lincoln Cathedral in 1968, according to Church Times, a London based Anglican weekly.
These days, the celebrations are held each year in more than 5,000 locations, according to the Church of England Children's Society, which helped popularize them.
Christingles are also part of the holidays for some of the younger students at Little Rock Christian Academy.
Head of School Justin Smith said the tradition stretches back three decades or longer at his school and is popular with the children.
Even if the students eventually forget some of the symbolism, "they remember it was an orange, and it was a candle, and it was a sweet time of singing together," he said.
St. Mark's began holding Christingle services roughly a decade ago and "it's become a little bit of a tradition for people," Allen said.
Attendance has climbed from roughly 30 people to perhaps 120 these days, he said.
"Whole families come and adults come as well, and it's a really lovely occasion just to whet your appetite for Christmas," he said.
If you go: St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 1000 N. Mississippi St., will hold a Christingle service at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 17.