Ever wonder what would happen if your poured glow stick into a jar of water? Wonder no more! It GLOWS! These glow stick lanterns are fun to make and will last at least a day!
DO NOT let children use the lanterns unsupervised. Do NOT let children open glow sticks.
DIY Glow Stick Lanterns
My kids were excited to have these in their rooms the other night when they went to bed. Simply fill a small jar with water and then cut open a full size glow stick and pour it in! Don't waste your time using the tiny bracelet ones. You'd need a bunch and it would be time consuming and messy to get the same brightness of 1 or 2 of the full size glow sticks. Break the stick first to activate it and be careful while pouring out the contents. I used some kitchen shears to cut the top off of the glow stick was a bit tedious, but worked. Gently swish around the water (but do NOT shake) and you're set!
This is NOT a kids activity, but my kids enjoyed seeing the end result. A clear plastic container (like a peanut butter container) would work too and not be breakable. Either way, kids shouldn't be carrying these around.
Will one lantern light up a room? No, but it does glow and looks very cool! These glow stick lanterns would look neat lining a driveway or walkway on Halloween! We always seem to end up with a bunch of glow sticks after going trick-or-treating, so we'll be making more of these!
I used a pint sized and a quart size and used 2 full sized sticks in the quart. The pint sized one seemed to be brighter than the quart sized jar. It glowed bright for a day and the larger one lasted the night.  I bet baby food jars would work GREAT. My advice would be to just make one at first and see how it goes before making a bunch for a party. It seems as though not all glow sticks are the same and I've received mixed results in the comments section. So you may need 2 sticks of some variety and only 1 in others.
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Elizabeth says
Why add water to the jar.? Why not just pour the contents of the glow stick into ta dry jar ?
Brandy says
It seemed like it would glow more evenly. We haven't tried it without the water but I'm sure it would be fine too!
Elizabeth says
Thanks for info. I think if the lanterns are without water they will be less heavy for kids to carry.
Paul says
That's not water in there its a caustic chemical that ate the paint off the dash of my truck after it exploded from the Suns heat.
Noemi Tardis says
How about using glow pigments instead of glow sticks I don't know how they would work with water but it may turn out to work well
Doris Anderson says
Could you use baby oil instead of water, that way the glitter would float around more????
Brandy says
I don't see why not! It's definitely worth a little experiment. We've done baby oil/glitter bottles and my kids loved them! We did them at my daughter's beach birthday party. I never thought of adding glow stick to that before, but it's a great idea!
Le says
Our village asks residents to put out lanterns on the Christmas parade night the evening after Thanksgiving. Usually they put candles in the bottom of gallon jugs, but I wonder if the glow stick jars would work as well, if not better....
Betsy Besaw says
So cool I love the glitter idea too! Ty ladies!
Lisa says
How do you dispose of them after the glow is gone? Can you just add another glow stick to the same water and keep re-using?
Brandy says
Hi Lisa! My kids lost their interest after the first sticks wear off so I didn't try recharging them, but I don't see why that wouldn't work. To dispose of them, I strained out the glass (from when you snap the glowsticks) and then dumped the water out. Good luck!