With an old candle around the house and a $1.25 trip to a thrift store for an old tea cup and saucer, I decided to make my own holiday presents for minimal cost, time and effort. I

Step 1:

With some warm water, an empty and rinsed can of beans, a candle and something to break a candle will get you started on this project.

Step 2:

You can buy wax flakes, but that it's nearly as enjoyable/stress-relieving/cheap as defacing an innocent vanilla candle. With a chopping board underneath and your demolishing device of choice, go nuts breaking the up the wax and saving the wick when you reach the middle.

Step 3:

Waxy bits all diced up and ready to be melted. Place in tin in hot water and let the melting begin.

Step 4:

Once it's melted to a liquid, pick your poison of tea cup, cut a wick thats long enough with at least a 1/2 inch to spare over the top of the tea cup and pour away. In order to have the wick stay above the wax, I held it up with a cloths pin on top of the tea cup. I also used chopsticks taped together for another one seen in the picture. Let it set and dry and pretty soon you'll have a candle in a tea cup.