You'll be hard-pressed to find a more elegantly simple (and inexpensive!) outdoor decoration for Christmas than luminarias, a holiday tradition from Mexico.* The candles flicker softly at night and create a very organic shimmery look. Since they were recently featured in the movie "Bad Santa", I'm figuring people will want to know what they are and how to do them, and though I mentioned them briefly in this entry, it wasn't very detailed.

Common throughout the southwestern U.S. at Christmas, luminarias are just candles in paper sacks. One alone looks silly, but en masse they are breathtaking. And, it's super-easy to do them yourself. The main concern is space and safety.

I'm sorry for the city dwellers, but you have to have a house with a yard, or other very well-defined open outdoor space such as a courtyard, to do luminarias. (okay, I'm going to quit italicizing luminarias now, cool?) Because, you are talking about an open flame in a paper sack. You wouldn't put them along the side of the fiberboard landing on your apartment walls, lest you burn the neighborhood down. Burned-Down Christmas is no one's idea of a good time.

You need white paper lunch-sized sacks, which can be had for pennies apiece at a grocery store or party supply house (some people might say get colored bags, but those just don't show off the candle flickering as well). You need a bag of sand. And, you need votives or tea-light candles. That's it! Not necessary but very time-saving is a long grill lighter, although fireplace matches work about as well for getting down in the sacks.

Plan to space the luminarias 1 or 2 feet apart for the best effect. I recommend that you walk off the perimeter that you are planning to line, in order to make sure you get enough bags -- because you'll want to kick your ownself if you get outside in the cold setting them up and realize you only have enough to do half the walkway. Even though the bags are weighted, you'll want relatively flat, even surfaces to prevent tipping.

Use votive candles if you want to light your luminarias more than one night. The tea lights are really only good for three or four hours, but they would be perfect if you were planning just for a party.

Fill each sack with 2 - 4 inches of sand. You need enough that the sacks won't blow over in a breeze. I prefer the cheapest 10-lb. bag of kitty litter, because then I don't have to go to a hardware store or wherever one gets sand.

Make a little hole in the sand/litter, and push the candle down into it. If you are using tea lights, don't push them all the way in to the metal rim, or else the sand will fall in and extinguish your candle. When using plain votives, I push them in about halfway -- enough to anchor and keep the candle from tipping, not so far that the sand will accidentally put them out after an hour.

Appoint a luminaria-watcher. Periodically a candle or two will blow out over the course of the evening and need to be re-lit, or a sack will tip. If you have kids around who are old enough to be trusted with fire, this is the sort of "very important job" they usually dig.

Yes, Virginia, these are a fire hazard. But, truly, they are a relatively tiny one. If a bag tips, the sand/litter will put out the flame. I've done luminarias for years and have never had an incident, knock on wood. Dogs and cats don't mess with them... maybe one curious sniff of examination, but that's it. Use common sense -- don't place them near a pile of kindling, or inside a child's nursery.

At the end of the night, make sure every single luminaria is extinguished. This sounds like "duh!"-level common sense, but after several hours, a candle (especially a tea light) might be burning low enough that the bag no longer glows, so it appears to be extinguished but isn't.

For extra sparkle, punch or cut holes in the tops of the bags. I think a star shape looks the nicest -- sprinkle a few stars around the top edge of the bag to let more light out. If you do not have a star-punch (available at most craft stores in the scrapbooking section, and definitely the less time-consuming option), you could use a craft or Exacto knife to cut your own. Be sure to put a piece of cardboard inside the bag so as not to cut through to the other side or onto your work surface.

Light them up, and glow glow gadget luminaria!

* Ed. Note: Technically, candles in paper sacks are called farolitos, and luminaria is a type of bonfire. But, this is one of those times when popular incorrect usage has transformed a definition, and the naysayers will just have to deal.