Grimm’s Celebration Rings and Spirals: Birthdays, Seasons, and Family Traditions

A birthday breakfast, the first signs of spring, a new baby in the family, or counting down the days until Christmas. Grimm’s celebration rings and spirals give us somewhere to mark these occasions, with decorations we can bring out and enjoy again each year.

At Babipur, we’ve shared so many celebration ring ideas over the years. Autumn nature tables, Christmas displays, birthday arrangements, and decorations made at home. We love seeing what you put together, especially the little details. A favourite animal, something your child has made, or treasures brought home from a walk.

Perhaps you’re continuing a tradition from your own childhood, or starting something new with your family. You might enjoy traditional Waldorf celebrations, or use your ring entirely your own way.

What is a celebration ring?

A celebration ring is a wooden decoration with holes for decorative figures, numbers, picture holders, and candles in suitable holders. You might also hear it called a birthday ring or a Waldorf celebration ring.

Grimm’s makes celebration rings in natural wood and different colours, as well as wooden celebration spirals. They come in separate sections, so you can arrange them together, spread them out, or use just a small part.

You can decorate one for a birthday, make a seasonal display, welcome a baby, or count down to something you’re looking forward to. Some families bring theirs out for special occasions. Others keep it on the table all year, changing a few things as the seasons come around.

Explore Grimm’s celebration rings and spirals at Babipur.

Where does the celebration ring tradition come from?

Celebration rings are associated with German birthday traditions and are familiar in Waldorf and Steiner-inspired homes, where natural materials, seasonal changes, and familiar family routines are part of everyday life.

For birthdays, candles can represent a child’s age, with little decorations chosen especially for them. The ring comes out the following year with another candle or a different number, perhaps with a new figure to reflect something they’ve enjoyed that year.

Some families follow this tradition closely. Others use one candle, a number, and a favourite animal. You can use the same ring for everyone in the family, changing the decorations for each person.

In our older Babipur blog, Hannah shared a celebration ring she’d enjoyed for years as part of her autumn nature table, combining natural finds, Grimm’s figures, Ambrosius fairies, and Grapat Nins. It’s lovely to see how the same wooden ring can become part of so many different family occasions.

You don’t have to follow a particular educational approach to enjoy one. There’s plenty of room to make your own traditions.

Which Grimm’s celebration ring or spiral should you choose?

Think about where you’d like to put it and what you’ll enjoy using it for.

• A 12-hole celebration ring is a lovely starting point for birthdays and smaller seasonal displays. It has four sections, each with three holes.

• A 16-hole celebration ring gives you more room for figures, numbers, and accessories. It has four sections, each with four holes.

• A 24-hole celebration spiral is especially useful for Advent, with one position for each day from 1 December to Christmas Eve. It has eight sections, each with three holes.

The 16-hole Grimm’s celebration ring also fits around the Grapat Perpetual Calendar or the Grapat moons. You can bring them together in one display, following the days, months, or phases of the moon, and changing the decorations with the seasons and family celebrations.

Natural wood works beautifully with changing seasonal colours. A coloured ring might match your home or your birthday decorations, or simply be the one you love looking at. Check the measurements of your chosen design to help you decide.

Does it have to be arranged as a ring or spiral?

No! The separate sections give you lots of ways to arrange it.

You can make a circle or spiral, lay the sections lengthways in a wavy line like a snake, or use a single section for a smaller display. Try a winding arrangement along the centre of a table, with figures, cards, and natural finds placed between the curves.

A longer arrangement can work beautifully for a birthday table or an Advent countdown. One small section might be just right for a shelf or a little seasonal corner.

You can change the shape as well as the decorations.

How do you use a celebration ring?

Start with an occasion, a season, or something you’d like to display. Choose a few pieces, arrange them, and see what you like.

The holes are fab for decorations designed to fit them, but you don’t have to put something inside them. Some figures, Grapat pieces, and natural bits sit nicely on top too. Others can go in the middle or around the outside. Just choose pieces that sit securely.

An Ostheimer animal from the toy shelf, a Grapat Nin, a little wool felt figure, a card, or something you’ve made can all become part of your display.

You don’t need to fill every hole or buy everything at once. A ring, a favourite figure, and a little picture can be enough to get started.

Using a celebration ring for birthdays

Imagine coming down to breakfast and finding your birthday ring waiting on the table. Your age, your favourite animal, and a card from someone you love.

Choose a number, then add a few things especially for the birthday person. The Grimm’s Blue Car might be just right for a child who loves vehicles. A Sailing Boat, a Yellow Clown, or a favourite wooden animal could help you put together something quite different.

Ostheimer animals can stand in the centre, and Grapat Nins can become little party guests around the ring. Add a photograph or drawing, or choose colours you know they’ll love.

Some families add a new celebration figure each birthday. Others bring out the same favourites and change the number. Taking a photograph each year is a lovely way to remember what was on the table.

If you’re using candles, one for each year is an option where there’s enough safe space. A single candle and a number works too.

And birthday rings aren’t only for children. You can set one up for a partner, a grandparent, or a friend coming round for cake.

Browse celebration figures and numbers at Babipur.

Welcoming a new baby

A celebration ring can make a lovely display to welcome a baby into the family. A little sheep, a star, a family photograph, and a card with their name and date of birth would be a simple place to start.

An older sibling could choose a figure or draw a picture to include. You might keep one of those decorations to bring out again on the baby’s first birthday, using the same ring for birthdays in the years that follow.

It’s a decoration for the family to enjoy, kept safely out of the baby’s reach.

Celebration rings through the seasons

A seasonal display gives you somewhere to enjoy the things you notice outside. Leaves changing colour, acorns on the path, flowers appearing in the garden.

You don’t need a whole table. A small space on a sideboard or shelf will do. Keep your ring in place and change a few things around it, adding natural finds, figures, pictures, and things you’ve made.

Imbolc, Candlemas, and the first signs of spring

Imbolc, traditionally marked on 1 February, celebrates the beginning of spring in the Gaelic seasonal calendar. A sheep, a white wool felt figure, and a picture of snowdrops could become part of an Imbolc display. Add green Grapat pieces or a handmade flower to reflect the new growth you’re starting to see.

Candlemas is a separate Christian celebration on 2 February, associated with candles and light. A simple arrangement with Grimm’s cream or amber 100% beeswax candles in suitable brass holders could mark the occasion, with plenty of clear space around the flames.

You might celebrate one of these occasions, both, or simply enjoy noticing that the afternoons are getting lighter.

Spring flowers and Easter

Grimm’s tulips, flowers, bee, ladybird, and yellow butterfly give you plenty of ideas for a spring ring. Add a sheep or goose for an Easter display, or use a frog with blue Grapat pieces for a little pond scene.

The small Grimm’s blue and white vases fit into celebration rings, so you can include a flower from your own garden. Keep water off the wooden ring itself.

A spring postcard or a picture of something you’ve spotted on a walk can sit behind the display.

Summer and seaside displays

Try the sailing boat, octopus, or turtle with shells and a seaside postcard. A little blue cloth underneath can suggest the sea, with wooden people looking out from the shore.

Or make a summer garden with flowers, bees, and butterflies. You could add a photograph from a family day out, giving those little things you’ve brought home somewhere to be enjoyed.

Autumn, Halloween, and Calan Gaeaf

Autumn gives us so much to bring indoors. Fallen leaves, pine cones, and small pumpkins can be arranged with wooden woodland animals and Grapat pieces in autumn colours.

The Grimm’s Fox and Fly Agaric Mushroom are lovely for a woodland display. Add the Black Cat for Halloween or Calan Gaeaf, with pumpkins you’ve made from modelling clay.

Our autumn craft blog includes felted toadstools and little clay pumpkins made by the Babipur team and friends. There are some lovely ideas to try at home.

Christmas and winter

Grimm’s trees, stars, and moons can be mixed with wooden animals and wool felt figures for a Christmas or winter arrangement.

You might create a nativity scene, a winter woodland, or a display using the decorations you bring out every December. Add a Christmas card, a little drawing, or a favourite festive story behind the ring.

A candlelit arrangement can be lovely at the table, but paper, felt, greenery, and wooden figures must be kept safely clear of flames. A full, leafy display is best enjoyed without lit candles.

How do you use a 24-hole celebration spiral for Advent?

The Grimm’s celebration spiral has 24 holes, making it especially useful for counting the days from 1 December to Christmas Eve.

Start with an empty spiral and add one decoration each day, working from one end to the other. You can use figures that fit the holes or pieces that sit securely on top.

On 1 December, there’s one piece. On 2 December, there are two. By Christmas Eve, you’ve added 24.

You don’t need 24 new figures. Use suitable pieces you already have, or move one marker to the next position each day instead. A wooden figure could also travel beside the spiral, passing one position each morning.

And you can lay the sections out in a winding line if that suits your space better. It still gives you 24 positions to follow.

You could make it part of breakfast or do it in the evening before sharing a Christmas story. Children can see how far through December you are and how many spaces are left.

The spiral can come out again the following year, with the same decorations or a different arrangement.

Another way to use your Advent spiral is to move one special figure along it each day. You might choose an Ostheimer donkey carrying Mary, following their journey towards Christmas, or a favourite celebration figure.

Place a bead or another small marker at each daily position, then move your figure one place further along each morning or evening. Depending on its size, the figure can sit securely on the wood or travel beside the spiral.

It gives children a way to see the passing of time: how far the figure has travelled, where it is today, and how much of the journey is still to come. You could make it part of your evening together, moving the figure before sharing a Christmas story.

Explore the Grimm’s natural 24-hole celebration spiral.

Using celebration rings for other countdowns

Celebration rings can help make the passing of time visible throughout the year.

For a birthday a week away, choose seven positions and move a marker along each day. You could count down to visiting grandparents, the start of a holiday, or someone coming home.

A 12-hole ring gives you a position for each month. Keep a marker for the current month and change the display as the year goes on. Or bring your 16-hole ring together with your Grapat Perpetual Calendar to make a larger seasonal arrangement.

You can count the days that have passed or those still to come. Choose one way and explain what the marker means, so everyone can follow it.

Which figures and decorations can you use?

Grimm’s celebration figures and decorative numbers are designed to slot into the holes in their rings and spirals. Animals, flowers, stars, and birthday numbers can be mixed and changed for different occasions.

There’s lots you can add using things from home too.

Cards, photographs, and children’s drawings

Grimm’s Picture Holders fit into the ring or spiral and hold a small picture, photograph, poem, or note.

Try a birthday photograph, a seasonal postcard, or a drawing your child has brought home. Write someone’s name for a birthday breakfast, or add a message for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Larger cards can stand behind the ring.

A different picture can change the whole display without needing lots of new figures.

Ostheimer animals and Grapat pieces

Mix in wooden animals and people from your toy collection. An Ostheimer animal might stand in the centre, while Grapat Nins and loose parts can sit on top or around the ring, wherever they’re stable.

They don’t need to be designed as celebration ring inserts to be included. If you’re buying another brand’s decoration specifically to fit a hole, check its stated compatibility.

Natural finds, wool felt figures, and crafts

Fallen leaves, pine cones, shells, and other suitable finds can become part of the arrangement. Choose a few things you’ve collected together and see how they look with your wooden figures.

Ambrosius fairies and other wool felt figures can add seasonal detail. Place them where they sit securely, whether that’s on the ring or next to it.

You can also make decorations yourself. Felted toadstools, modelling-clay pumpkins, paper flowers, and little painted pictures all have a place.

That slightly wonky pumpkin your child made can come out with the wooden figures each autumn. You might add another handmade piece the following year.

Use age-appropriate materials, supervise crafts as needed, and keep small natural finds and decorations away from children who might put them in their mouths.

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Do celebration rings need candles?

No. You can enjoy a celebration ring entirely without candles, using figures, numbers, flowers, cards, and natural finds.

If you’d like candles, Grimm’s cream and amber 100% beeswax candles are lovely options. Use the correct brass candle holders, rather than putting candles directly into the wood. Check the candle size and instructions for your chosen holder, and check each listing for what’s included.

Celebration rings are decorations, not toys. Keep lit arrangements out of children’s and pets’ reach, on a stable, heat-resistant surface, and never leave burning candles unattended. Keep flames well away from wooden figures, wool, felt, paper, foliage, and anything else that can burn. Extinguish candles before they burn down close to the holder or ring.

Where can you buy Grimm’s celebration rings and figures in the UK?

At Babipur, you’ll find Grimm’s celebration rings and spirals, decorative figures, numbers, picture holders, vases, and candle accessories, with ideas for using them throughout the year.

For your first ring, choose a shape and colour you love, then a few pieces for the occasion you have in mind. You can add to it over time, make decorations, and use things you already have at home.

Shop celebration rings, figures, and accessories at Babipur.

We’d love to see yours. Share your birthday table, seasonal display, or first little arrangement in the Babipur Hangout, or tag @Babipur on Instagram. Tell us about the pieces you’ve included too.