Candle Christmas Ideas

A Candle Christmas goes with every possible decorating style.

Candlelight ...

• adds mystery, sparkle and glow to your home...
• makes you look 10 years younger...
• creates pure magic!

Pick and choose from the following tips & ideas and create a lovely 'Candle Christmas':

Candle styles & color schemes

What to do with aromatic scented candles

Ideas for Christmas decorating with tea lights

Christmas candle centerpiece ideas

Candle Styles & Color Schemes

Whether you prefer sleek urban interiors, French antiques, Fifties Formica or seriously rustic digs, there is always a candle to go with it.

Let's look at your color choices first:

• If you want a strong, stylish impact, decide on one candle color and use it throughout the room. Group the candles and vary their thickness and height.

• Red or white are the classic colors for Christmas candles; honey-colored beeswax candles are another traditional choice.

• Or, pick other subtle and rich hues and create matching groups of candles in different sizes.

In the candle picture here, it's the traditional (country) Christmas color scheme: a red candle, combined with natural wood, red berries and deep evergreen leaves/needles.

On the other hand, if your room is decorated in a neutral or subdued color scheme, you could go absolutely crazy with color.

If that's what you decide to do, stick to one style of candles:

• tapered or tubular or round candles, with

• shiny/smooth or rough surfaces.

Then play around until you find color combinations that 'click'. For example,

• create a candle Christmas with a mint/aqua/chartreuse color scheme (and sparkle it up with silver or gold ornaments). Or,

• just mix loads of colors you wouldn't usually put together at all, for a really striking look. Think of the candles as 'Paul Smith stripes' - the color scheme will work as long as you repeat it in different parts of the room.

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Aromatic Scented Candles

Aromatic scented candles come in many mouth- watering flavors.

You can fill your home with the rich fragrances of green apple, cinnamon, amber, vanilla, citrus fruits, pine, or herbs.

You can even get wood wick candles that crackle like a real (tiny) log fire while they spread their fragrance.

But there are some health issues surrounding aromatic scented candles: they have been shown to pollute the air in the room significantly more than regular candles do.

In particular, you get more soot, benzene and lead into your system if you burn aromatic scented candles indoors than if you used, say, wax candles. The healthier option is to use candles that ...

• don't come in a glass or ceramic container
• are made of hard wax
• have thin (braided), non-metal wicks that curl over when you burn them
• burn with an even flame
• don't have a smell.

Even though many aromatic scented candles are sold as 'aromatherapy' items, there is actually nothing therapeutic about them.

If you feel you would really like to burn a scented candle, the least dangerous way to do it is in a well-ventilated area where you are not going to inhale the full amount of toxins that come out of them.

It's a bit sad because many aromatic scented candles smell so lovely, but the healthiest way of dealing with them is actually not to use them.

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Tea Light Special

Tea lights are every Christmas decorator's dream: they don't drip, they are easy to replace, they are cheap and incredibly versatile. You can get colored and even aromatic scented candles as tea lights as well (if you must use them, that is).

• For a stylish 'tea candle Christmas', line up or scatter tea lights in small colored glasses on your mantelpiece, windowsill or table. (The ones in this candle picture here are from my Grandparents - 1950s schnaps glasses in smoky, moody colors.)

• Surround the glasses with (crab) apples, nuts & almonds. Make it look as if the apples and nuts had just dropped in irregular clusters around the candles.

• Alternatively, try evergreen twigs (pine, holly, or any other evergreen foliage).

• If you don't want to go for a 'natural' look, you could surround your tea lights with heaps of little glass ball ornaments in matching colors. They reflect the candlelight beautifully.

• To keep the Christmas balls from rolling around and falling off ledges, put a plate underneath the decoration. Cover it with a dark napkin to make it 'invisible' and to show off the sparkling ornaments, and fill it to the absolute brim.

If you like making things, you could also try out the following craft ideas for decorating with tea lights:

• Download my free craft pattern of paper lanterns (they make pretty and inexpensive holiday craft gifts and are easy to send in the mail).

• Or recycle small glass jars into quirky, homemade Christmas lights.

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Christmas Candle Centerpiece Ideas

Christmas dinner and candles are a match made in heaven.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the holiday was set in the darkest, coldest time of the year to symbolize the birth of Christ as a victory of light over darkness.

And in the days before electric Christmas lights (let alone twinkling ones!), an abundance of real, burning wax candles meant a sumptuous, luxurious feast.

Tea lights and low candles don't work so well for dinners - they light everyone and everything from below, and only a few movie stars look good with a light source beneath their chin. (You don't get to see much of the food either.)

However, you could ...

• float a combination of cranberries and floating candles in tall(ish), clear glass vases to lift the flames to a good height. Or,

• use a candelabra or assemble a bunch of candleholders on the dinner table.

• If you don't have enough matching candleholders for a candle Christmas dinner, no problem. Use the same color candles on all candleholders to unify the look.

• In addition, you could decorate your candlesticks in the manner of this candle picture from Norway: Treat each of your candleholders to a pretty bow. You could even wrap some of them completely in festive ribbon (fasten with a pin at top & bottom) ... problem solved.

Enjoy your candle Christmas!

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