Electric lights have replaced candlelight on Christmas trees since the invention of Christmas lights by Edward Johnson in 1882. But, eye-catching Christmas imagery, full of sparkle, luster and twinkle still flickers with candlelight flames. You can do a great deal with candles to add glimmer to your Christmas home decor and set the holiday mood. Here are some simple Christmas candle ideas.
Christmas Dazzle
Christmas is the time to dazzle, and candles can surely help you do this. The soft illumination of candlelight brightens, warms and welcomes.
Candles can enhance your Christmas decor in every room. In your bathroom, you can use candle decorations by placing candles on rectangular mirrored plates covered with holly and your favorite Christmas ribbon for your wall shelves. You can place Christmas-colored candles in your clear glass holders of varying heights for your bathroom counters. In your living room, place candles in crystal votives or colored paned glass holders, and scatter them all about the tabletops. Set tea lights beside fresh pinecones as part of your mantle decor. For your dining table, set candles on your centerpiece plate or use tall candles as place card holders. There's no end to the way that you can use candles to add Christmas dazzle to your home.
Celebrity party planner Colin Cowie says, "There's no such thing as too many candles."
Candle Accessories
You don't have to buy new Christmas-centered candle holders to create special Christmas candlelight. Whether candelabras, votives, lanterns, vases, sconces, plates or pillar holders, you can dress up the candleholders you already have with Christmas accessories.
You can wrap the bases of your candle vases, hurricanes and lanterns with beaded or thin wired garland. Choose your favorite matching colors and patterns of wire-edged Christmas ribbon to tie into lovely proportional bows and arrange on candle plates and beside your holders. You can tie Christmas ribbon to the center face of your candle wall sconces or tie small ones on arms of your candelabras.
You can also add Christmas items to the bottoms of your cylinder vases and hurricanes. For instance, Debi Lilly of Oprah.com suggests placing fresh, not frozen, cranberries at the bottom of large, tall cylinder vases below pillar candles for outdoor use. You can also add your favorite small glittery ornaments or small wrapped boxes to the bottom of large squared hurricanes to sit beside your votive or pillar candles.
You can also use your everyday dressed-up candleholders to hold Christmas colored green, red, gold or silver pillars tapers, votives or tea lights.
Twinkling Candlelight
You can increase the soft but dramatic effect of candlelight with reflection. By using mirrored, polished silver, bronzed or shiny candle plates or holders with reflective bottom faces, you'll enhance the Christmas sparkle in your home. If you don't have mirrored bottom vases or hurricanes, you can use matching shaped mirrors to place on holder bottoms.
Light reflecting on water creates a beautiful effect. You can place floating candles in large bowls filled with water and set the bowls all about. You can accessorize the bowls for Christmas by adding red, gold or silver glass marbles or even fresh red cranberries to the bottom of the water bowls, or you can use Christmas-colored floating candles.
