The Holiday Table

A holiday table does not need much. Something good to eat, people who want to be there, and enough candlelight that the room feels like an occasion rather than a room.

This is how we set ours, and what to order so you are not short on the night.

A Thanksgiving table lit by beeswax candles: a Chubby Pumpkin Candle at the centre, flanked by a matched pair of hand dipped tapers in brass candlesticks and two votives in glass cups

Build it in three layers

The mistake is buying one kind of candle. A table reads best with three heights working together, set symmetrically so it looks intended rather than leftover.

Height, from tapers

Hand dipped tapers do the vertical work. Two pairs down the centre of a six-person table is the classic setting, four pairs if your table is long or you want the light to feel generous. Our Taper Pair Hand Dipped Candles come in four lengths from 8 to 14 inches, and the 10-inch pair gives roughly 10 hours per candle, so one pair comfortably covers a long dinner with hours to spare for the next one.

A centre, from a shape or a pillar

The middle of the table wants one thing to look at. At Thanksgiving that is our Chubby Pumpkin Candle, sat between the tapers. If you would rather have burn hours than a shape, a Flat Top Trio Pillar Candle Set gives you three at approximately 35 to 45 hours each, which is the whole season rather than the one night. Either way, keep it low enough that nobody is talking around it.

Scatter, from tea lights and votives

This is the layer people forget and notice. Tea lights along a windowsill, votives on a sideboard, one at each place setting. A box of tea lights runs 4 to 5 hours each and costs almost nothing per evening, and votives give approximately 10 to 12 hours apiece.

Seasonal shapes, for the parts of the table that are not dinner

Pumpkins, cones and trees are decor first and candles second, which is exactly what you want on a mantel, a hall table, or a shelf that needs something. They also carry you from October straight through to the end of December.

  • Chubby Pumpkin Candle, the Thanksgiving centrepiece, and it earns its keep all autumn.
  • Pine Cone Candle and Fir Cone Candle, small enough to scatter, substantial enough to notice.
  • Three Pines Tree Candle Set, three trees grouped, and one of our most gifted sets once December arrives.

See all seasonal candles or browse the decorated candles

How many candles do I actually need?

Work in hours, not in candles. A long holiday dinner with drinks before and lingering after is roughly four to five hours of burning.

  • Thanksgiving dinner, six people. Two taper pairs, one candle for the centre, six votives.
  • A run of gatherings from October to December. Four taper pairs, a pillar trio, and a box of tea lights. The pillars carry the whole stretch.
  • The quiet days between the holidays. Two large pillars in the room you actually sit in. Our seven inch flat top runs approximately 55+ hours and the fern pillars approximately 50+.

Gift-ready sets

The same candles make the gift, and a host gift is the easiest one to get right.

Shop gifts for every occasion, or give a Beeswax Works gift card when you would rather they chose. Gift cards arrive by email, so there is no shipping and no customs to think about.

Order in time

We pour and pack in Revelstoke, British Columbia, and orders leave the studio within two to three business days. October and November are our busiest months, and the first half of December is when everything is in transit at once.

If candles are part of a specific date, order two weeks ahead of it. If you are shipping to the United States, read Shipping to the United States first, because import duty and brokerage are the recipient's responsibility and we would rather you knew that in October than the week before American Thanksgiving.

Why beeswax on a table

Beeswax has a naturally high melting point, higher than soy or paraffin. On a warm table, under lights, surrounded by people and hot food, that is the difference between candles that hold their shape all evening and candles that slump by the main course. There is no added fragrance either, so nothing competes with what you have cooked.

Trim the wicks to about 1/4 inch before you light them and the whole table burns evenly. Everything else is in Candle Care.