How to Choose The Best Candle

Candles make an excellent gift for Christmas or birthdays. A small candle is a wonderful hostess gift.  Easy to find and ever popular, candles come in a wide variety of prices and types. You can buy candles at retail stores, big box stores, or online.

The warm glow of a burning candle turns a dull room into a romantic retreat. Candles add a warm ambiance to your home. They can ring out a celebratory atmosphere or create a sense of peaceful sanctuary.

There are so many kinds of candles to choose from! Soy or wax? Scented or unscented? Real or battery operated? You need to think about the person that you are gifting. If they have allergies or are prone to headaches, you may want to purchase unscented candles.

When deciding on a candle, think of the person you are giving it to. Do they like sweet scents? Or something more spicy. When you go into their home, does it smell like baked goods? Or is there a floral scent in the air? When in doubt, almost everybody likes cinnamon.

In general, a more expensive candle will burn cleaner and longer. The scent will seem fresher and truer to the name of the candle (a candle called balsam will smell like a Christmas tree instead of Pine Sol). That's because the more expensive candles are made of high grade wax and essential oils. If you want to keep your costs down, go with a high quality candle in a smaller size.

Jar candles are more fragrant than pillar candles. Jar candles are produced with high quality essential oil which make the candle too soft to stand without support.

Battery operated candles are safer, obviously, than an open flame. My daughter, a young woman with Down Syndrome, loves candles but I didn't feel comfortable giving her a real candle - way too dangerous. So, I gave her battery operated candles. She enjoys them and appreciates the safety factor.

Battery operated candles are great when young children are in the home and are a safe bet for the frail elderly or someone who might forget to blow out a real candle.

Battery operated candles are great for homes with frisky pets as well.

Enjoy Lighting offers lovely scented wax LED pillar candles that may just be the best battery operated candles around. They are made of real wax. The aroma is wonderful and the light is realistic. It actually flickers!

Gerson Everlasting Glow Flameless Wax Candles with Drip Effect come in ivory, and produce a warm, romantic glow.

Wax candles are made from paraffin, sometimes mixed with beeswax. The best wax candles, for my money, are Yankee Candles. They are popular, easy to find, and last a long time. Strongly scented, they fill an area quickly and are able to mask cooking odors. They come in a wide variety of scents, sizes and colors.

The larger jars candles usually produce the best fragrance because the flame, in the large jar, creates a large pool of melted wax. Make sure that you replace the lid when the candle is not burning to keep it fresh.