#14 FESTIVE CANDLE BRAND RELEASES 

Most of us, especially in winter, love to burn a candle or two and luxuriate in the warm aromas. Around Christmas, we may pick up a specially scented candle to give us even more festive cheer. Whether you burn your fragranced candles around your bath, on a console table in your hall, on your mantelpiece, at your Christmas dinner table, on your breakfast bar, or somewhere else entirely, a candle can bring ambience to a room and make you feel relaxed and with scent tied to memory and emotion, a good candle can evoke incommunicable and inexplicable memories and feelings. Candles also make a delightful gift for anyone (with the exception of children), because they are inoffensive, gentle, and peaceful.

Here are some festive fragrances released in time for Christmas; from budget-friendly options to lavish home luxuries, you’re sure to find the perfect candle gift. Top tip: when sampling a candle’s fragrance, always sniff the lid rather than the wax itself. This is because the perfume within the wax is not evenly distributed, however, it evaporates towards the space above the wax and collects well in the lid. This fragrance sampling method works particularly well with jar style candle vessels. 

1 Diptyque, Sapin Scented Candle (£60)

Scent: Diptyque have all kinds of sought-after Instagrammable candle jars and their beautiful Christmas edition is no exception. It features their signature label with stacked font in gold over a clear glass jar with gold, white, and malachite “paint splotches.” The scents are of wood and fresh pine. The candle packaging in green, black, white, and gold also looks like a painting technique: where artists pour paint over a canvas, one colour at a time and rings of colour appear. 

Burn time: doesn’t specify

Size: 190 grams

Features: a jar with a golden lid, 60th-anniversary candle created for the holidays, reusable container

Buy: click here

2 Jo Loves, Christmas Trees A Home Candle (£55)

Scent: Jo Malone is known for its high-end splurge products. This candle comes in a red jar with a fun firework design in golden bursts. The candle has notes of pine, wild lavender, incense, and amber for a warm Christmas smell that’s a lovely gift.

Burn time: 37.5 hours

Size: 185 grams

Features: soy wax, hand-poured in England, vegan

Buy: click here

3 Yankee Classic Large Jar Christmas Eve (£24.99)

Scent: Yankee candles are popular year-round and this holiday edition smells like “warm hearth, sugared plums, and candied fruits.” It has orange, almond, lime, and lemon top notes. Red berry, cinnamon and nutmeg mid-notes and violet, amber, creamy praline, and vanilla base notes. The classic Yankee Candle jar and thick glass lid are recognisable. The candle is bright red and will go with any festive decor and there’s a fun picture on the label featuring Father Christmas, holding a festive holiday berry branch, in his sleigh pulled by two reindeer – where the other seven are and Rudolph one cannot guess – over a snowy vista below.

Burn time: 110-150 hours

Size: 22 oz (approximately 620 grams)

Features: Classic, recognisable jar that can be repurposed for small-item storage

Buy: click here

4 WoodWick, Trilogy Winter Garland Ellipse Jar Candle (£29.99)

Scent: Another recognisable candle brand, WoodWick candles’ USP is their “wood wick” which crackles like burning logs. Their winter garland candle comes in a teardrop-shaped jar with a wooden lid and coloured wax “layers” in white, green, and red. This candle smells like crimson berries, Frasier fir trees, and white teak.

Burn time: 50 hours

Size: 1,497 grams

Features: paraffin and soy wax, unique candle shape with a wooden lid, crackling wooden wick

Buy: click here

5 Tria Beauty, Luxury Candle “Me Time” (£34.99)

Scent: This luxurious white candle in a white glass jar has top notes of lime, orange, and bergamot with mid-notes of basil, thyme, lilac, and oriental jasmine. The base notes are vetiver, patchouli, and sandalwood to provide a rounded-out lovely scent that can be enjoyed in the holidays or year-round for a spa-like feel. The candle is presented in beautiful yet simple gift packaging so it’s ready to present to someone special.

Burn time: 45 hours

Size: 200 grams

Features: soy wax, vegan, hand-poured in the UK, presented in ready-made gift packaging with a black ribbon

Buy: click here

6 Oliva’s Haven, Dr Marshall’s Christmas Tree (£29)

Scent: This candle smells like a real pine Christmas tree! If you don’t have the room for a real tree or hate vacuuming the pine needles but Christmas smells like pine, this is the candle for you. This candle has notes of pine, eucalyptus, and fir. The white glass jar is pretty and comes in a pink box with a label that matches the candle’s label.

Burn time: 45 hours

Size: 220 grams

Features: soy candle, can add a handwritten message to your order

Buy: click here

7 Jiminy Wickit and Bird Blend Tea Co, Salted Caramel Lebkuchen Candle (£15.95)

Scent: The salted caramel lebkuchen candle smells like lebkuchen, which is the German word for a biscuit similar to gingerbread, plus salted caramel. The maker says that its scent will “whisk you off into a magical winter wonderland.” If you like spicier scents, you’ll enjoy this candle. This candle comes in a pretty brown glass jar with a lid and is packaged in an attractive gold eco-friendly box.

Burn time: 40 hours

Features: eco-friendly gift box, comes in a reusable glass jar, vegan-friendly, made from soy wax, small business, individually made

Buy: click here

8 Elemis, Orangery Candle (£32)

Scent: This candle comes in an unadorned opaque white glass container with a simple label in gold font. The scent is orange blossom, neroli (bitter orange), and petitgrain (also extracted from the bitter orange tree). The scent is bright and earthy and Elemis describes it as bringing “the ambience of the Mediterranean home this Christmas.” The candle is packaged in a festive geometric design green box.

Burn time: doesn’t specify

Size: 210 grams

Features: hand-poured candle, reusable jar

Buy: click here

9 John Lewis & Partners, Winter Spice Inclusion Scented Candle (£20)

Scent: If you want a pillar-style candle, this attractive John Lewis winter spice candle comes with botanicals inside the candle to make any fireplace simple yet elegant. The scent is a blend of sandalwood, warm spices, cinnamon, clove and orange. It has a nice warm spiced citrus scent that is subtle enough to enjoy during cold evenings.

Burn time: 60 hours

Size: 578 grams

Features: the candle comes pre-wrapped in plastic with a festive red ribbon and a simple, elegant label

Buy: click here

10 ESPA, Winter Spice Deluxe Candle (£37)

Scent: This candle is infused with essential oils and smells like orange, clove, cinnamon, and ginger. The packaging is unique with an octagonal box in deep red, the same colour as the candle jar. The interior of the candle jar is a pretty gold colour that will match any red-themed Christmas decor.

Burn time: doesn’t specify

Size: 200 grams

Features: hand-poured

Buy: click here

11 Cowshed, Winter Room Candle (£38)

Scent: Cowshed candles have simple designs where the jar is simply black with white branded lettering on the exterior. The packaging is a little more fun with a botanical design on the box, featuring a peacock. The candle smells like rose, neroli, and ylang-ylang essential oils blended with cinnamon and clove. It’s a warm floral scent for those who don’t want their room to smell too much like Christmas baking. This candle will work well for those who have the trending all-black or monochrome Christmas decor aesthetic. 

Burn time: doesn’t specify

Size: 220 grams

Features: made from natural soy wax

Buy: click here

12 Glasshouse, Christmas Merry and Bright Candle (£45)

Scent: This “Merry and Bright” pineapple mint fizz candle has a unique fragrance and a pretty red glass jar with a lid! The fragrance has top notes of mint and spearmint with mid-notes of cardamom, pineapple, and strawberry, which is quite uncommon. It’s finished off with base notes of jasmine. Glasshouse says that the minty notes evoke “candy cane dreams.” It’d be a pretty gift to get someone but make sure they like their candle fragrances a little more on the experimental side. 

Burn time: doesn’t specify

Size: 380 grams

Features: soy wax blend, red glass jar

Buy: click here

13 Bella Freud, 1970 Gold Ceramic Candle (£110)

Scent: For one of two real splurges on the list, there’s this Bella Freud candle in a gold ceramic jar. It’s touted as more of a decorating accessory to look good on your bookshelf with a scent that smells nice without being lit or if you do light it to re-use as a fashionable pencil pot or place to store your coin collection. The candle smells like the incense of the 70s with frankincense, myrrh, oakmoss, and patchouli with base notes of musk, sandalwood, and vetiver. The packaging is a plain black box with the words 1970 on it. If you want a splurge fashion accessory slash candle, here’s your go-to. The gold will certainly look pretty at Christmas.

Burn time: 80 hours

Size: hand-poured natural wax, ceramic reusable jar, golden branded lid

Buy: click here

14 Chase and Wonder, The Starry Night 3 Wick Scented Ceramic Candle (£130)

Scent: Our final splurge item on the list is this stunning Chrismassy winter scene on the porcelain jar of this Chase and Wonder candle. This three-wick candle depicts a wintry old village in black and white with white stars and pops of magical yellow light. The scent is of pine needles, herbs, wood, orange, and cloves. For those that can splurge, it’s certainly a beautiful item to have in the Christmas box long after burning. It comes in a lovely gift box and would make a decadent gift to yourself or others.

Burn time: 100 hours

Size: 750 grams

Features: stunning decorative look, vegan, soy wax, made in Great Britain, reusable porcelain container, hand-decorated by expert ceramicists, 22-carat gold rim 

Buy: click here

The takeaways

Gift one of these beautiful holiday candles or buy one for yourself. Have an at-home spa day by painting your nails, doing up your hair, trying out our holiday makeup trends, getting your gin o’clock on, and burning your favourite candle! Let us know on social media which holiday candles you can’t get enough of.

Don’t forget to pick up our popular new Tria candle before it sells out!