The Dinner-Changing Magic of Candlesticks

It’s always a small thrill to have the light of a candle to accompany a meal! One of my favorite Italian restaurants in college had these amazing multicolored candles on the table, but alas, the building burnt down a couple of years ago! They’ve rebuilt it, so I’ve heard. I don’t live in the city anymore. I’ll have to go for a visit sometime and see if they still use those rainbow candles!

Party trick – with lighter or match at the ready… blow out the candle and (several inches off the wick) light the heavy smoke. It lights the vaporized wax and relights the candle at the wick. SO COOL.

We had candles on the table and classical music playing at dinner every night growing up. It definitely makes the mundane a little more enjoyable.

I don’t have children OR a kitchen table, but I lit candles on my bar area for book club and it was so lovely. HOWEVER, I was scraping wax off the counter for a good 15 minutes afterward. What’s the answer to this? My candle holders didn’t catch all the wax–even with the dripless TJ candles I was using. Somebody help my candle naivety!

Growing up my family had a ritual of lighting upwards of like 20 candles in our dining room for dinner every night. Everyone thinks the dining room has to be for special occasions, but we love ours, so why not eat there? No matter if we just got out of the shower, where still in our school uniforms, or still kind of sticky from sports practice – we all sat down in our candle lit dining room for family dinner (sometimes even if it was 9 at night).

We also have a practice of lighting what we call the “remembrance candle”, where we light all of the other candles in the room, but save one special one that we light as a family. When we light the candle everyone goes around and says the same of someone in our lives we want to remember that night. A friend whose mother has cancer, a grandparent, or your bestie who just got into their dream school. It’s my favorite thing we do as a family, and I cannot wait until I get to show my own kids a remembrance candle one day.

Do you have the little candle snuffer? My aunt had a brass one that looked like a little lampshade on a pole and we always wanted to have the honor of putting the candles out at the end of dinner

Ah, yes! We also started this, upon moving into our new apartment 3 months ago. I came across a beautiful set of candle holders at IKEA, and figured it would be a special touch for our new home. Now we light them each night, and makes dinner – even just leftovers or make your own dinners – feel so special. Somehow makes it easier to focus on each other too!

I stand behind whatever makes life feel even the littlest bit sweeter. So cheers to this! :)

In Hobby Lobby this afternoon and had this post on my mind when I wandered into the candle section. . . I am now the proud owner of some pretty blue glass candle sticks and two magic color dripping tapers! Cannot wait for my sister to visit this weekend so we can light them!

This is so lovely. I always try to make sure a candle is lit, too, whenever we’re eating dinner at the table. So special. ?

Absolutely agree. As someone who grew up in cold climates, candles are inherently cozy to me. I have them everywhere in my house, and have recently allowed myself to splurge on the nicer beeswax tapers for my tabletop candlesticks. I always think of the Scandinavian concept of hygge, and just how much candles are a part of it–at school, at home, at work, literally everywhere! They don’t have the same kinds of restrictions on things like that as we do here in the States. I’ve started having a candle in my office, and using a floor lamp instead of my fluorescent overheads, and it feels downright cozy in there now! But there is literally nothing better than candles burning on a kitchen table, tapers growing shorter, conversation continuing, and wine still being poured while the evening grows on. My happiest memories are lit by candelight.

Candles, cloth napkins and fresh flowers, but not fancy. We’ve always done it as well as hold hands and say a quick blessing. As my daughter would say…civilized!

This post reminded me of growing up in the Dominican Republic. Reminiscing about growing up in the island almost feels like a dream. Most neighborhoods lose power everyday; sometimes during the day, sometimes during the night. My mother used to light a candle in the living room if we lost power during the night. Everybody would gather in the livingroom, and my grandparents (we lived with them) would share stories about their childhood memories or folk tales they heard as kids. Some stories were funny, some were sad, and some were scary. Candles have a way of bringing us all together regardless of one’s country of origin, culture or socioeconomic status.

My husband and I have just started living together after having spent the first four years of our marriage apart – working in different cities. It’s wonderful – elaborate weekly menu planning, grocery shopping for two, cooking for two, watching shows together, turning in bed and feeling another body. This past week he has been traveling for work – and I am once again by myself. While I miss him terribly, I am loving this solitary time, cooking for myself, setting the table for 1 , lighting the candles and enjoying my own company.

yes to candles! and candlesticks! question, where is your dining table from and how many does it seat, max? :)

Thanks for the reminder. Candles are magic.

I was on my Marie Kondo mission earlier this year and ran across old candle sticks and thought to myself, ‘I never use these, let me use up the tapered candles in them and then i’ll donate.’ Surprise, they are now a permanent fixture on the table and really make every day feel special.

My mom used this trick when we were growing up! She realized that moving us to eat dinner in the dining room from the kitchen was a game changer. We used a table cloth, had cloth napkins, and lit candles every single night. She found our manners were better and the whole thing felt more formal in a very good way.

We still do this when we go to her house. The kids love the candles! Once mine are a little older, I think I’ll do this too.

It is a bonus that candlelight warms the face and makes everyone look beautiful gathered around it! I love summer nights, dining al fresco by candlelight. The ambiance is dreamy.

Love this! When we were growing up, whenever we had company over, my mom would light taper candles and put on the George Winston ‘December’ album. It calmed us all down and instantly changed to mood to feel a little fancy and grown up. She would give my sisters and I little tasks like windex-ing the coffee table or setting out the silverware and we all worked together in anticipation. I still put that album on when I am stressed or anxious (often on an airplane!) and it calms me immediately.

A family friend used to fill her dining room with candles. She would really go over the top with it- just about every space would have a candle all mismatched and collected. She would then describe the dinner “As a ## candle night.” “Oh, for Jim’s birthday we are having a 27 candle night.” It may have seemed excessive but to a little girl it felt SO magical and special.

I am all about candles, but I find I enjoy them a bit more seasonally. I live in Miami so we don’t have the traditional seasons, but I’ll use candles in fall and winter to create that hygge ambiance. I would say plants and small flower take their place in spring and summer.

“guys, have you heard of CANDLES?” made me literally LOL.

I love this idea! Where do you get your long stem candles from? I’ve noticed the few places I’ve looked that they are a little expensive.

Thank you as always, Joanna : )

I am with Chris…where is that wonderful table from???

I started lighting candles for dinner when I first moved out of home (half way across the world) and lived by myself. Cooking for one and eating at a table alone could sometimes seem dreary coming from a family where the dinner table will always be the nucleus of our home. It is a lovely daily treat.

Having candles lit at dinner makes my three young children about 40% better behaved—every time. I hoard Ana candles (which are getting harder to find but The Company Store has them) because, stripes!