And I’m talking about the scent of autumn. It’s at this time of year that I start getting out my scented candles and enjoying cosy evenings by candlelight. I know lots of my friends choose to use scented candles all year round, but after Christmas I tend to forget to light them and eventually my candles all get put away until the following year. I’ve decided that this week they will all be making a reappearance and I’ll be adding a few new scents to my collection to infuse my home with the lovely scent of autumn. The crackling sound of a burning candle reminds me of fireworks night – the spitting bonfire and lighting sparklers from tealights – and candles are essential for illuminating pumpkin carvings so I’d say that candles really are an important part of the autumn season for me.
I think that burning candles in the evening just makes the whole room feel more snug and cosy, and I don’t know whether they actually give off much heat, but I feel warmer almost straight away after lighting candles. Perhaps it’s a placebo effect but at least it makes me feel cosier and happier so that’s got to be a good thing, right? At the moment I’m enjoying a fresh honey scent in the evenings with this BeeFayre candle and I almost can’t wait until dusk before lighting it and filling the room with sweet smells.
It doesn’t seem appropriate to light candles when it’s still light outside during summer (apart from citronella candles to get rid of bugs when you’re enjoying summer evenings on the patio, of course!) so the one good thing about the nights getting darker earlier is that it feels right to light candles and enjoy the soft flickering light on a dark evening. If you’re really being frugal, you could turn off all your house lights and cosy up in candlelight, but I had to live like this for a week last autumn when our power went off after the storms so that’s kind of taken the fun out of it a little!
I don’t want to go all Christmassy too soon but I couldn’t help myself from heading into the Christmas shop when I was looking to spend some gift vouchers that I have for John Lewis. So now I’ve got a few festive candles on my hit list for this December including a Winter scents candle and my Christmas essential: the advent candle! One of my favorite things to do from December 1st is light a festive advent candle to measure the countdown to Christmas. It’s a fun ritual and it always seems to burn too quickly to start with and you might accidently burn down a couple of days without noticing, and sometimes you’ll miss a day because you’re out for the evening so you need to double-burn the next day to catch up. I enjoy this process and it’s a real signifier that Christmas is approaching. Plus, it’s always the healthy option – no chocolate in that advent calendar haha!
