This Year's Best Christmas Candles
I will never forget the cold November afternoon on which my mum came home from a shopping trip aglow not with the Christmas spirit but instead with the thrill of having found a fake tree in the garden centre that looked exactly the same as a traditional fur tree. ‘I won’t have to hoover twice daily,’ she proclaimed with glee.
Once we'd seen the fake at her insistence, we three kids were unanimously agreed: it did indeed look like the real deal, but buying it was unthinkable - it didn't smell of Christmas trees. That fresh, clean, outdoorsy whoosh of pine was synonymous with our idea of Christmas and, as smells are wont to do, just a little whiff of something seasonal even now as a grown up ushers in the spirit. None of us would entertain the idea, even going so far as to offer to muck in with the cleaning duties in order for her to buy a real pine tree.
I now think of a Christmas candle as doing a similar job to a Christmas tree in making the house feel festive - only they're smaller and serve the dual purpose of throwing ambience as well as scent into a room. Get one now and you'll almost feel ready for Buble and mince pies. Here are our top picks...