The Best Christmas Candles 2026: Stripes, Bows, Toadstools and a Candle Forest for the Table

If you only change one thing about your Christmas table this year, change the candles. Thirty-one new Christmas candles arrived with the Meri Meri September drop, and between them they do what a centrepiece used to do, for a fraction of the fuss: stripes, bows, toadstools, holly, trees and a whole candle forest in a box. Here is how we would use them, from the dinner table to the mantelpiece to the cake. 🕯️

The Christmas candles that make a centrepiece on their own 🎄

The trick in the photo above is nothing more than a lot of candles at different heights down a runner. The Festive Icons Christmas Table Candles x 8 are eight tall tapers in cream and pink with tiny trees, stars and holly printed up the sides, and the Assorted Stripe Twist Christmas Candles x 4 are the twisted red, green and pink ones that give the line its height. Mix the two with the Gold Stripy Bow Christmas Table Candles x 2 and the Gold Bow Taper Christmas Candles x 2, which have a little gold bow moulded onto the stem, and you have a centrepiece that takes four minutes and no florist.

For a table that is more pink than red (and this year a lot of them are), the gold bow tapers in a mix of brass and glass candlesticks is the look. It photographs beautifully with the Festive Stripe and Ribbon Bow tableware from the Christmas table post.

Woodland Christmas candles for the mantelpiece 🍄

The Winter Woodland Christmas Candles x 5 are the ones we keep being asked about: a reindeer, two fir trees and two toadstools, all in wax, all meant to be lit, though most people never do. Set them in a bed of moss or greenery on the mantelpiece with the Mini Mushroom Christmas Candles x 6 dotted in between and it looks like a forest floor. The Mushroom Christmas Table Candles x 2 are the tall version for the dinner table.

If your Christmas is white and gold rather than red and green, Hootyballoo's White Christmas Tree Candles x 2 and White Star Tea Light Candles x 2 do the same job in cream, and they are under £15 for both.

Striped and patterned Christmas candles 🍬

Stripes are the Christmas pattern of 2026 (Google agrees; "circus stripes" is one of the season's rising searches). The Red Stripe Twist Christmas Candles x 2 and Gold Stripe Twist Christmas Candles x 2 are barley-twist tapers in a candy stripe, the Festive Striped Christmas Table Candles x 4 are straight stripes in red, green and pink, and the Festive Striped Christmas Pillar Candles x 3 are the chunky ones for a sideboard. For the patterns, the Candy Cane Christmas Table Candles x 2 and the Holly Christmas Table Candles x 2 have the motif moulded on, not printed, so it catches the light.

Christmas candles as a gift 🎁

A box of candles is the present for the person who has everything, and this year there are two we would give without hesitation. The Meri Meri x Liberty Sweet Meadow Candle Gift Box x 10 is ten tapers in a Liberty-print box (there is a Rainbow Garden version too), and the Rainbow Table Candles x 12 are twelve tapers in twelve colours for the friend whose house is never beige. For the cake, the Gold Star Christmas Cake Candles x 6 and the Rainbow & Gold Christmas Tree Candles x 6 are the ones that go on the Christmas Day pudding and the Boxing Day birthday cake alike.

Which Christmas candles for which table 📋

One practical note: the shaped candles (trees, toadstools, the reindeer) burn down unevenly and lose their shape within an hour, so light them for the photo and the first course, then blow them out and keep them for next year. The tapers burn properly for six to eight hours.

Shop Christmas candles 🛒

All thirty-one are in our Christmas Candles collection, with the rest of the table in Christmas Tableware. Free UK delivery over £40 and next-day delivery on everything in stock.