Handmade gifts for candle lovers

Jarful House Lucky Charm Candle Gift Set

by Jarful House

For hedging a scent you are not sure about. A soy candle, wax melts and matches in a decorative jar meant to be kept.

The test of a candle gift set is whether anything survives the candle. Here the jar is the point: it is decorative enough to stay on a shelf, and the set includes melts and matches so the gift is complete on arrival. It is the most expensive candle option on this page and the one that most clearly reads as a considered purchase.

Candle Care Kit: Trimmer, Snuffer and Wick Dipper

For the accessory nobody buys themselves. The three tools that fix most candle problems, for less than the candle costs.

Almost every complaint about a candle traces to a wick left too long: soot on the glass, a smoking flame, a tunnel down the middle. A trimmer is a three-dollar fix for a thirty-dollar problem. Adding this to a candle turns a nice object into a thought-through gift, and it costs almost nothing to do.

Little Bee of Connecticut Hand-Rolled Beeswax Tapers

by Little Bee of Connecticut

For removing the scent bet entirely. Rolled from sheet wax by a Connecticut maker, so the honey smell is the wax itself.

Hand-rolled beeswax is the cheapest way to put a genuinely handmade object on a table, and it is one of the few gifts under twenty dollars that does not feel like a token. There is no fragrance oil in it. What you smell is the wax, which is why beeswax candles smell faintly of honey and paraffin candles smell of whatever was added to them. A pair burns through a long dinner with room to spare.

Park and Madison Moss and Amber Soy Candle

by Park and Madison

For a household rather than a person. Herbal rather than sweet, hand-poured, and priced like a bottle of wine.

Moss, sage and amber is a green-and-resinous register that reads as expensive without being a designer-fragrance impression. Hand-poured in jar formats by a small maker. At this price it is the gift you bring rather than the gift you send, which is a different and often more useful thing.

Nobi Home White Tea, Citron and Lavender Wood Wick Candle

by Nobi Home

For someone who has said they like the crackle. Hand-poured soy with a wooden wick, in a size that actually lasts.

Wood wicks crackle because the wood is burning alongside the wax, and the effect is the entire reason people buy them. Most of the market for that sensation belongs to one large brand. This is the small-maker version: same crackle, hand-poured, and at 12 oz it is a larger vessel than the usual gift jar. White tea and citron is bright rather than sweet.

Carolina Country 26 in Farmhouse Table Centerpiece Tray

For turning candles into a table setting. A 26-inch rectangular tray built to hold candles down the middle of a table.

This solves a specific and common problem: a long table with nothing on it. Fill it with the beeswax pillars from the candles section and the whole thing becomes one gift with two parts. Made in the USA per the listing, with a choice of finishes.

Teakwood and Tobacco Reed Diffuser

For cats, toddlers, or a lease clause. The candle alternative for homes with cats, toddlers or a landlord.

A meaningful share of the people you would give a candle to cannot have one burning, and a reed diffuser solves that without changing the gift's intent. Teakwood and tobacco is a warm, dry scent rather than a sweet one, which suits a hallway or an office better than a bedroom. Stated two to three month life.

Uptimaz 100% Beeswax Pillar Set of 4

by Uptimaz

For filling a mantel for under forty dollars. Four machine-poured pillars for roughly the price of one hand-rolled one.

When you need four matching pillars, hand-rolled is the wrong tool: makers work in ones and twos and the price scales accordingly. These are molded rather than rolled, which means uniform and slightly characterless, which is exactly what a matched set wants to be. The listing states 100% beeswax with a cotton wick.