Candles are popular throughout the year, but at no other season do we find such varied sizes and shapes as at Christmas. Decorative in themselves, the christmas candles sometime present problems as to holders. For very large ones, angel candles or other irregular forms, mirrors, red glass plates or old china plates, painted red, make pleasing bases. Small pieces of evergreens may be clustered around them or whitened twigs and berries tied to them with a bow kept at safe distance from the flame. (Drawing 17) A wooden base, of the flower-arrangement type, makes an excellent stand. Melted wax or modeling clay will hold the candle in place or a nail may even be driven through the bottom to serve as a spike on which to impale the candle.

The candle bowl is easy to arrange and a safe way to burn a christmas candles. (Drawing 17, top) Any clear glass bowl, fish aquarium or battery jar, will serve as container. Fasten the candle, which should not extend beyond the top of the bowl, in the center of the bottom with melted wax or modeling clay. Then drop around the candle, in the bowl, small pieces of greens and for brightness a few red and silver balls. The effect is surprising and the heat of the candle will not crack the bowl. This is a safe way to burn candles in the window, on the hall table where there is apt to be a draft, or on the center of the dining table.

This same idea may be carried out in miniature for individual favors by using baby food jars and large-size birthday-cake christmas candles. To make a steady base for these, drop a teaspoonful of fairly wet plaster of Paris in the bottom. The candle and tiny greens may be worked in with careful fingers or tweezers and a few bead-like balls or red berries added. When the plaster hardens, all is firmly held in place.

Candle boards, useful throughout the year, may be fashioned from any flat board cut to appropriate size for a specific place. Good dimensions are 12 inches long and 6 inches wide, with 3 rows of holes spaced 1½ inches apart. In the center row the end holes are ¾ of an inch from the edge. These holes are 7/8 of an inch wide, the size of the average candle holder. Top and bottom rows of holes are opposite; the middle row is staggered. (Drawing 18) This pattern provides endless possibilities of arrangement. It is not necessary to fill all the holes with christmas candles. They may be alternated and the empty ones filled with branches of evergreens and sprays of berries or with cones. These conceal the board and add attractiveness to the base. If the decoration is made on a tray, it can be easily moved. All branches should be kept at safe distance from the flames.

No. 17

Fish aquarium or berry bowl makes safe enclosure for candle. Greens and balls add color and sparkle. Large candles are effective on stands, mirrors and behind tin kitchen graters. Greens ornament base.

No. 18

Board of desired length, candle size holes properly spaced, may be decorated in many ways with candles, greens, cones, berries, fruits or Christmas balls.

No. 19

Large christmas candles fastened in dry sphagnum moss-packed board, covered with white crepe paper, forms base for wired cellophane pompons and Christmas balls.

For Delia Robbia treatment of the board select mixed colored christmas candles and repeat the color effect around the base with fruit. Shellacked ivy or rhododendron leaves could be spread with grapes, apples, pomegranates, limes and lemons mounded over them to conceal the board. If the fruit is painted with a sugar syrup, it will be glossy. Shellac cannot be used if the fruit is to be eaten. Such decorations are equally appropriate for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Artificial materials may be mounded among the christmas candles for a quite different effect. On a tray, painted silver or any appropriate color, place colored balls heaped, stem side down, around white candles. Crumpled silver paper beneath the balls will keep them from rolling and, if necessary, add height. The ends of the tray may be finished with silver bells or small artificial silver trees, all available at the holiday season. This makes an attractive centerpiece or mantel decoration.

The decoration of candle boards may be considerably varied. Large christmas candles, one and a half inches in diameter, need special boards, or they may be worked into moss bases. If boards are made, holes should be fewer and farther apart. The heat from the candles will cause them to melt if they are too close to one another. Different effects may be achieved by gilding or silvering leaves, cones and greens and by rubbing candles with a piece of absorbent cotton dipped in gilt, silver or bronze dust.

One or two wires or pieces of dark green string, tied around the board, will hold greens in place. The ends of some of the pieces may be kept in position by slipping them under the wire. As soon as a few are firmed others may easily be put on.

Sphagnum moss is indispensable for bases into which wires or stems have to be inserted. Here a soft medium is needed and the moss is ideal. Bread pans may be filled with wet sphagnum moss, securely tied over the top and around the pan. Evergreen stems are cut obliquely and inserted into the moss with sprays of berries for decoration. The greens and berries can be arranged to hang over the side or extend along the edge to conceal the pan. This may be set on an inconspicuous tray or piece of waxed paper to prevent the soiling of a tablecloth. A candle may be placed as a center feature at the time the moss is being packed and before it is tied in position. Plastics, such as Floral foam, are available for bases.

Christmas candles may also become the feature of the cellophane decoration shown in Drawing 19. For this, dry sphagnum moss is mounded on a piece of cardboard cut to desired size and shape, usually an oblong about the size of the candle board. First the candles are held in the desired position. Very often I pack the moss around them. Then I remove them while I tie on the moss and reset them later. They can always be firmed in place with a little more moss. After this is tied, it is covered with white crepe paper rather than with tissue which tears easily. The crepe paper is fastened together on the bottom with Scotch tape. Candles are then set in place, and wired cellophane pompons and artificial balls inserted in the moss. Pompons are made by gathering, through the center, cellophane pieces of the desired size as shown in Drawing 19. The 12-inch length of No. 18 or No. 20 wire is twisted so that two hairpin-like pieces extend out the back. These are thrust through the paper into the moss to hold the pompons in place. This decoration, icy in appearance, is effective where heavy greens and dark colors are not.

In Drawing 21 another christmas candles decoration is shown. This was made with crepe paper, moss base, a white brush tree at one side, cellophane pompons around the edge and white reindeer across the top. Before the reindeer were placed, the crepe paper on the top was covered with absorbent cotton or glass wool to simulate snow. Whitened twigs behind the trees add beauty and height. It may be necessary to fasten a small wire around one leg of each reindeer to hold it in place.