You don't have to bake cookies or decorate with real pine to make your home smell like a Christmas wonderland. The simplest way to fill your home with holiday fragrances is to light scented Christmas candles. If you're planning on putting up a faux Christmas tree in the living room, these seasonal scents can help set the mood.
Whether you love pine, sweet treats, spicy berries or another tempting scent, chances are you'll find a candle that will emit your favorite holiday aroma into the air as it burns with a warm, inviting glow. The best candles produce potent scents that linger and burn for numerous hours, so they'll last throughout the holiday season and beyond. We rounded up 24 scented candles for adding ambiance to your home or gifting purposes, including sets that are perfect for stocking stuffers.
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While there are no rules about which scents are appropriate for the holidays, the best candle scents overall are certain popular aromas that come to mind when this time of year rolls around. They can be classified as sweet, spicy, earthy or fruity. Additionally, many scented candles that are designed for the holidays have a combination of notes from one or more of the categories for a nicely balanced fragrance.
When you think of the sweet family of holiday fragrances, delicious Christmas-time treats come to mind. Peppermint, vanilla, cocoa, gingerbread and sugar are some of the most popular notes used to produce these enticing scents.
Some spices are warm, fragrant and perfect for the holidays. They are found in delicacies like sugar plums, cider and pumpkin pie. When a candle is scented with spices such as cloves, mint, cinnamon, anise and ginger, it fills a room with the aromas of the season.
There's nothing quite like the scent of evergreen during the holidays. That's why many seasonal candles are infused with pine and balsam. Some candles in this category also contain sage, bayberry, holly, nuts or cedarwood.
Holiday candles with fruity notes are light and pleasant. Berry, citrus, pumpkin, apple, pear and cranberry all deliver a lovely smell for the holiday season.
Votive, pillar and taper candles can all be found in scented forms. However, jar candles are by far the most popular. They also stand out for providing long burn times, as some models can provide more than 150 hours of luscious scents.
Ideally, the wick of a candle will burn slowly and won't produce a lot of smoke or contaminants. Most well-made candles by top brands have wicks that are made of cotton or other quality materials. While many scented candles have single wicks, some larger models have two, three, four or more wicks. Candle brands typically recommend that you trim the wick before lighting, as this will prolong the life of your candle and result in a cleaner burn.
Nest Fragrances Holiday Scented Classic Candle
This Nest holiday candle comes in a pretty decorative glass, with diverse scents including pine, cloves, cinnamon, pomegranate and mandarin orange, with subtle hints of vanilla and amber. It features Nest's proprietary wax that's designed to burn cleanly for up to 60 hours.
Bath and Body Works 'Tis The Season 3-Wick Scented Candle
If you're on the hunt for Bath and Body Works Christmas candles, you're not the only one. This 14.5-ounce, three-wick candle emits lovely scents of red apple, cinnamon and cedarwood. Each candle features a festive scene, such as this one displaying reindeer in the snow. This large Christmas candle burns for up to 45 hours.
Root Candles 3-Wick Honeycomb Mulled Cider Scented Jar Candle
This three-wick candle smells like mulled cider, a classic hot beverage of the holiday season. Hints of cinnamon, apple and cloves give it a warm, inviting fragrance. It's made of a beeswax blend and contains fragrant essential oils for a clean burn.
Yankee Candle Christmas Cookie Large Jar Candle
Who doesn't love the smell of Christmas cookies fresh out of the oven? This is one of the best Yankee Candle scents, according to customers. It mimics that delightful scent with notes of cinnamon, butter, nutmeg, vanilla and sugar. It's a large paraffin wax candle that will burn for up to 150 hours.
Symple Stuff Holiday Forest Scented Pillar Candle
Made by hand, the Holiday Forest candle delivers the fragrance of fresh pine. It's a well-made pillar candle with a bright green color that looks great on a candle plate or pedestal-style holder.
Yankee Candle Balsam & Cedar Signature Large Jar Candle
It's a combination of balsam, spices, berries, vanilla and more that gives this jar candle the smell of the holiday season. It's made of a quality soy wax that will burn as long as 100 hours.
Yankee Candle Frosty Gingerbread Small Jar Candle
Gingerbread is an ideal scent for the holidays, and this jar candle will make your place smell as if you just baked a batch. Ginger, cinnamon, clove and vanilla are the notes that make it so irresistible. It's constructed of quality wax and will burn for as long as 150 hours.
Star Hollow Candle Company Peppermint Sticks Scented Jar Candle
A soy-blend wax and essential oils make it possible for Star Hollow Candles to burn clean and produce pleasant scents for many hours. If you want a candle that makes you think of candy canes, the brand's peppermint stick jar candle is for you.
Root Candles Bayberry Scented Honeycomb Beeswax Blend Scented Candle
This is another beeswax-based candle that is scented with essential oils. It has a bayberry fragrance that's a holiday tradition and includes notes of patchouli, balsam and vanilla. It has three wicks and burns for more than 50 hours.
Yankee Candle Snow Globe Wonderland Signature Large Tumbler Candle
Not sure which scent you want to fill your home with during the holidays? The Snow Globe Wonderland candle has you covered with an interesting blend of scents that are sweet, spicy, fruity and earthy. It includes berry, praline, nutmeg, holly, anise, mint and more. It burns clean, thanks to the soy-based wax.
Bath and Body Works 3-Wick Hot Cocoa and Cream Scented Candle
There's nothing quite like cozying up by the fire and sipping hot cocoa or drinking this seasonal treat after a nice ice skating session. This Bath and Body Works candle captures that feeling, with scents of cocoa and cream. The large 14.5-ounce candle features festive imagery on the jar and burns for up to 45 hours.
Snif Old Saint Wick 4-Wick Christmas Scented Candle
This popular candle was featured in Oprah's Favorite Things list of 2022. It has luscious scents of apple, rosemary and jasmine with paired with woodsy scents, including Siberian pine, balsam fir and sandalwood cedar wood. The soy and vegetable wax candle comes in an extra-large, 50-ounce candle that burns for over 200 hours, promising days upon days of Christmassy fragrance.
Thymes Frasier Fir Pine Needle Single-Wick Candle
This soy and vegetable wax candle comes in a pretty glass jar with a pine needle pattern, so it works well as holiday decor. The single-wick, 6.5-ounce candle has a fresh fir and pine fragrance, with a burn time of up to 45 hours.
Homesick Snow Day Premium Scented Candle
This holiday-scented candle will have you reminiscing on the snow days of your childhood, those glorious days spent building snowmen, making snow angels and sledding. It has a wintery and musky aroma, featuring spruce, vanilla, mint, brown sugar, juniper, santal, amaryllis and white musk. The single-wick, 13.75-ounce candle burns for up to 80 hours.
Yankee Candle Gift Set Mini Christmas Scented Candles
This festive candle set contains three mini Christmas candles with balsam and cedar, Christmas cookie and cinnamon scents. Each 2-ounce candle contains synthetic wax and burns for up to 10 hours.
Nest Fragrances Festive Scented Votive Candle Trio
Candle lovers can enjoy three holiday fragrances, including the classic Nest candle we featured earlier, as well as birchwood pine and crystallized ginger and vanilla bean. Each 2-ounce votive candle burns for up to 28 hours and contains proprietary wax. They come in clear glass jars with three unique gold patterns.
Yinuo Light Four-Pack Christmas Scented Candles
This set of four scented candles is simply adorable. They come with decorative lids featuring Santa, a snowman, a reindeer and a gingerbread man with a reindeer pattern on each jar. The soy candles contain a nice variety of fragrances, including Christmas cookie, apple cinnamon, fir and lavender. Each 4.4-ounce candle has a burn time around 30 hours. What's more, this is the most budget-friendly set on the list.
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Jennifer Manfrin writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
