I lit a candle

I am sitting on the couch, smelling apples and spice and watching the flicker of three tiny flames from across the room. We are getting hygge tonight. I’m starting small, with just one candle, because I tend to overthink things, especially when they’re unfamiliar or new.

Hygge candle shopping is a lot more difficult than I had imagined. I’ve looked at multiple places, trying to find just the right ones for me, but only leave with more questions. Which size do you get? How many? What color or fragrance; or no fragrance at all? Should they be shaped or standard pillars? Once you get them home, what do you put the candles in or on, and how do you arrange them? I don’t have a fireplace, so where would they all go? Especially with the Kraken around?

Hoping to find some answers, I Googled hygge candles online. But that only raised more questions. The whole world has cannibalized the concept of hygge and the results are overwhelming: tapers of every color in antique candlesticks; bundles of tapers in glass jars; nature loving displays full of greens and pinecones; zen-like spa candles; you name it, it’s there.

I consulted Meik Weiking’s The Little Book of Hygge looking for better guidance. He is CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, so he’s got some experience. Here are his suggestions for candles:

1. Keep it natural. Danes think scent is artificial, so they don’t use scented candles. 
2. Use multiple candles together. More than 31% of Danes surveyed light more than 5 candles at a time. About 45% of Danes light either 2, 3, or 4 candles at a time.
3. Air out the room after lighting candles. Burning things creates pollution in the air and can affect your health.
4. Light should pool. This rule is more for lamps, but can also help instruct candle arrangement.
5. They use a lot of candles. Thirteen pounds of candle wax per year, per Dane. That equals about 65 12-inch taper candles.

Armed with these rules, I tried again.

Images of Danish candle holders revealed mainly organic shaped tapers, with a few geometric options thrown in for good measure. Most of these are meant to display between 2-6 tapers, which seemed consistent with Meik’s rules.

Seeing so many tapers, I was reminded of my mother’s vintage crystal star candle holders. They would look beautiful as a centerpiece on the table. Once I had procured those, my mother suggested a couple of heirloom candleholders from my grandmother. The concept of hygge includes being together with family, so I felt these items would be appropriate, even if they’re not the norm. And since these candleholders were meant to hold tapers, that solved my question of what shape or size to get. 

I’m looking forward to lighting these candles during meals and in the evenings. My home feels more hygge, even with one lonely candle. And a very hygge breakfast with a lit taper or two is definitely in my future plans. But I think I’ll save that for our first snow.

What did I learn from this?

I’ve got a lot of candles to buy if I want to keep up with the Danes.