17 Easy DIY Holiday Candle Holders

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Is there any time of the year other than the holiday season that’s more appropriate for putting pretty candles around your home? Well, maybe Halloween, but most of those candles are hidden inside pumpkins anyway. Whether you need a centerpiece for a turkey dinner or some big pillar candles to light up your darkened windows once the sun goes down, there are all sorts of festive ways to dress up your candles easily and cheaply for the holidays. Here are 17 DIY ideas to consider! To make all these unique candles you might want to pick up this pack of 100 no-smoke, no-drip tea lights. If you’re worried about an open flame around kids or pets, there are also flameless candles available that are surprisingly realistic!

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A Woodland Christmas

Feeling the rustic look this season? Winter foliage is a great way to dress up your home for the holidays, and believe it or not, chunks of wood can make the perfect candle holders. Take a look at this project from Marty’s Musings, which only requires a bit of carving to make room for some red tea lights.

Rustic wood candle holders with red tea lights

Likewise, pinecones can work in a similar way — if you can find ones that are big enough to fit candles. You may be able to pick up some artificial pinecones from any craft store too. Check out these glittery pinecone candle holders from A Little Loveliness.

Glittery pinecone candle holders with white tea lights

If you were intrigued by the first idea with the wood chunks, you should consider using birch wood if you’d like to add some extra designs to its bark. Etsy shop Twigs and Blossoms sells these candle holders with snowflake designs occasionally, if you want to buy them readymade.

Birch wood candle holder with snowflake designs

For a natural way to bring the lovely scent of cinnamon into your home, try wrapping large pillar candles in cinnamon sticks like these selections from Home Stories A to Z. The warmth of the candle will warm up the sticks to help stimulate their beautiful aroma!

Pillar candles wrapped in cinnamon sticks

Cozy by the Fire

It turns out sweaters aren’t just for people, small dogs, or hairless cats. You can put sweater-like knits on some plain-looking pillar candles too, like these gorgeous sweater sleeves featured by Digs Digs. I’d suggest putting the candles in glass cylinders first and placing the knitted wool over the glass to prevent fires.

Pillar candles with knitted sweater sleeves

Sweet Treats

Got some extra Christmas candy lying around? Do your waistline a bit of a favor by using them for decoration instead of eating them. Etsy shop Pine Knobs and Crickets sells these cute little mason jar candle holders filled with candies, which are easy enough to make on your own too.

Mason jars filled with Christmas candies and candles

Stonewall Kitchen puts a different twist on the Christmas candy idea by gluing them to large pillar candles.

Christmas candies glued to white pillar candles

For taper candles, candy canes can be used to match their length. Check out this neat idea from Be What We Love.

To make your own Christmas-shaped candles, you can actually just use regular cookie cutters. Pop Sugar has a great DIY tutorial for how to do this.

Frosty Warmth

You can’t exactly bring snow inside or anywhere near a flame, but you can certainly recreate the look. For this, epsom salts and some optional glitter will do the trick. These mason jar candle holders from Her Toolbelt use epsom salts to trace out some very wintery designs.

Frosted winter-themed mason jar candle holders with epsom salts

As an alternative to epsom salts, you can opt for a less messy white craft marker or paint to draw some snowflakes on your mason jars, like this project from A Beautiful Mess.

Frosted mason jar votives with snowflakes

If you’re not afraid of glitter, you can use it on your candle holders to add a real shimmery effect that stands out in the light of the flame. Check out these gorgeous icicle candle holders from Homemade Home Ideas.

Glitter on glass cylinders made to look like icicles

As a very simplified option, you could just fill some mason jars with epsom salts and place candles in them, like these from My Untangled Life. Looks just like real snow!

Mason jars with candles and epsom salt for snow

Or why not go all out by combining the snowy epsom salt effect with the shimmeriness of glitter?! Chatelaine featured these beautiful colored mason jars that have been rolled in both the salts and the glitter.

Mason jars rolled in glitter and epsom salts

Floating Flames

Floating candles look beautiful no matter what, thus making them an easy DIY option for you to try this holiday season. Try filling some pretty glass bowls with Christmas plants and flowers, like these creations with holly in them, from Christian PF.

Glass bowls filled with water, holly, and floating candles

Pop Sugar even shows how you can use a simple wine glass and some cranberries with a floating candle for a super easy and elegant idea.

Floating candle in wine glass with water and cranberries

Got a few extra Christmas ball ornaments that didn’t fit on the tree? Throw them in a big glass cylinder like this example from Brady Lou, and pair them up with some round floating candles that blend right in.

Large glass cylinder with Christmas ball ornaments and floating candles

Candles are always beautiful around the holidays, but please be extra careful if you plan to use them! Don’t put candles in any places where they could easily be knocked over or catch fire to something. And please, don’t leave your candles unattended either. No matter how great they may look, you never want to sacrifice safety.