Christmas candles in windows at holiday time

[Anonymous]

I use the cheapy ones from CVS and they work well. I wish they were a little brighter but otherwise they look really nice, and the timer feature has never broken down once.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dropping I to the thread to ask for specific recs for candles. I have some from Plow and Hearth with very anemic lights that never seem to last a season, even with fresh batteries every year. I feel like I spend half my holiday season trying to fix the window lights. The ones I have are battery operated, sit on the window sill, work by turning on when you screw in the bulb to the base. No remote. No suction cups.
Sources you would recommend?

https://www.amazon.com/Flameless-Removable-Candleholders-Batteries-Included/dp/B07V2TVPSD/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=1A49KD2S1EU9V&keywords=window%2Bcandles%2Bsuction%2Bcups&qid=1663539909&sprefix=window%2Bcandles%2Bsuction%2Bcups%2Caps%2C54&sr=8-3-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc&th=1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids never messed with the candles. If you are worried, tell them Santa needs the lights on to find them.

+1 And when I was a kid I loved that "special" light, did not disrupt my sleep at all.

Me too - it was that magical time of the year. It makes me so sad how little the DC area decorates. I never see window candles in Montgomery County.

But we have a brick colonial with 4 downstairs and 5 upstairs and put candles in them all. We have the ones that are 8 hours on, 16 hours off. They turn on at 4pm and go off at midnight. LOVE THEM!

OP - use the suction cups. They work fine.

You must be in down county. Up county everyone decorates

[Anonymous]

NP and I want to do this! I haven't really seen it other than in holiday cartoons. I guess it's a regional tradition, because I don't understand why it would look weird to only have them on the bottom floor.

Can someone link me to a picture of a window with this? Is it one candle per window, centered?

[Anonymous]

Do you put them on the window sill? What if you have a honeycomb cellular shade? Put them in between shade and window?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had them in all the windows last year, including the bedrooms and they are behind the blinds and don't bother anyone at night.

There are all kinds of different models on the market now, and most work on timers, so you can schedule them to go off before bed time, if the light is an issue. Many have remotes, so turning on and off is easy. I left a remote on my DC's bedside table in case the light bothered him, but he never used it. Look on Amazon, as well as catalogs that specialize in seasonal decor (I think Plow & Hearth has a bunch).

This is what we did. We got ours on Amazon. We use the suction cups and they work great. Just wet them lightly before adhering. Ours can be on a timer or turned on and off via a remote. My daughter loves helping turn them on and off. Agree that they aren’t bright at all behind the blinds. My kids slept with them on. I had them all go on at dark and out around 11pm.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know the point of the candles?

[Anonymous]

Following. If anyone has any tips/ particular string lights they like, too, that would be great. We just bought a house and I grew up in an apartment, so this is all new to me. But we’d like to do something festive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the point of the candles?

Well, they are pretty. They add light at the physically darkest time of the year. There is also that a candle in the window is a welcome to travelers, possibly returning home.

[Anonymous]

Oh my goodness I grew up every year having to plug in all the lights around my house… now they have remotes!?

Does anyone have a recommendation for theirs? There are many options on Amazon, I can’t tell the difference

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the point of the candles?

For most people in this area they are now probably just part of the pretty secular decorations. Traditionally from my Catholic family as a child I learned they were about lighting the way for the Christ Child, a sign of welcome/open door, that kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

Mine only stay on for 6 hours. So I turn them on at 5pm (which is when it gets dark that time of year) and they're off by 11pm. My kids haven't ever complained. The candles are in front of the blinds and drapes, so the kids don't see the light.

I put fresh batteries in every year. When I pack the candles away, I remove all the batteries and use them in other things. Otherwise the lights will look different with varying levels of battery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the point of the candles?

For most people in this area they are now probably just part of the pretty secular decorations. Traditionally from my Catholic family as a child I learned they were about lighting the way for the Christ Child, a sign of welcome/open door, that kind of thing.

Yeah, that's the answer. I was just wondering if anyone knows that anymore, or if they are treated as purely decorative (which it seems like from this conversation about first floor vs second floor).

[Anonymous]

Where I grew up in Germany, we used actual candles. Pretty safe due to the construction of the buildings and houses in the city. Looks really pretty to see eintire apartment buildings like that.

[Anonymous]

I bought a remote control operated set from Amazon. No switches for the kids to turn on and off. Still trying to get the timers right.