24 Dickens Christmas Red Highly Scented Votive Candles Long-Burning

My love of candles began back in the late forties on birthday cakes. Let’s fast forward to the sixties. On second thought, let’s not discuss the sixties. My real search for the best scented candles began in 2000 as a result of another hobby, rescuing homeless cats and kittens. Starting at the bottom of the wax barrel, I tried dollar store candles, 4 for a buck. Some wouldn’t even burn in the fireplace. What do they make candles out of in China anyway? Candles from big box hobby and mart stores were a step up the ladder but not satisfactory for my needs. After spending a few hundred dollars on luxury and gourmet candles from the popular 600 pound gorillas in the candle industry whose store fronts resemble a gourmet bakery of cakes and desserts, I discovered that the triple scented votive candles, $2.00 each. Burning in a votive holder, the scent permeates a larger area than the jar candles in our home with an open main living area of 1200 square feet. Luxury 22-ounce jar candles, $24.00 to $28.00, 110-125 hours burn time, require a tool box full of fancy wick trimmers, snuffers and little gadgets to lift the freshly snuffed wick straight up so it will be ready to light next time. And that little wad of soot that’s left after the wick is trimmed usually falls into the jar. Then I have to get a pair of tweezers to retrieve it but it always leaves a black smudge in the wax. If I do retrieve it, the smudge takes on a life of its own. Don’t forget, you are paying for the jar as well as the candle. These are only a few reasons why I love quality votive candles. Fall is the time for a fresh batch of scented candles. Amazon’s special brew of tea compels me to shop with them first. So doing, I ran across these Enlightened Ambience Candles. They had great reviews and were half the price of the luxury brands I’d been buying. I like to try new products and free Prime shipping is icing on the cake. When I opened the box of Christmas scented candles, the stimulating aroma filled the room. This was a very pleasant surprise. “This won’t last,” I said to my self. I placed a 1.5 ounce candle in a votive holder with an inside diameter of 1.75 inches at the top. Ten hours later, it was still burning and a festive holiday aroma filled the house. At the final flicker, the votive holder was clean on the inside without a trace of soot. I pried the metal wick holder out with a small slotted screwdriver. It was simple. If you don’t do this, pretty soon you’ll have a cup full of wick holders. Walking into the house from outdoors was a real treat. If you are going to be home for 10 hours, light an Enlightened Ambience votive candle in a safe place and forget about it. Actually, you can’t forget about it because you’ll be consciously enjoying the pleasing aroma the full time. Based on my first test, I’ll get over 240 hours of burn time from one bulk case of 24 candles which is double that of a luxury jar candle. The follow up email from Enlightened Ambience was a rare class act and exemplified what excellent customer service should be in today’s marketplace. I’m ordering 2 more bulk cases of 24, if I can decide which two scents I want to try next. UPDATE 11/9/15 After burning 12 of these votives over the past month, I’m more pleased than ever. These Enlightened Ambience Votives are great. A burning candle should never be left unattended. More often than not, I’m not in one place from 10 to 12 hours which is the life of these votives. My stationary time its more like 4 hours in the evenings during a ball game and then it’s time for me and the votive to go to sleep. Here are a few hints that might help with getting the maximum pleasure and production from your votives. When snuffing a votive candle that has been burning a few hours, gently press the wick below the melted wax and then lift it back straight up. There is NO smoke. I use an old stainless steel shish kabob skewer with 1/2 inch of the end bent at 90 degrees. This makes the dunking and the lifting of the wick a cinch. However, any 12 to 14 gauge wire will do, even a coat hangar. One of the biggest complaints is that half-life votives, when re-lit from cold, do not burn with the same high degree of perfection as when they were extinguished. The reason is that the wax and glass holder are COLD which greatly diminishes the integrity of the burning process. I place my half-used votives & holder in a toaster over for about 2 minutes before I light them. TEST & EXPERIMENT. The wax needs to melt but nobody needs a wax fire blazing in the kitchen. I use an inexpensive laser temperature gun to test the wax and find that 130 degrees to 135 degrees is about right. Use oven gloves to remove the glass votive holder from the oven. When I re-light my warm votives, the wick is already soaked in hot wax and they instantly burn with the same high degree of perfection and aroma as when extinguished. Here’s the best part. I get increased burn time right down to the wick holder. Years ago, I bought some rose colored votive holders from one of the 600-pound-gorilla candle companies. After a couple of years, the pink glaze began coming off the inside of the glass and looked rather ugly. Most all colored votive holders are made like this. Unless the glass is colored through and through during manufacture, you are better off buying clear votive holders. They offer relaxing viewing pleasure right down to the last flicker. The pleasing aroma and soft glow of an Enlightened Ambience Votive on a cold day with a cup of hot tea is a bit of Heaven.

These candles are now among my favorites!! I could smell cinnamon when UPS handed the package to me! (They arrived in two days!) I liked them so much, I have been lighting several each day; I light the candles mid morning, and they will burn well into 10 or 11 at night. I have seen the few bad reviews here, ands I must say that has not been my experience. The wonderful aroma of these candles reminds me of when in was a child at my grandparents for Christmas. I have some high end pine candles in a jar, and when I light these red votivess, the heavenly cinnamon Christmas scent is stronger than the pine! As for the wick curling, if you light these candles and then two hours later blow them out, like any candle worth its salt,it's hard for them to bounce back and burn all the wax, clean to the bottom. The Yankee candles (large) that I have do the same thing. Also, if you put your candle near a draft, the flame will dance around and cause the wick to curl over. So I avoid those areas in my house, and they burn clean to the bottom. Also, your glass votive holder dimensions must be exactly as the manufacturer calls for. Anything bigger, and the wax will pool to the bottom and the candle will go out. Just a tip: I like to put the small glass votive in a decorative, see-through Christmas holder, put a ring of either real or artificial pine and red berries around it, and enjoy the fragrant glow on a cold December night!!! Merry Christmas!

I burnt 3 of these candles in a votive holder (no draft) and none burned even 8 hrs as stated in marketing features that said 8-10 hrs. The longest of the three burned 6 1/2 hrs. I purchased these because of the burning length….scent is important and we found them to be underwhelming in that respect also. I am not sure consistency with this company isn’t a problem as others seem happy with burn length & scent. I truly wanted these to be awesome..the packaging is..product not!

They smell good and last a decent amount of time; the last several times I have ordered them they have been melted together. This makes these candles melt too quickly and annoying to grab a new candle.

Had to share my thoughts on these candles. Some of the reviews almost stopped me from ordering. I'm so glad I rolled the dice. While I've had some better votives these are of GREAT qualuty at an amazing price. In my opinion there is no citronella fragrance as mentioned in another review. I've had some Christmas candles that may have a more significant Christmas fragrance but these are pretty darn amazing. I have no complaints and highly recommend them. This will be the first place I look for future votive needs. I've been paying $2 each for the ones I'm purchasing locally. I'm very thankful to have a lower cost, high quality option.

Don’t last more than an hour.

I like these. Clean burning, very little residual wax in a properly fitting votive cup, and just a hint of scent. The description says "highly scented" but I think a better description would be lightly scented, but that's not a bad thing IMO. These burn at different rates depending on the candle holder. My experience has been about 16 hours when burned in a true votive cup that the candles fit snugly in, as little as 4 hours in a larger holder. I plan on buying again when I run out!

Update to original review went from 3 stars to 5 due to their customer service. They sent replacements with me requesting with a hand written note of apology. The replacements burn beautifully! From February 2021...About 20% of the box had short wicks that burned off leaving 1/3 of candle unusable. The smell is fantastic but not sure it’s worth it.