The $12 Michaels Holiday Find I’m Keeping Up All Winter Long (I Got 2!)
Decorating for the holidays is one of the traditions I hold most dear. Putting ornaments on the tree while listening to Bing Crosby, smelling the vanilla aroma of cookies baking in the oven, strewing garland along the mantel, pinning the mistletoe into place — it’s just a feel-good bonanza. This year especially, the unseasonably warm fall weather in New York and unsettling news headlines have made a dose of decorating cheer all the more essential. When I Zoomed with my coworker last week, I could see she’d already set up her tree and hung her stockings to squeeze out some early holiday joy.
The only bittersweet part of decorating is knowing in the back of my mind that I’ll have to take it all down in a month or so. Of course, there are no real rules about how early is too early to decorate for a holiday — or too late to keep it up — but after a certain point the societal pressure and feeling of living in a snow globe start to get to me. That’s why, when I first found this candlestick holder from one of Michaels’ holiday collections, I was thrilled.
Gold in color and shaped like an upside-down horn, the iron candlestick holder is a festive nod to Christmas without being clad in red and green and wearing a Santa hat. It comes in two sizes — 8.4 inches (I have this one) and 10.4 inches — so it stands a little taller than most of my older candlestick holders, and brings some nice height variety to my dining table and mantel to make it seem a little extra special.
I have a pair, and I like how they look integrated with my other tapers and tchotchkes, so I have one in the center of my table where I can easily light it when I serve dinner and another next to my TV tucked among some other candles and things. Mixing it in with the decor I keep up all year long also helps these holiday gems blend in even more seamlessly, and makes it highly likely that I’ll be using them well past December, January, and (who am I kidding?) probably even February. Honestly, until Daylight Saving Time strikes again, I’m keeping around any mini doses of holiday joy that I possibly can.
If you love the look of candlestick holders but can’t keep them lit around your home because of kids or pets, pick up a few of these adorable flameless tree-shaped tapers while you’re at Michaels, too. So long, winter blues.