I own about twenty-five taper candles. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but I know myself. Twenty-five is only the beginning. I’m a collector. I like to hoard items like stickers, old receipts, invitations, letters, buttons—and, only recently, taper candles. I fell in love with taper candles after seeing many aesthetically pleasing pictures and videos of tablescapes complete with taper candles and matching tablecloths, plates, napkins. There is just something so cozy, warm, and fun about having candles on the table during dinner—they turn every event into a party! One day, I hope to be the home where people love to gather to celebrate, even (and especially) the little things.
My candle collection started on a Goodwill trip from Chicago out to the Goodwill in Joliet, Illinois. I found two baby pink taper candles that fit the aesthetic I’ve just described. I also discovered two cheap gold candle holders. That pair of candles sat by themselves in my room in those gold candle holders for months. My collection tripled after my family and I went through my grandmother’s house after she passed away. She was an accomplished hostess, so I’m not sure why I was surprised when we discovered a chest of drawers full of assorted taper candles, ranging in color from maroon to orange to pale green. I stored my growing collection in a low vase like a bouquet of flowers.
At an estate sale in Chattanooga last summer I found two pairs of unopened taper candles in light blue and sage green for a dollar. I don’t carry cash anymore, so the woman behind me in line kindly paid for my candles with a check. In an antique mall in Grand Rapids, I found a set of bright kelly green candles. This winter, I acquired a single beautiful light blue taper candle. This one doesn’t have a pair because I only purchased it as security in case any of the other dozen I ordered broke—I gifted my bridesmaids pairs of taper candles. See, I don’t just hoard them!
Last weekend in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, I went a little outside my normal mode of operation by purchasing some cobalt blue hand-dipped taper candles that I hung on my wall. This weekend, for Valentine’s Day, my fiance gifted me a pair of cherry red candles. A few minutes after this, he bent over the table they were sitting on, fully lit, and his hair caught fire. Disclaimer for those who may be inspired to start their own taper candle collection: candles are still dangerous.
My candle collection is displayed on my dresser, still a bouquet of candles in a gold vase. A few candles have found their way into candle holders, and even less have ever actually been lit. Like my sticker collection that is collecting dust in my desk drawer, or my hundreds of letters stuffed in shoeboxes under my bed, or the old receipts that have been waiting months to be made into a collage, will the candles in my collection go unburned? While I have every intention of burning them in the future (for worthwhile occasions, of course), I am worried that my obsession will never stop and my collection will soon outgrow the gold vase on my dresser.
Will I be a grandmother with a chest of drawers full of unopened candles? Will my children associate me with every taper candle they see, in the same way I associate my collection with my grandmother? Or will they remember me as the type of host Grandmom was, one who opened her home to many, who filled that home with laughter and light, warmth and joy? My hope would be that the latter is true.
I suppose that would require me to finally burn some of them. But life is long and there are plenty of candles to go around.
Carlisle Patete (‘22) came to Calvin University from the mountains of North Carolina and graduated with a double major in film & media and creative writing. After brief stints in Los Angeles and Chicago, she now resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she enjoys sweet tea on her front porch and identifying every tree and bird she runs into on any hiking trail.
