DIY Christmas Scented Candles: 5 Essential Oil Blend Recipes

Picture a small candle glowing beside your Christmas decorations, adding a warm seasonal scent that makes an ordinary December evening feel a little more special.

This DIY Christmas scented candle starts with a single beeswax base and gives you five essential oil blend recipes to choose from.

Make the base, select your favorite blend, and follow the same steps for each version.

Unlike my Candy Cane candle, which uses soy wax, this Christmas candle uses beeswax. It creates a firm candle and is a lovely slow-burning choice for those long winter evenings.

Neither soy wax nor beeswax is a ‘better’ choice for making a Christmas candle in a jar. They are just different and create two different types of candles. Beeswax pours and troubleshoots a little differently than soy wax.

What You’ll Need to Make a Scented Candle in a Jar

Ingredients:

• 2 cups White Beeswax Pellets
• 1-2 Red Candle Dye Chips (to desired shade)
• 1 Cotton Candle Wick with Metal Tab (sized for a 7-oz jar)
• 26-30 drops Essential Oil Blend of Choice (see recipes below)
• 1 7-oz Glass Jar

Equipment:

• 1 Double Boiler or Wax Melter
• 1 Candy or Wax Thermometer
• 1 each Wick Sticker or Hot Glue, and a Wick Centering Tool or Clothespin

How to Make a Christmas Scented Candle

Step 1: Set up your wick

Attach the wick tab to the center of the jar bottom with a wick sticker or a small dab of hot glue, then use a centering tool or clothespin to hold it upright and centered.

Step 2: Melt the beeswax

Melt the beeswax pellets until fully liquid in a double boiler on gentle heat. Using a double boiler over a low, gentle flame is key.

Beeswax takes longer to melt compared to soy, so give yourself a little extra time. Don’t increase the flame to melt the wax faster. This will scorch the wax, and the candle won’t have a smooth finish.

Step 3: Add color

Once melted, add a red dye chip and stir until the color is fully and evenly blended. Add a second chip if you want a deeper red.

You can add liquid candle dye if that’s what you have on hand.

Step 4: Add your essential oil blend

Remove the wax from the heat, let it cool for a bit, and stir in your chosen blend (see recipes below).

Important note: Add the essential oil while the wax is still melted but not steaming. High temperatures can cause the essential oil to evaporate quickly, and your candle will not have any scent.

Step 5: Pour and cure

Pour the wax into your prepared jar, leaving the wick centered, then let it cure undisturbed for at least 24 hours before trimming the wick and burning.

If there is any tunneling, melt the remaining wax and do a quick pour in the center to fill it up.

Wrap your finished candle in an airtight container and store it in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight to help preserve both scent and color.

I’ve kept the process here brief so the focus stays on the recipes.

If this is your first time making a candle in a jar, you’ll find the detailed step-by-step tutorial with troubleshooting tips in my beginner’s guide to making beeswax candles with essential oils.

Tips for Scaling Up the Recipe to Make Multiple Scented Candles

If you’re making more than one candle, melt and color the beeswax in separate batches, one per blend. Do not melt one large batch and try to split it.

Each blend needs its own color and essential oils stirred in while the wax is still workable, so a single big batch won’t let you customize each jar.

You’ll also likely need to reheat the wax between filling one jar and the next. This repeated reheating can weaken the scent throw.

For these reasons, it’s best to melt only what you need for one candle at a time.

If you want to make a set of five candles, you’ll need the same ingredients listed above multiplied by five and about 10 cups of beeswax total.

2 Things Worth Knowing Before You Scent Your Christmas Candle

Beeswax carries its own naturally sweet scent, which is lovely on its own but can soften a lighter essential oil blend. The candle blend recipes below lean toward warmer, spicier blends that hold their own against it.

Essential oils lose some of their strength once mixed into a thick wax like beeswax or soy, so a candle needs a noticeably heavier drop count than a diffuser to produce the same scent throw. That’s why the recipes below call for more drops per blend than you’d use for a diffuser version of the same scent.

5 Essential Oil Blend Recipes

Each of these blends is a candle-specific version of a scent family from one of my full seasonal collections, so the ratios below are proportioned for a poured candle rather than a diffuser.

Pick one, or make all five for a full set of holiday scents.

1. Traditional Christmas Blend

Vibe: Classic and a little nostalgic, like a fresh-cut tree in the living room.

Recipe (7-oz candle):

• 12 drops Fir Needle
• 10 drops Cinnamon Bark
• 8 drops Clove Bud

This is the blend to reach for if you want your candle to smell like the holidays your grandmother would recognize. It works well anywhere in the house, though it’s especially nice in an entryway or living room where guests will notice it first.

If you love this combination, in this traditional Christmas diffuser blend collection, you’ll find 16 more variations built around the same cozy, classic profile

2. Merry and Bright Blend

Vibe: Cheerful and citrusy up front, with a warm spiced finish.

Recipe (7-oz candle):

• 9 drops Lemon
• 9 drops Sweet Orange
• 4 drops Cinnamon Bark
• 4 drops Fir Balsam

This blend opens brighter and fruitier than the other four, thanks to the lemon and sweet orange, before settling into a soft cinnamon and fir finish.

It’s a nice pick for daytime gatherings or a kitchen that could use a lighter, more cheerful scent than the spicier blends above.

In this Fun Fruity Christmas diffuser blend collection, you’ll find more citrus-forward options if this one’s your style.

3. Christmas Tree Blend

Vibe: Green, resinous, and a little woodsy, like walking through a tree lot in December.

Recipe (7-oz candle):

• 14 drops Fir Needle
• 10 drops Spruce
• 6 drops Cedarwood

This is the blend for anyone who wants their candle to smell like the tree itself rather than a bakery or a spice rack. It pairs particularly well as a companion scent if you already have a real tree up, since it reinforces rather than competes with that natural evergreen smell.

Explore these Christmas tree essential oil recipes for eight more diffuser blends that capture this same effect.

4. Citrus & Spice Blend

Vibe: Bright and a little warm, like mulled cider on the stove.

Recipe (7-oz candle):

• 14 drops Sweet Orange
• 8 drops Cinnamon Bark
• 8 drops Ginger

This one leans brighter than the Traditional blend. The orange keeps it from feeling too heavy, making it a good fit for kitchens or gathering spaces where you want something festive but not overwhelming.

If this scent family is your favorite, check out the full Festive Citrus and Spice diffuser blend collection for more ways to use it in your diffuser.

5. Gingerbread Blend

Vibe: Warm and a little sweet, like a fresh batch of cookies out of the oven.

Recipe (7-oz candle):

• 10 drops Ginger
• 8 drops Cinnamon Bark
• 6 drops Clove Bud
• 6 drops Vanilla Botanical Extract

The vanilla botanical extract softens the spice here, so this blend reads more like fresh-baked cookies than a straight spice mix. It’s a nice one for baking days or for gifting, since it’s an easy scent for most people to place and enjoy right away.

These Gingerbread diffuser blends include a few more variations of the same cozy-kitchen idea, worth a look if you love that distinctive sweet-and-spicy baking aroma.

Customization Idea: Use different colored wax for each candle to match the scent. For example, add green wax chips to the candle scented with the Christmas tree blend.

How to Use Homemade Scented Beeswax Candles

For the first burn, let the candle burn long enough to form a full, even melt pool across the top, usually 1-2 hours for a 7-oz jar. This helps prevent tunneling on later burns.

Trim the wick to ¼ inch before each lighting, and keep individual burn sessions to 3-4 hours at a time.

Always burn candles on a stable, heat-resistant surface, away from drafts, children, and pets, and never leave a burning candle unattended.

If you notice heavy smoking, a mushrooming wick, or a large or flickering flame during any burn, extinguish the candle, trim the wick, and let it cool completely before relighting.

Handle essential oils carefully. Avoid skin contact and inhaling directly from the bottle. Some scents can be strong for sensitive noses or for pets, so check oil safety for animals before burning around them.

Christmas Scented Candles: Packaging & Gifting Ideas

These Christmas scented candles make an easy handmade gift on their own, or as part of a small holiday set.

Pair one with a coordinating hand cream or lip balm for a simple gift basket, or make a few in different blends and let the recipient choose their favorite. A sprig of faux holly or a red-and-white ribbon tied around the jar dresses it up nicely without much extra effort.

This candle also scales well across different kinds of gifting.

For a bigger gift, add it to a thoughtful gift basket for her, mixed and matched with assorted handmade scented bath and body items. It works just as well in family gift baskets.

For something smaller and more budget-friendly, like a set for coworkers, these diy co-worker gift sets show how to scale it down to a mini jar with a simple label, so the cost stays low.

Another easy gift idea is a boxed set of Christmas Scented Candles. Pour one candle in each scent, label the jar and package them together as a “choose your Christmas scent” gift box, so the recipient can try all five without committing to just one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Christmas scented candles are easy to make, and having five easy essential oil blends to choose from makes the process seamless and fun.

Keep a few jars on hand, and you’ll always have a handmade gift or a bit of holiday scent ready to go.