Does anyone else have REAL candles on their tree?

[funnypeculiar]

or am I some kind of luddite/genetic throwback??

Or, ideed, both.

Not on the tree, too risky and anyway i like to have the lights on all evening. But we do have one of those German nativity pyramids with candles, the whole thing rotates with the heat rising from the flames - the LOs are transfixed by it and do sit quietly when it is lit.

I do! I do! I love them and it always has my MIL in a real twitter about safety, which is another advantage.
We also only put them on for short periods of sitting quietly and watching.
We haven't had a fire yet...

My mother still has them, and did through 5 children.

We haven't really started having our own tree yet, but will this year and I would love to have proper candles.

Also was brought up with no tinsel or shinny baubles - so now really don't want them on my tree. Does this make me a snob?

shiny baubles look fab with real candles

Before children I did this (and yes, getting the candles to stay upright can be a pain). However, once I had children I decided it was too much hassle and rather too risky. It does look lovely though

hurrah - some fellow pyros AND some slight disapproval - my ideal response We're having a real fire installed before Christmas too - do you think I have a problem??

Jennifersofia - my mum found some new lead lametta last year - Hawkins bazaar? past Times?
Angua - we don't have tionsel - prtly b/cos even I feel that's a bit of a fire hazard, & partly snobbery I suspect. But shiny baubles rule!! My parents had candles through 4 kids and some VERY excitable dogs too. No serious burns visits...
NotQuiteACockney - I maybe love firefighter tooooo much. (And family tradition is to only put the tree up on Christmas Eve so it doesn't dry out too much...LOVELY way to spend Christmas eve afternoon - although remember being desparate to put it up earlier as a kid.)

We do too. DH is Danish and ALL Christmas trees in Denmark are lit like this. We have the most beautiful candle holders which come from Denmark. Every year a new design is produced and MIL sends us it. The candles are slightly difficult to source, but the tree looks beautiful. Have had candles on trees throughout two DSs and no problems yet, but we normally have candles burning at dinner time anyway - Danes are VERY into candles at all times - so they know how to behave round them.

Just to add that we too only put up the tree on Christmas Eve (those Danish traditions again).

Do your candle holder people have a website Libra - sound lovely!

"i suppose a real tree is quite hard to set on fire isn't it, they don't burn that well"

aren't christmas trees pine trees and thus full of flammable resin?

Sorry, can't do links, but look here: www.royalshopping.com/pages/1443/1681 The ones we get are designed by Georg Jensen. Danes are very hot on knowing the name of anyone who designed everything - I know the names of everyone who designed every piece of kitchenware we have!!

We also have sparklers at Christmas - I think that is another Danish thing.
Did I say that we live in an entirely wooden house? A large log cabin with a big wood-burning fire so worrying about a few candles is pretty pointless!

wow libra - lovely site. just off to work out what 1 krona is worth exactly before spending up!!

God no! We'd be in flames in moments....Kid's can't resist fire. I think I've bred a family of pyromaniacs. Mum was brought up largely in her gp's house which was massive - every christmas they had a kids' party for all local children. The tree was huuuge and covered in real candles. They had two footman standing next to it holding buckets of water

libra, I think your post hastruly put it in perspective and this household may well have real candles burning on the tree again this year

Winnie - go for it! I think the sight of a lit Christmas tree is just magical. Sorry to keep banging on about them, but once the tree is lit on Christmas Eve, the Danes join hands and dance round the tree and then dance round the house singing a song that is roughly translated as 'Now it is Christmas again'. Although I am not Danish myself, I think it is very important that the DSs are brought up with these traditions so we do all of this. However, I refuse to allow them to open presents on Christmas Eve, which is traditional in Denmark. We do, however, put out porridge for the nisse (elf-types) who live under the house.

We've always opened presents on Christmas Eve too - I find it's so much more peaceful than Christmas Day. With the children we've spread them over Christmas Eve and had Father Christmas come in the night for Christmas morning. They get so much stuff that spreading it out makes the fun last much longer.

Your christmas sounds lovely Libra!
At the risk of being HUGELY controversial, bet loads of people get hurt with fairy lights - electrical fires and falling off ladders wrapped in them and stuff...

Not as bad now that you get low voltage ones, though. If a bulb smashed in the 'olden days' you'd have 2 little bare wires sticking out with 240 volts running through them!

In fact I'm really surprised that shops still sell them - I'd rather take a chance with candles, any day!

We ALWAYS had real candles on the tree (in those german clip-on holders) when I was a child, and my parents still do. 'Can we light the tree tonight?' was one of the Christmas questions - it went up on Christmas eve, came down around Epiphany, and we perhaps lit the candles four or five times. So much prettier than electric things.
That said, my pyro-phobic father has now merged family Christmas traditions, so that they have both a tree (his tradition - unlit) and a bare apple bough (mother's tradition - with candles) which stays in water long after the decorations have gone, and comes into flower sometime in February - a nice reminder that spring is coming. And it would be very hard to burn down a bare apple bough!

oh I must do this this year

Although am dithering about whether to buy a tree at all, tbh.

Christ no!!!!!

We cut up our Xmas tree after Xmas was over and burnt it on the open fire last year to get rid of it. I was horrified at how quickly it caught fire!!

No, because that would be effing insane with children like mine.