Sonoma County florist shares ways to illuminate your holiday table with candles

It’s Dec. 24, and candles are being lit in homes across the country.

Little flames are flickering on tables heaped with Christmas Eve goodies. And since the first night of Hanukkah also falls on Dec. 24 this year - an uncommon convergence - Jewish families will light the first candle of the menorah just as Christmas trees are starting to twinkle after sunset.

From the Roman Saturnalia of antiquity, with candles symbolizing the return of light after the solstice, to the Germanic and Norse per-Christian Yule celebrations with their flaming logs, light has been an indelible symbol of winter festivals and traditions. Fire represents both warmth and light in the coldest, darkest time of the year.

And yet, overhead and other bright lights are too harsh.

“Candles just have a soft, warm light that make everybody who walks in a room immediately feel more welcome and warmer,” said Dundee Butcher, the owner of Russian River Flower School + Events.

If you haven’t already dreamed up a dramatic, Pinterest-worthy arrangement for your candlelit evening ahead, Butcher, a Headsburg floral designer, has a few quick and easy last-minute tricks to dress up your table or mantle or around your menorah with things you already have on hand or can pick up at the supermarket.

In fact, foraging your own home and landscape is half the fun, said Butcher. Married to a Brit, Butcher lived 12 years in London, where she learned traditional and formal flower arranging at Jane Packer Flowers, McQueen’s and the Covent Garden Academy, and did work for upscale venues like the 5-star Claridge’s and Connaught hotels and for the Royal Family at Kensington Palace.

But when she arrived in more relaxed Healdsburg three years ago, she embraced the popular naturalistic style of Wine Country as well. She teaches private classes and does event work out of her studio in downtown Healdsburg.

While fancy candles can add to the magic of a holiday table, in a pinch, you can make do with the pillars or tapers or votives you already have in your cupboard. The key is to think creatively and find the right elements to place around them, Butcher said.

Oranges, pomegranates, pears, buckeye pods, ivy, berries, beautiful ball ornaments or other treasures and heirlooms can all be put to use in an arrangement with rustic elegance. No need to buy special candleholders either. Look for bowls, vases, candle stands and holders that are already on your shelves.

Butcher’s favorite kind of candle is beeswax, which is not hard to find in Sonoma County; Oak Forest Designs in Sonoma even makes glittery ones. “They have a really warm color and I like the natural smell,” she said. While the market is flooded with scented candles infused with the smells of Christmas, from pine needles to gingerbread (has someone come up with a potato latke candle aroma yet?), you should avoid scented candles on the table.

“You don’t want anything that is going to compete with the food,” she stressed.

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, she offers a few tips more for easily but artfully incorporating candlelight:

Think in threes: An easy design formula is to consider the rule of three. Group three elements together - a candle, a flower or sprig of greenery and a third object or objects such as an ornament or winter fruit. Avoid clutter.

“You don’t really see anything when you use too many elements,” Butcher said. “Keeping it to three or five is a really good amount.”

Try trays: Butcher likes to make arrangements inside trays. This could be a more elegant tray or something rustic made of wood or metal. For example Butcher took an old Japanese tool box and placed within it a small fallen log she found in her yard with a few mushrooms growing in it as her botanical element. She added a pillar candle and nestled it within lichen, which grows wild all over Sonoma County. For her objects, she worked in several ceramic pears that she already owned. But you could also use real fruit like oranges, pomegranates or fancy whole pears. Use multiple trays if you have a long rectangular table.

Connect colors: Try to find some connecting characteristic between the elements in the box such as color. Don’t be afraid to give nature a little assist. Try using a pine cone as your object and spray paint it white, gold or silver.

Garlands: Make your own using branches cut from your own landscape and run them down the table. Eucalyptus works well this time of year or branches with berries. Then tuck your other elements among the leaves - your candles and your objects.

Be inventive with what you have: Butcher has discovered that the twisty roots of those spent grocery store orchid plants can be used to creative effect in an arrangement. She even spray paints them. To give a classy touch to an antique menorah, she sprayed painted orchid roots silver and arranged them at the base, perhaps with some berries on a branch.

Dress candle pillars and sticks with ivy: This vine is easy to find. Snip a few branches and wind them up the base of a pillar or around the base of a candlestick. If you spray paint them silver they will last a long time.

Incorporate flowers into your three-element arrangement. No need to spend a lot of money. Even small inexpensive cyclamen in red or white can be beautiful on a table.

Repeat: If you’re doing more than one arrangement for a longer table they don’t have to be mirror images but do repeat some element to drawn them together, whether it’s the same candle or the same object - like all pears or all oranges.

For a playful twist: If you have a vintage toy pick-up truck from childhood bring it out of the closet and fill the bed with flowers or pomegranates or ornaments and candle for a quick and nostalgic decorative arrangement for the table or sideboard.