Spooky Halloween Candle Ideas

How to Use Candles To Make Your House Look Spooky
How to Use Candles To Make Your House Look Spooky

Candles add to the ambiance of any room…and Halloween is no exception.  In the movies about vampires and Frankenstein, candles are always the main source of lighting and are still associated with those traditional Halloween themes.

You can use the same philosophy to create your own spooky Halloween room.

Keep reading to find out how to use candles to make your house look spooky for Halloween.

Make Your Own Gothic Candle Holders

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These DIY Halloween candle holders are made from mason jars and black lace. They’re super simple to put together and add a touch of goth to your Halloween decor.

Hang a Candle Chandelier

Candle Chandelier
Candle Chandelier

Candle chandeliers add a lot of drama to a room at any time of year.

Use them with other Halloween decorations to add even more atmosphere to your room.

Replace Chandelier Bulbs

Halloween Candles And Chandelier
Halloween Candles And Chandelier

Make any light fixture that uses chandelier bulbs look like it has candles by exchanging the regular bulbs for flicker bulbs.  This makes all of the lights look like old-school gas lights.

Use Flame-less Candles

Flameless Halloween Candles
Flameless Halloween Candles

You might also consider using the flame-less candles which are now available in many different shapes (including tapers, tea lights and pillar candles).  These create a similar atmosphere but eliminate the risk of starting a fire or burning someone.  This is especially important if you have many guests, young children or pets, or many Halloween decorations (such as spider webs and gauze) that may accidentally get caught in an open flame.

Some of these candles even come with a remote control so that they can all be turned on and off at one time (a real time-saver if you have a lot of them!)

Hang Flame-less Candles From the Ceiling

Hang flameless candles from the ceiling
Hang flameless candles from the ceiling

Use black thread to hang flame-less candles from the ceiling.  They look like they are floating in air.

In this case, the background is the Spooky Sky Scene Setter, so there is even less chance that anyone will be able to see the threads.

Want to know more about Halloween Scene Setters?  Click here to see our post on how to use them.

Use Colored Candles

Red candles add to the atmosphere
Red candles add to the atmosphere

These red candles add even more atmosphere to this Halloween party.

You can also get the flame-less version of these tea lights.  Some of them come with timers so that you don’t have to go around turning them on every night…they come on automatically at the same time every evening.  This is a life-saver for me when I’m throwing a party since it’s one less thing I have to worry about right before guests arrive.

Candelabras Add Height

Halloween Candelabra
Halloween Candelabra

If you really want to add height and drama, add some candelabras to your scene.  These do not have to be “Halloween-specific” candle holders, which is nice because you can use them for “real” events all year round.

Halloween Candelabra
Halloween Candelabra

Dress your every day candelabra up by adding other Halloween candles around them, or draping the bottoms with creepy cloth.

Add Halloween Skull Candles

Halloween Candles
Halloween Candles

There are so many inexpensive options for skull candles that you can easily add a few to your haunted house decor.

Use Bleeding Candles

Bleeding Candles
Bleeding Candles

I especially love the candles that start to “bleed” after they have been lit for a while.

A square vase full of mini-skulls with a mini-light behind them is the base for the skull candle in this picture.

Comments or questions on how to use candles to make your house look spooky?  Tell us in the section below.

This post was originally published on September 21, 2014 but was updated with new content on February 12, 2024.


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