Shopping for a bourbon cedar candle as a Christmas gift usually comes with one worry. Will it smell like dry wood and a good glass of bourbon once it is lit, or like a jar of pancake syrup? The answer depends on how the notes are balanced and on the wax that carries them.
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The best pick for most people on your list is Sunday Reset, our cedar and vanilla beeswax candle. It pairs dry cedar with warm vanilla, the same wood and sweetness that give bourbon cedar its fireside smell. It opens with a cold breath of peppermint that feels like Christmas morning, then settles into clove and cedar for the rest of the evening. Like every scent in our 100% beeswax candle collection, it burns on a wooden wick and is hand poured in New York City.
One honest note before the picks. MBur does not make a candle with bourbon in its name. Bourbon candles from any maker recreate the smell with fragrance, and there is no spirit in the jar. You are shopping for a scent profile, and the notes below are the ones that build it.
What makes a candle smell like bourbon and cedar
Bourbon ages in new oak barrels that are charred on the inside. The fire breaks down the wood, and over the years the spirit soaks up what the heat left behind. The biggest of those compounds is vanillin, the same molecule that gives a vanilla bean its smell.
That is why a glass of bourbon smells like vanilla and toasted wood before you take a sip. Cedar brings the second half of the pairing. Cedarwood smells dry and clean, like a fresh pencil shaving or the inside of an old hope chest.
Put the two together and you get a warm wood smell with a sweet edge. That is what people mean by bourbon cedar. It is also why the scent suits a December evening so well, when the windows are shut and the house feels closed in around you.
The scent goes wrong when the sweet side takes over. Many bourbon candles lean on butterscotch or maple to signal liquor. After an hour in a closed room, the house smells like a diner breakfast.
A good bourbon cedar gift keeps the wood in charge and lets the vanilla sit underneath it. So the first test for any candle on this list is simple. Does the wood lead, and does the sweetness stay in the background? That test points straight at the top pick.
The top pick: Sunday Reset, for the friend who wants cedar by the tree
Think of your sister on the night before Christmas Eve. Wrapping paper covers the coffee table, and the tree lights are the only lamp on in the room. She wants the house to smell like the holidays, and she has had enough of candles that smell like frosting.
This is the room the Sunday Reset beeswax candle was made for. Its full notes are Peppermint, Clove, Cedar, Patchouli, Vanilla, Eucalyptus. The first breath is cold, with peppermint and eucalyptus up front, sharp enough to clear your head the way stepping outside in December does.
Then the cold fades and the room turns warm and low. Clove arrives first, dark and sweet, like a clove pressed into an orange on the mantel. Cedar sits right behind it, dry and clean, while vanilla and patchouli give the whole thing a soft, earthy base.
That order is why it ranks first. The wood leads and the sweetness stays underneath. On top of that, the peppermint opening gives it a holiday feel that a plain cedar candle lacks.
The size to give her
For a living room with a tree, give the 12 oz size ($65). It has two wooden wicks, which melt the wide surface of the jar evenly and push the scent across a larger room. It burns for 80+ hours, enough for most evenings from the first week of December into the new year.
The wicks also make a sound. Wood holds small pockets of air and moisture in its grain, and they pop with a soft crackle as the flame reaches them. On a cold night, that sound gives an apartment with no fireplace the feel of a room with one.
The wax decides whether that cedar lasts all season
A good blend of notes can still fall flat in the wrong wax. To see why, follow paraffin from the start. Crude oil goes to a refinery, where it is heated and split into fuels.
Near the end of that process, a heavy, waxy residue is left over. Refiners clean and bleach that residue, and it becomes the paraffin in many candles on store shelves. Paraffin is petroleum waste with fragrance poured into it.
When it burns, paraffin often leaves black soot on the rim of the jar and on the wall behind it. Soot is unburned carbon, and it shows up when a flame runs hot and uneven. Nobody wants that streaked across a white mantel in the middle of the holidays.
Beeswax starts somewhere else entirely. Honeybees make it to build their comb, and beekeepers collect it as a byproduct of honey. Every MBur candle is 100% beeswax, a single-ingredient wax with no blend behind it.
Beeswax has the highest melting point of any candle wax, so the flame works through the jar more slowly. That slow burn is how the 12 oz size reaches 80+ hours. It also means the cedar and clove come off a steady pool of wax, night after night, all season long.
Two more details matter on a gift. MBur uses only phthalate-free fragrance oils. Phthalates are chemicals some fragrance makers add to make a scent hang on longer, and we leave them out.
The wax also carries no chemical dye, so it keeps the soft golden color beeswax has on its own. And beeswax burns with a light closest to natural sunlight, so in a room lit by tree bulbs the flame reads warm and gold. Those same qualities carry over to the next pick, which is for the person who hosts.
For the host who opens the house on Christmas Eve: Room Service
Every family has one person whose house becomes the center of the holiday. The oven has been on since noon and the coats are piled on the guest bed. She wants the front room to smell like a hotel bar in winter the moment the door opens.
For her, give our Room Service beeswax candle, the bestselling scent we make. It skips the cedar and leans into the other side of bourbon, the barrel. Its full notes are Saffron, White Tea, Purple Peonies, Orchid, Tobacco, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Tonka Bean.
Tobacco brings a dry, dark leaf smell, close to what you catch when you open a cigar box. Tonka bean smells like vanilla with a toasted almond edge. With the vanilla beside them, they build the warm, rounded smell of a spirit that spent years in charred oak.
Give her the same 12 oz size, with two wooden wicks for the room where everyone ends up. Room Service is the scent people pick for a space where they host. Its 80+ hours carry her from the first party in December to the last toast on New Year's Eve.
“I love these candles. ... In addition, I love the package and how carefully everything was wrapped. Im saving the wrapping paper to utilize during the xmas holiday.”
Jason H., on Room Service
That detail matters when the candle is a gift. It shows up wrapped with care, so you are halfway to the tree before you even find the tape. The next pick covers the people on your list with less room to fill.
For the neighbor down the hall or a friend in a studio
Some names on your list live in smaller spaces. A neighbor in a one-bedroom still wants her place to feel like December when she gets home. So does the coworker who just moved into her first studio.
For them, give either scent in the 5 oz size ($32). It has one wooden wick and burns 40 hours, which suits a bedroom or a studio she lights a few nights a week. One flame is plenty for a room that size.
Match the scent to the person. If she drinks her bourbon neat and loves a dark, smoky glass, give Room Service. If she wants the cedar and that cold peppermint opening, give Sunday Reset.
Picture her on December 20th, home late with her shoes kicked off by the door. She plugs in a small tabletop tree and lights the candle on the windowsill. One wooden wick crackling in a quiet apartment is all that room needs to feel like the holidays.
| Who it is for | Scent | Size | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| The friend with the tree in her living room | Sunday Reset | 12 oz, two wooden wicks, 80+ hours | Cedar and vanilla lead, with a peppermint opening that feels like Christmas |
| The holiday host | Room Service | 12 oz, two wooden wicks, 80+ hours | Tobacco, vanilla and tonka bean echo the barrel side of bourbon |
| The bourbon drinker in a small apartment | Room Service | 5 oz, one wooden wick, 40 hours | Dark, rounded warmth sized for a bedroom or studio |
| The cedar lover in a small space | Sunday Reset | 5 oz, one wooden wick, 40 hours | Dry wood and clove in a size that suits one room |
Other bourbon cedar candles you will see this month
Search this scent in December and a few names come up again and again. Candleberry sells bourbon candles under license from distilleries such as Buffalo Trace, so the jar carries a label a bourbon drinker knows on sight. LAFCO offers a luxury pour with maple in its name, White Maple Bourbon.
Dirty Hands Candle Company sells a Bourbon and Cedar collection with a rustic, homespun look. Each of these brands leads with the bourbon name on the label.
The picks above lead with what is inside the jar: 100% beeswax, wooden wicks, phthalate-free fragrance and no chemical dye. A Christmas candle sits in her living room for a month, and the jar is what she lives with every night. That is why MBur is the pick for every person on this list.
The questions that come up after you have picked
“She asked for bourbon by name.”
She asked for a smell, and that smell is wood with barrel sweetness underneath. Give her the candle with a card that says so plainly. Then choose by how she likes her bourbon: Sunday Reset if she wants the cedar and lives in flannel all December, Room Service if she would rather sip by a hotel fireplace.
“I smelled it unlit and it seemed faint.”
Unlit, the scent sits quietly in the beeswax. Heat is what lifts the fragrance oil off the melted surface and carries it across the room. The real test starts at the first burn, and one customer found exactly that:
“I must say I was apprehensive at first. ... I couldn't smell much from the Room Service candle. Once I lit it, however, I fell in love!”
Breann B., on Room Service
“Her living room opens right into the kitchen.”
An open floor plan is a size question. Give the 12 oz size, because two wooden wicks melt a wider pool and send more scent into the air than one flame can. Tell her to set it near the couch and away from the stove fan, which pulls scent out of the house.
How to present it so she lights it the same night
The way you hand over a candle decides whether it gets lit on Christmas night or saved in a closet for months. A few small touches move it to the coffee table.
- Write the scent story on the card. Something like “cedar and vanilla, the wood and sweetness bourbon gets from the barrel.” It tells her what to expect and gives her a reason to strike a match tonight.
- Add a first-burn note. Ask her to let the first burn run until the melted wax reaches the edge of the jar. Beeswax remembers its first melt, so this keeps every burn after it even.
- Tell her to trim the wooden wick. About an eighth of an inch before each burn keeps the flame steady and the crackle clear.
- Pair it with something from her world. A bottle of the bourbon she already drinks, or two short glasses, turns the candle into an evening she can plan.
- Keep it wrapped under the tree. Once she lights it, it belongs on a table well away from the branches and the wrapping paper.
Bourbon cedar candle FAQ
Does a bourbon cedar candle have real bourbon in it?
No candle holds real bourbon. The smell comes from fragrance that recreates the vanilla and toasted wood a spirit picks up in charred oak. Our Sunday Reset candle builds that profile from cedar and vanilla in 100% beeswax.
Which MBur candle smells the most like cedar?
Sunday Reset puts cedar at the center, with clove and vanilla close by. If she likes a greener, garden take on wood, our Touch Grass candle has the notes Fig, Black currant, Galbanum, Coconut, Davana, Cedarwood, Amber, Orris, Tonka bean.
Will the candle last through the whole holiday season?
The 12 oz size burns 80+ hours and the 5 oz size burns 40 hours. Beeswax melts at a higher temperature than other candle waxes, so it burns slowly. Every scent in our beeswax candle collection comes in both sizes.
Do the wooden wicks really crackle?
Yes. Small pockets of air and moisture in the wood pop as the flame reaches them, which makes a soft fireplace sound. A trimmed wick crackles most clearly, and the two wicks on the 12 oz Room Service candle give you twice the sound.
Can I burn it in the same room as the Christmas tree?
Yes, as long as it sits on a steady table well away from the branches, garland and paper. Never leave it burning in an empty room. Set Sunday Reset across the room from the tree and the cedar will still reach every corner.
The bourbon cedar gift to give this Christmas
The best bourbon cedar candles for Christmas keep the wood in front and the sweetness behind it. They also burn in a wax that holds that balance for weeks. Sunday Reset does both, with cedar and vanilla in 100% beeswax.
For the person whose living room holds the tree, give the 12 oz Sunday Reset. It makes the room where everyone gathers smell like a fire is going, from the cold first breath of peppermint to the warm cedar that follows. Its two wooden wicks and 80+ hours of pure beeswax carry it from early December into the new year.
It is also a candle people already buy for the people they love. One customer put it simply:
“I bought this candle for a friend for mothers day”
Jessica H., on Sunday Reset
Order it this week, because a candle that arrives early gets wrapped and under the tree with time to spare.
Give the 12 oz Sunday Reset, because it is the candle she will light every night the tree is up
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