# Jack O' Lanterns - Candle or Tea Lights?



## duxallinarow (Oct 21, 2014)

Wolfman, you always set the bar high. The green flames is my new favorite WANT!

As for lighting the JOL, if she's looking for low risk, then half-a-dozen green glow sticks would probably be her best bet. I have 70+ blow-mold pumpkins that go out, and they get coordinating glow sticks for the Big Night.


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## sookie (Sep 19, 2010)

I want to go see your house wolfman!

I use tea lights or votives but i use battery ones.


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## disembodiedvoice (Sep 24, 2011)

Unfortunatly, I say fake candle. I use the big white disk thing they sell at Home Depot. I stock up on them every year.. They are the brightest ones I've found and still look like a candle. They also last awhile, I have some still burning on same battery after 3 years. 

With that being said, I love the smell of a real candle in a Jack. So if she is going to be able to watch it , then I say a votive candle would be ok too


HOME DEPOT CANDLE THINGY :

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-Battery-Operated-Dual-Function-Pumpkin-Tealight-Candle-35991HD/203989070


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

How long you get out of the green flame trick? I tried that before but found it challenging to get over an hour...


Anywho, I use either real tea lights or the battery version. Real give a reliable 4 hours, which is just enough. But, we have kids carving the 100 pumpkins, and the art of carving so that enough air is there to keep a candle lit and bright is something of a lost art. Thus, we fill in with battery options as well.


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## Wolfman (Apr 15, 2004)

We get about 45 minutes of green flame for 1 1/2 pints of Methyl Hydrate. But it's inexpensive. The Boric Acid is not consumed in the fire, it ionizes. So you load up at the start and you're good all night. The hand sanitizer is a little tougher. It only lasts about 5-10 minutes, but WHAT AN EFFECT! The Chinese have a saying; The star that burns brightest dies fastest. Very true in the case of Jack O' Lanterns..


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## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

I use candles in my real pumpkins, fakes in the fake ones. The glow of a real candle is so nice. I'm too chicken to try the green flame thing but it sounds awesome.


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## Cephus404 (Oct 13, 2017)

We don't do real pumpkins anymore, they're too much of a mess to carve and to clean up afterwards, so we moved to all fake. Carve once and they last forever. And we got some color-changing LEDs a while back to put in them, which looks cool. This year, the ghost in my graveyard wound up with a blow-mold pumpkin for a head, turned backwards so you could only see the orange through the eyes and I threw one of those LEDs into it and it looks really cool, kind of glowing orange with shifting colors.

Although the green flames do sound cool, I'm sure the fire department would roll up and make me put it out. California is crazy like that.


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## Matt12378 (Jul 9, 2017)

I bought one of those led stick in lights from pumkin masters sold at Lowes for my main pumpkin. It changes to like 6 different colors it's actually pretty cool. The rest of my pumpkins I just put small candles in them nothing beats a candle in a jack o lantern!


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## LadyMage (Aug 15, 2014)

I keep most of my jacks fairly close to my front door where little kids can brush into them so no real flames for me. The only real candle I have going is in a PartyLite Halloween house on a shelf inside my front door where it's too high for the kids to mess with it. I have some LED pumpkin lights that dig into the bottom of a real jack for them, the rest I largely use LED tealights that I got in a giant package from Costco years ago. I would like to switch them over to tealights on a timer or just do flicker LEDs wired to a box because I am so over having to turn on all the battery operated things on and off every night, but for now thats how it is.


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## Maniac Marshall (Sep 17, 2017)

I put 3 voltive candles in each of my big jacks, they're cheap and look best to me


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

I bought a case of changing flickering lights from Dollar Tree & use those in all the fake ones I have. I haven't had a real carved pumpkin in years since I like to have so many. It's just me & the husband doing it so in the time I can carve 10 fake ones I'd still be doing the real ones.

But I admit I do miss the smell of burning pumpkin. If you do use a real candle in your pumpkin, make sure to cut a little hole over the flame so the top doesn't shrivel up & cave in.

Dollar Tree has a ton of options for fake lights, from tea lights to these guys:
https://www.dollartree.com/LED-Self-Adhesive-Push-Lights-2-5-in-Dia-/p296348/index.pro

Or even these battery operated string lights:
https://www.dollartree.com/Christmas-House-10-Bulb-LED-Battery-Powered-Light-Sets/p341741/index.pro


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## bayoubrigh (Jan 12, 2007)

Tea lights for the fake ones but still a tradition to carve and use real pumpkins in our family with candles burning (and a little cinnamon sprinkled on top inside of the pumpkin). Can't beat that smell of slightly burned pumpkin for Halloween. Plus it keeps Sam happy


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## duxallinarow (Oct 21, 2014)

bayoubrigh said:


> Tea lights for the fake ones but still a tradition to carve and use real pumpkins in our family with candles burning (and a little cinnamon sprinkled on top inside of the pumpkin). Can't beat that smell of slightly burned pumpkin for Halloween. Plus it keeps Sam happy


Why have I never thought of cinnamon before? YOU ALL HAVE BEEN HOLDING OUT ON ME!


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