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How to make and light Minecraft candles

Light up your world with Minecraft candles by learning how to make them out of honeycomb and string, and how to dye them one of 16 different colours.

How to make a Minecraft candle: Three purple Minecraft candles give off light on the floor of an Ancient City

Want to decorate your base with tons of Minecraft candles? Of course you do! The cute item was added to the sandbox game back during the first half of the massive Caves and Cliffs update, which was released in June, and make any base look cool. These colourful decorative items don’t give off a huge amount of light, but they certainly help – and, more importantly, they look pretty doing so.

Minecraft candles don’t just stop at atmospherically lighting up your world in the crafting game, they can even light up a cute birthday cake – whether you’re celebrating with yourself, giving one to a friend on a Minecraft server, or even just celebrating the anniversary of when you tamed that pet wolf. However you want to use a candle in Minecraft though, you need to know how to make one and how to get the resources needed, so here’s what you need to know.

How to light a Minecraft candle

To light a candle, you need flint and steel, or any flaming projectile. With flint and steel in hand, click the use button on the candle. Bedrock Edition lets you be dramatic, allowing you to light a torch using a sword enchanted with fire.

Minecraft candles work similarly to sea pickles – they can be placed as standalone objects, and you can group up to four of them on a single block. Once lit, each candle emits a light level of three, increasing all the way to 12 in a group of four.

Only one candle can be placed on top of an uneaten cake. Once that cake has been consumed, the candle falls to the ground. You can extinguish lit candles using water – using too much water causes the candles to become waterlogged, stopping you from lighting the candle.

Minecraft candle recipe: The crafting table screen shows a honeycomb and a string making a candle

Minecraft candle recipe

To make a Minecraft candle, you need:

  • One Honeycomb
  • One String

To make your own candles, you need to place the honeycomb in the centre square. Place the string directly above it to start crafting candles. These ingredients aren’t the easiest to get hold of if you want lots of candles. Aside from farming string from spiders, you can get loads by destroying cobwebs with a sword in mineshafts. For your other ingredient, we have a handy guide on how to get Minecraft honeycomb from bee hives.

Minecraft candle recipe: The crafting screen shows how to dye a minecraft candle, with one black dye and one candle making a black candle

Here’s what you need to make dyed Minecraft candles:

  • One candle
  • One dye

Once you have your candles, you can change the colour of them by placing a matching dye next to the candle. These are the 16 dyed Minecraft candles to choose from, giving you plenty of options to decorate your home:

  • White
  • Orange
  • Magenta
  • Light blue
  • Yellow
  • Lime
  • Pink
  • Grey
  • Light grey
  • Cyan
  • Purple
  • Blue
  • Brown
  • Green
  • Red
  • Black

Do candles spread fire?

Candles won’t set anything on fire, meaning you can place them directly under wood or wool with no danger. They also don’t melt snow, unlike torches, so you can use them in snowy biomes, builds, or igloos without destroying your surroundings.

Now you know how to make Minecraft candles, go forth and add them all over your Minecraft house, be it a spooky castle or a cute and cosy cottage. For other interesting light blocks, check out our guides to Minecraft pumpkins and Minecraft frogs – yes, frogs.