Classic Candles versus Numbers on a Birthday Cake
Remember all of those old movies where the cake comes out of the kitchen and the room lights up from the glow? Remember the looks on children’s faces when five or ten candles adorned their cakes so everyone could see how much older they were getting? What happened to classic candles on birthday cakes? Now, it is a single candle, or sometimes two with the age of the birthday person there for everyone to see.
In Days Gone By
In days gone by, it was a big deal to blow out every candle. You made a wish and if you got every candle out with a single breath, then your wish was supposed to come true. Now, I ask you? How difficult is it to blow out two candles? How much of a challenge is that? Pretty soon, in my family, blowing out the candles became commonplace, and I would argue for a return to the days of using classic candles versus those numbers.
I never won though, and years would come and go, my sister and I would get older and we just did not bother to make birthday wishes anymore. It just did not seem fair that everyone could get their birthday wish by only blowing out one or two candles. Eventually, I just told my mom to leave the candles off of the cake, because I was just too old for such things. In reality, I just missed the fun and glow that classic candles brought to our birthday celebrations.
Today
Do children even make wishes when they blow out their candles anymore? Recently, I took my son to have pictures made, and the photographer had giant replicas of those number-style candles that parents could choose to use as props in their child’s baby pictures. Perhaps I should not have gotten so nostalgic, but I absolutely refused to have that prop in my son’s picture. I wondered if he also had a mock birthday cake with classic candles and asked - he didn’t.
Upon leaving the photographers, I stopped by three grocery stores and checked. Yes, classic candles are still available and in the same multi-colors and swirls I remember from my early childhood. There are even polka-dot ones and solid colors for children with a favorite. Now, I can’t wait to decorate his cake and teach him to “make a wish” the way I used to. Classic candles will continue to adorn my son’s birthday cakes until he is old enough to chide me for being so old-fashioned and not buying him numbers.
Candles
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