Festive tables collect hazards: greenery drying out under warm light, paper crackers, ribbon, a cloth that hangs to the floor and a great many people reaching across each other. A lamp can be the best thing on that table or the worst, and the difference is mostly decided before anyone sits down. It is also the season when the wrong bottle of oil gets bought.
Do not buy the cheap scented oil
Every December the shelves fill with brightly coloured, heavily perfumed lamp oils sold as a festive extra. They are the one purchase I would actively argue against. Dyes and fragrance compounds do not vaporise cleanly at a wick, so you get soot, a greyed chimney within an evening, a smell that competes with the food and a wick that clogs and needs replacing. Plain, well-refined liquid paraffin burns cleaner, smells of almost nothing and costs less.
What clean fuel actually gives you
A steady flame, clear glass at the end of the night, and no headache in a warm room full of people. Sellers such as Lamplight list refined lamp oil alongside wicks and chimneys, and buying the plain grade with a spare wick is a better use of the same money than a coloured bottle with a snowflake on it.
Table dressing that does not catch
Keep a clear zone around the lamp: no ivy trailing over the base, no dried eucalyptus, no crackers, no candles crowded alongside. Dried foliage becomes tinder in a heated room within a day or two of being cut, and cinnamon sticks and pine cones sold as decoration burn very well indeed.
Cloths, runners and sleeves
A long tablecloth is the classic problem, because a lamp sits on the cloth rather than the table and someone standing up takes both with them. Use a short cloth, or place the lamp on a solid mat, or put it on the sideboard instead where it lights the room just as well.
One flame, not fourteen
The lit-up table looks wonderful in a photograph and is difficult to manage in reality. One lamp as the centre and a few well-spaced candles in stable holders will give you the same effect with a fraction of the risk, and you can see the food properly rather than squinting past a wall of flames.
The rules for a busy table
- Fill and trim in the morning, so no bottle of oil is anywhere near the table during the meal.
- Keep the flame low, and never top up a warm lamp mid-meal.
- Nothing is passed over the lamp: put serving dishes on the near side of it.
- Tell children once, clearly, that the glass is hot, and seat the smallest ones away from it.
- Put it out before the table is cleared, and let the glass cool before it goes anywhere near the sink.
Ventilation in a crowded room
A dozen people, an oven that has been on since morning and an open flame all compete for the same air. Crack a window somewhere, even in December. It also stops the room becoming unbearably warm by the pudding.
Afterwards
When the glass is properly cool, wash the chimney in warm soapy water and dry it before it goes back on. Store the lamp with the burner clean and the wick trimmed, so the next occasion does not begin with a smoking flame and a search for scissors.