BACKGROUND ART Candle holders are used to prevent a candle from running down to a floor or the like, and to place the candle easily wherever needed.

In particular, to celebrate birthday or anniversary and produce celebration mood, the number of candles representing an age or the anniversary are lightened on a cake and blown out.

However, it is unsanitary to put the candles directly on the cake because of melted candle wax, and some of the cake is unnecessarily thrown away because of the melted candle wax on the cake.

Therefore, as a prior art to get rid of the problems, there is a published Korean utility model application No.

1998-024768 entitled:"candle holder for cake", which is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The candle holder includes a base 11 having a plurality of candle insertion holes 13 for candles 12 and coupling holes 22 on the bottom, a rib 17 provided on an edge of the base 11 in-order to block a melted candle wax

15 of the candle 12, supporting bars 20 and 21 being coupled to the coupling holes 22 of the base 11 in order to stably mount the base 11 on the cake. By the above construction, the prior art candle holder prevents the melted candle wax 15 from dropping on the cake.

Though the candle holder of a prior application described above includes a rib 17 in order to block the melted candle wax from the cake, there is no time for the melted candle wax to reach the cake across the base 11 because the lightened candle is practically blown out immediately. Even if there is a bit time until the candle is blown out, the melted candle wax easily solidifies at an ambient temperature such that it doesn't reach the cake. To this end, the rib is in fact unnecessary.

Usually, a candle holder is provided freely to a customer who buys cake, so it is needed to down the manufacturing cost. Nevertheless, the candle holder of prior art is formed with a rib and thus it needs more materials, thereby increasing manufacturing cost unnecessarily.

Further, the prior art supporting bars 20,21 are coupled to the plurality of coupling holes 22 formed on the bottom of the base 11 in order to support the candle holder, which increases complexity of production processes and production lines because the base 11 has to be formed with the number of coupling holes as many as that of the supporting bars and each of the supporting bars 20,21 should be coupled separately. Also, the supporting bars 20,21 are wastefully thrown away after customer uses it just one time.

Furthermore, the prior art candle holder is simply used for inserting the candles without special congratulatory expressions on the base for celebrating birthday or anniversary, so the congratulatory mood is not elevated.

Meanwhile, cakes are usually used to celebrate a birthday. However, there is a distinct trend that children prefer pizzas or the like which they like rather than the cakes. Therefore cakes are not attractive to children, and thus most of the cakes are dumped after party.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a candle holder for congratulation that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a candle holder that includes a pedestal provided with a message display part and a congratulatory expression thereon, thereby elevating congratulatory mood.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a candle holder that doesn't include an unnecessary rib but includes a supporting rod that is provided with integral supporting bars, and thus the supporting rod is simply coupled to a pedestal, thereby reducing manufacturing cost.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a candle holder that can be put on a pizza as is loved by children, and thus the candle holder can attract children's interest. A supporting rod of the candle holder is provided with supporting bars that have relatively long terminating

ends and made of harmless material to human body. After being used as a candle holder, the supporting rod can be separated from the candle holder in order to be used as a fork for sticking the pizza.

To achieve the above objects and features, there is provided a candle holder including: a pedestal formed with a plurality of candle insertion holes on a top side, a message display part on the top side for expressing a congratulatory expression, and a coupling protrusion on a bottom side ; and a supporting rod for supporting the pedestal, the supporting rod formed with a coupling hole on a center of a top face for coupling with the coupling protrusion, and provided at a lower part with a plurality of supporting bars which are integrally formed.

According to the present invention, manufacturing cost can be reduced because assembling of the pedestal and the supporting rod is simple, just inserting the coupling protrusion into the coupling hole. Further, congratulatory mood can be elevated forming the message display part and displaying the congratulatory expression.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional candle holder; FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG.

1 ; FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a candle holder in use according to one embodiment of the present

invention; FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a coupling of a pedestal and a supporting rod according to the present invention; FIG. 5 is a partial sectional view illustrating a coupling of a coupling protrusion and a coupling hole according to the present invention ; and FIGS. 6a, 6b and 6c are plan views of candle holders according to another embodiments of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional candle holder, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on line A-A in Fig.

1, showing a base (pedestal) inserted with candles and provided with supporting bars, Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing a pedestal inserted with candles and formed with a message display part, and being seated on a pizza according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing a assembling of a coupling protrusion of a pedestal and a coupling hole of a supporting rod according to the present invention, Fig. 5 is a front view in partial cross-section of the assembly of Fig. 4, showing candles inserted to a pedestal and a coupled shape of a supporting rod according to the present invention, and Figs 6a, 6b and 6c are plan views showing candle holders having

various shapes according to another preferred embodiments of the present invention.

As shown in Fig. 3, a pedestal 100 is formed with a plurality of candle insertion holes 120 for inserting candles 125 as many as the number of age or symbolic number for an anniversary. The pedestal 100 is not formed at an edge with a rib and is coupled on a bottom with a supporting rod 200 in order to stably stand on a congratulatory food such as pizza 300.

Herein, the plurality of candle insertion holes are provided for use of many persons. For example, if a long candle is used for 10 years and a short candle for one year, at least 16 candles are needed for celebrating birthday of 79 years old (7 + 9 =16) and thus at least 16 candle insertion holes are needed. Each of the candle insertion holes 120 has an open top and a close bottom for inserting and supporting the candle 125.

That is, the candles 125 are inserted into the candle insertion holes 120 according to age and lightened instead of being inserted directly into a congratulatory food at birthday party or meeting, such that a melted candle wax of the candles 125 is not running down directly to the congratulatory food while elevating congratulatory mood.

Herein, the congratulatory food is preferably the pizza 300 as described above.

Meanwhile, the supporting rod 200 is coupled to the bottom of the pedestal 100 in order to support the candle holder stably on the pizza 300. As shown in Figs 4 and 5, the

pedestal 100 is formed about a center of the bottom with a coupling protrusion 110 for coupling with the supporting rod 200, and the supporting rod 200 is formed on a center of top with a coupling hole 210 for coupling with the coupling protrusion 110 and a plurality of supporting bars 220 on a lower part thereof.

Herein, the supporting rod 200 and the supporting bars 220 are integrally formed such that they can be coupled to the pedestal 100 at a time. The numbers of supporting bars 220 are preferably about three in order to support and stand the pedestal 100, however the more numbers are also available.

Further, there is formed a complementary member 225 at a convergence between the upper part of the supporting rod 200 and the supporting bars 220 such that the supporting rod 200 is not easily bent or broken by an excessive force when candles are inserted or the candle holder is fixed on a congratulatory food. The supporting bars 220 have slender terminating ends in order to be easily stuck into a food which is relatively hard as like the pizza 300 and thus the supporting bars 220 can be used as a fork as well as supporting the pedestal 100.

Furthermore, since the supporting rod 200 is used to pick up a food like the pizza 300, it is desirably made of harmless plastic materials.

Briefly, in order that the pedestal 100 with inserted candles 125 can be seated on a congratulatory food, the coupling protrusion 110 formed on the bottom of the pedestal is inserted into the coupling hole 210 formed on the top of

the supporting rod 200 and the supporting bars 220 are stuck on the congratulatory food.

As shown in Figs 3,6a, 6b and 6c, the pedestal 100 is formed with the message display part 150 on a central part of the top and a congratulatory expression 155 is expressed for elevating congratulatory mood.

Though the congratulatory expressions 155 as shown in the drawings are a phrase for a birthday, other expressions such for a wedding anniversary or the like can be used, for example, hand-writable labels or imprinted labels for other cases may be used.

Further, various shapes of the pedestal 100 can be made like a rectangular, a heart, a star shape or the like as shown in Figs. 6a, 6b and 6c. The message display part 150 is also formed in each of the various shaped pedestals 100.

Hereinafter, an operation and effectiveness in accordance with the present invention will be described in detail.

At an anniversary or a birthday, particularly a birthday party for children, there is the pizza 300 that children like and lightened candles thereon for celebrating birthday. The candle holder of the present invention is invented for use at those situations as shown in Fig. 3.

As shown in Fig. 4, it is easy to couple the coupling protrusion 110 and the coupling hole 210. The coupling protrusion is formed on a bottom of the pedestal 100 and the coupling hole 210 is formed on a top of the supporting rod 200. Herein, the coupling protrusion 110 and the coupling

hole 210 are formed at a central line of candle holder such that the pedestal 100 supported by the supporting rod 200 is balanced without bias.

As shown in Figs. 3 through 5, the supporting rod 200 provided in the pedestal 100 is stuck into the pizza 300 for anchoring and supporting the pedestal 100. The supporting bars 220 which are integrally provided in the supporting rod 200 are placed on the pizza 300 and a force is exerted on the pedestal 100 downwardly such that terminating ends of the supporting bars 220 are inserted into the pizza 300, thereby the pedestal 100 being supported stably.

Herein, the terminating ends of the supporting bars 220 are slender shaped such that they can be easily inserted into the pizza 300 which have somewhat hard crust, and each of the supporting bars 220 have the complementary member 225 at a convergence between upper part of the supporting rod 200 and the supporting bars 220 such that they are not easily broken when a force is exerted on the pedestal in order to insert them into the pizza 300.

According to above detail descriptions, the supporting bars 220 are provided integrally in the supporting rod 200 and thus the supporting rod 200 can be simply coupled to the pedestal through the coupling protrusion 110 and the coupling hole 210, thereby making process simple and reducing manufacturing cost. In addition, the supporting bars 220 have slender terminating ends such that easily inserted into the pizza 300 that children like, as well as a cake.

Meanwhile, the pedestal 100 supported by the supporting

rod 200 on the pizza 300 is inserted with the candles 125 as many as the number of age, and the candles 125 are lightened for celebrating birthday. Herein, the top surface of the pedestal 100 is formed with the message display part 150 on which the congratulatory expression 155 can be printed or brief congratulatory message can be written in order to elevate congratulatory mood.

After blowing out the candles 125, the pedestal 100 and the supporting rod 200 is removed from the pizza 300. The supporting rod 200 can be separated from the pedestal 100 in reverse manner of coupling. That is, pulling the supporting rod away from the pedestal 100 in order to draw the coupling protrusion 110 out of the coupling hole 210.

The supporting rod 200 separated from the pedestal 100 is made of harmless material and has a plurality of supporting bars 220 of which terminating end is slender, such that the supporting rod can be used to pick the pizza 300 up as substitute for a fork.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purpose, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the candle holder of the present invention is provided with a candle insertion holes and also

formed on a top face of a pedestal with a message display part in which a congratulatory expression can be expressed, thereby elevating congratulatory mood. Further, a supporting rod is integrally formed so that it can simply be coupled to the pedestal and manufacturing cost can be down due to simple fabrication and assembly process.

Furthermore, supporting bars of the supporting rod have slender terminating ends such that the candle holder can be used for a cake and a pizza as well which have somewhat hard crust but children love, thereby attracting children's interest. The supporting rod can also be used to pick up a pizza as substitute for a fork.