Yankee Candle Countdown to Christmas Collection

When colder weather and darker days settle in, lighting a candle at home brings that fuzzy feeling that really makes the winter season special. Kicking in my favorite time of the year with a home comfort touch, Yankee Candle’s Countdown to Christmas — or Countdown to Holiday stateside — collection brings home images of twinkling lights, festive treats, and warm knits.

I was invited to take a peek at Yankee Candle’s Countdown to Christmas collection in London, discovering their new winter fragrances in a festively decorated studio with other bloggers and influencers. The candles were all so different that I had a very hard time figuring out which one was my favorite.

This collection of Christmas candles features five new fragrances evoking the spirit of the winter season in different ways: Twinkling Lights, Tree Farm Festival, Merry Berry, Letters to Santa (Frosty Gingerbread in the U.S.) and Christmas Eve Cocoa (Movie Night Cocoa in the U.S.).

Here is a rundown of the Countdown to Christmas candle collection.

Twinkling Lights Candle

Twinkling Lights was the first candle that greeted me upon arrival, a truly lovely scent. This is the type of candle that makes you feel alright, whether or not the weather outside is frightful.

Blending almond, jasmine, and amber, this fragrance is as close as it gets to opening a book with a cup of hot tea and getting ready to wind down at home.

Tree Farm Festival Candle

Of course, no Christmas would be complete without a tree. This candle, with aromas of pine, vetiver and gardenia, smells like a day at a tree farm or in a forest to pick and and harvest your own Christmas tree with a hand saw.

If you love the intoxicating scent of pine, spruce, or other evergreen forests, then this candle will be your fave. Forest bathing at home — who could ask for more?

Merry Berry Candle

Little elves at home could ask for more, in the shape of stories or decor. Christmas is a magical time when we read stories of sugar plum fairies, deck the halls with holly berries, and string cranberries with popcorn to decorate trees as a family.

Sweet with sugar plum and raspberry notes blended with scents of butter cookies, this Christmas candle will delight your inner child.

Letters to Santa Candle

Speaking of your inner child, do you remember writing to Father Christmas in the North Pole as a child? If there is one time in the year when people still send hand-written notes or cards, it’s Christmas. Of course, writing a letter to Santa or Father Christmas is a time-honored western tradition and nothing says Christmas like fine penmanship or calligraphy.

Think of the Letters to Santa candle as an invitation to sit down, take out your finest pen, and write a letter to post to a loved one. Featuring notes of papery woods and amber sweetened by sugared musk, this candle evokes the excitement of writing by candlelight when the night is dark.

Christmas Eve Cocoa Candle

Last but not least, the Christmas Eve Cocoa candle — also going by Movie Night Cocoa candle in the U.S., a much better name in my book. Indeed, our family traditions include a long list of holiday movies that we watch together every year.

Besides Elf, the best Christmas movie ever made, I love The Snowman, Gremlins, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Die Hard (I’ve even introduced my youngest daughter to Die Hard when it was re-released in 2018 for its 30th anniversary).

My oldest daughter is a sucker for Home Alone and both my girls love to snuggle with a hot cocoa to watch Barbie in the Nutcracker and The Nightmare Before Christmas. They’re also a bit older now so Love Actually makes the cut. So yes, definitely a candle that embodies the spirit of the season.

A Full Christmas Experience

To make us feel festive, Yankee Candle had organized two activities that I absolutely loved — calligraphy with Jenny Collier Design and cookie decorating with The Biscuiteers.

I was so absorbed in my thins and thicks that I spent a long time writing letters on enveloppes and gift tags, completely inspired to do this again at home.

As for the cookie decorating, it looked so tricky at the beginning that we didn’t know where to start on icing a Christmas tree sugar biscuit. Fortunately with a step by step approach, we all succeeded on decorating our biscuits with much laughter (and sugar). Once at home, I surprised my girls with a Christmas tree biscuit that they thought looked very professional.

Sustainability and Yankee Candles

Meeting the Yankee Candle team, I asked a few sustainability questions as this topic is very close to my heart. Apparently, the candle industry does not do so great on the sustainability front. However, Yankee Candle’s parent company, Newell Brands, is quite committed on the CSR front so there’s that.

Their 2020 Corporate Citizen Report includes a section on recycling showing that in the U.S., Yankee Candle has a recycling partnership with TerraCycle. This recycling company manages hard-to-recycle materials and through the partnership, consumers can send in Yankee Candle products for recycling, at no extra cost, after use.

Another option, if you are crafty at heart, is upcycling. You should definitely check out the Inspiration section of Yankee Candle’s U.S. website as it includes a lot of good DIY and craft ideas to upcycle Yankee Candle jars. I particularly like the Frosty Gingerbread Cookie Jar idea, a lovely home-made gift for your loved ones.

Each night since the Yankee Candle event, I light a large Twinkling Lights Yankee Candle in my kitchen and within minutes, feel transported to Thanksgiving and Christmas wrapped up in a giant glass jar. Clement Clark Moore will forgive me for poorly paraphrasing the opening line of the most famous Christmas poem:

'Twas the month before Christmas when somewhere in the house, a scented candle was lit, waiting for Santa Claus.