A Trip Down Memory Lane with Yankee Candle

While some may complain that store holiday décor goes up earlier each year, I must admit that I get excited when I see that first Christmas ad on TV. It automatically takes me back to my childhood when many of those commercials quickly became items on my Santa wish list. Would that be the year I found The Sunshine Family or Baby Tender Love under the tree? Or would I finally get the Easy Bake Oven all of my friends already had? Even when they weren’t toy commercials, holiday ads would catch my attention because of their whimsy and magic. Who would forget the Norelco snowman or Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales? Enter my new favorite holiday accessory from Yankee Candle: The Night Before Christmas TV Hanging Tarts® Warmer. With two enchanting little mice sitting captivated by the holiday show on television, there is something so special about this piece. It’s more than a candle accessory – it’s a glowing memory of yesteryear that’s sure to inspire new traditions!

Yankee Candle Night Before Christmas Accessories - including this $29.99 Tarts® warmer - are available on http://www.yankeecandle.com/cgi-bin/ycbvp/retail.jsp and in Yankee Candle Company retail stores nationwide.

Yankee Candle Builds Bikes for Big Brothers Big Sisters

August is a funny month to work at Yankee Candle. It's a time when we're dressed for the heat of the summer, but our stores are selling Halloween and we're thinking of Christmas. It’s like all of the fall/winter holidays merge together!

Every August shortly after unveiling our Halloween collection in the stores and on the website, our corporate offices host the retail sales team in a 3-day conference to pump everyone up for the holiday season. District Sales Managers and Store Managers travel from all across the country to South Deerfield MA in order to learn everything they can about the new candles and accessories they'll be selling during the busiest time of the year. For this year's meeting, we added a different element: team building for charity. About 100 Yankee Candle employees from several different departments joined together in what they believed to be a standard team building activity. What they didn't know was that their teamwork would have a lasting impact on them and on families in the neighboring community.

Through the help of a company called TeamBonding, Yankee Candle partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County in Massachusetts. BBBS-FC identified 26 children from the area who were in need of bicycles and YC put together teams to build bikes for them. While we were laboring over the mechanics of the bikes and testing them for safety, the kids were making their own candles in our store! At the end of the event, the sales teams brought the fruits of their labor to the excited children and their families! I don’t know who received the greater gift, the kids or those of us who made the bikes for them. I do know that when Christmas came to Yankee Candle it was on a hot August day that I’ll never forget!

Hit the Beach With Yankee Candle!

Maybe it's because our company is based in New England which is so rich with seafaring traditions, but Yankee Candle candlemakers seem to be unusually inspired by the ocean. With fragrances ranging from Beach Walk™ to Ocean Blossom™ to Sea Harbor to Coconut Bay™ our nautical scents run through nearly every fragrance family. Last year we even debuted our Festive scent Christmas at the Beach™! It seems there is a seaside scent for every season, and there is no better one to fragrance this time of the year than our old friend Seaside Holiday™. Back for a limited time as one of our Rare Treasures, Seaside Holiday™ is described as a calming blend of ocean air, salt mist roses, beach plum, and sea grass. First introduced nearly a decade ago, this is one of those truly timeless candles that is as much at home in a cottage on the shore as it is in a trendy city brownstone.