Wednesday, 15 November 2017

are you nostalgic about christmas smells?

The other night I was mysteriously transfixed watching the QVC TV channel, the one where stuff is sold to the wide-eyed audience.

Not something I usually watch but I found myself entranced by the Yankee Candle Christmas range that night.

What I found amazing were the number of different scents that Yankee Candle had plucked from the Christmas season: Christmas Cookies, Christmas Eve, Christmas Memories, Fireside Treats, Christmas Wreath, Christmas Cupcake, Christmas Magic, The Perfect Tree, Crackling Wood Fire and so on and so on.

Christmas it seems is an unending conveyor belt of spiced whiffs and niffs.

Is this how you have experienced Christmas? Do you think the passage of time magnifies the nose and remembered scents get stronger?

I certainly recall the resinous smell of the fir tree stood in the living room gently toasted by three sets of fairy lights. For me that is the over-riding bouquet of Yuletide and as such I am still very nostalgic about it I suppose.

In some ways it seems odd to burn a scented candle in order to evoke the fragrances [or should that be fragri?] of Christmas. Why not just have a real Christmas Wreath or some Christmas biscuits or toasted marshmallows? Why live the season vicariously through wax? Are we losing these artifacts from the Big Day and its build up? Are there new smells?

What are the Xmas fragrances you like? Which ones would you recommend to Yankee Candle? Are some lost in time?

Here are two suggestions from me: Christmas Dinner and Freshly Opened Play Doh!

5 comments:

  1. My mother has the sugar cookie Yankee candle.They are kind of pricey but smell very nice.Decades ago a friend brought me Bayberry candles at Christmas and told me they bring luck.I can't vouch for the luck part, but they did smell nice.This time of year our local supermarkets have bins of pine cones dipped in some sort of spice, then sprinkled with glitter.I can smell them from a hundred paces easily,phew!

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    1. Sugar cookies. Mmmm. I love those. My Missus always makes what are known as Spritzgeback or Piped biscuits. They are sugard once out of the oven. Some are dipped in choccy as well. They are made by pushing biscuit dough through shapes like a star or a crescentso you end u with star and crescent shaped sausages, which are sliced into two or three inch bikkies. A bit like making Play Do sausages! Not come across Bayberries Bri. What are those?

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    2. also known as Bay Rum or Candleberry.Scent is like pine with berries

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  2. The smell Cigar Smoke, Sherry and the Christmas Tree Pine Needles!

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    1. Yes, i remember that bouquet clearly bill!

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