Product Alert: B&B Candles

Before I tell you about my newest favorite product, I’m going to give you the back story. I LOVE Christmas/Winter. Not so much the cold, but the smell of cookies baking, cider mulling, Christmas trees and snow (again, the smell, not the cold). That said, Taylor and I have lived together for 3 Christmases now, and this will be our second married Christmas, and before this year, I had not put up a tree. We would put lights around the front door and my jingle-bell wreath on the door hanger, but never a tree. I always told Taylor it was because we were never at our house for Christmas, which was part of the truth. We lived in Tulsa, and spent the week of Christmas and New Year’s shuttling between my family in Oklahoma City and his family in Phoenix. Last year we were in Phoenix the week before Christmas, so I really didn’t want to put up a tree when we wouldn’t be home even remotely near Christmas. But the other part of it is, I love real Christmas trees. I love going to the lot and picking one out, putting it on a stand, filling the stand with sugar water; keeping the dogs out of the sugar water; decorating it; and smelling it all winter long. I don’t even mind cleaning up thousands of teeny tiny pine needles.

However, in the past couple of years I discovered I am extremely allergic to most things that bloom…including Christmas trees. I found this out when I went with my friend Kali to the Christmas Tree Farm right outside of Tulsa. They give you cider and you ride on a hayrack around to fields with different sizes of trees. We got off in the middle field so Kali could pick out the perfect little 6-feet tall Charlie Brown Christmas tree. They cut it down, hauled it in, shook the loose needles off, put a stand on it, wrapped it up and tied it to her car. We had been there about 2 hours. And my eyes were swollen shut. So I realized I can probably never have a real Christmas tree, and the real reason we haven’t put up a tree before is that I had to go through a bit of a grieving process before I could bring myself to buy a “fake” tree.

Anyway, I hit the sales the first weekend the Christmas trees were out, in early November, bought a cute, skinny 5-foot tree, and it has been up for 3 weeks already. Taylor and I felt that we needed to put it up early to make up for the past few years. BUT, I decided that just because I can’t have a real tree, doesn’t mean my house can’t smell like a real tree. So I started the hunt for the perfect tree-smelling candle. And last Saturday, amidst a sea of Black Friday/Saturday shoppers, I found it: The Slatkin & Co. 3-Wick Candle from Bath & Body Works.

They offer smells such as “Evergreen” and “Pine” but I found the truest Christmas tree smell is in the “Fresh Balsam” candle:

The “Creamy Nutmeg” smelled delicious, but it made me want cookies, and I already get plenty of those this time of year. I also bought the “Cinnamon and Clove” (couldn’t find a picture on their website) – it smells like Fall and Winter and goodness. And to top things off, I got a “Twisted Peppermint” candle, too:

It made me want to take a bath. I don’t really take baths, but I might start. So anyway, now I have my tree up and my “Fresh Balsam” candle burning (I went back Sunday and bought another one, just in case I go through the first one before Christmas – yes, even though it says it burns for up to 65 hours). And I can bask in my house, that now smells like Christmas.

What are your favorite holiday products?

-C-