Yankee Candle Posts their 2011 Halloween Merch...

Boy we're just hitting September and already we've got a number of box stores touting their 2011 on-line Halloween wares.  First out of the gate was Bath and Body Works with an ultra colorful line of cute-but-traditional votives, scents and more.  Then came Z Gallerie's monochromatic skeletal offerings, today we're going to take a look at Yankee Candle's Halloween line.


 I often forget the importance of candles in my Halloween purchases.  I tend to just think of them as either black or orange, and just sort of burning away and therefore they're out of sight out of mind. 

But then I stroll into a Yankee Candle and actually start checking out the different scents available at Halloweentime and realize how necessary they are.  The warm glow of a small flame on a cold October night really adds a sense of wonder to the season.  And if you have a candle that has a scent on top of that?  Magic.

Looking at the scents offered on the site this year, my default choice is Candy Corn.  It's a safe choice, but if you're shopping on-line it's really hard to screw that up. 
Plus there's something about the sweet vanilla/honey scent in the air that makes me want to carve pumpkins.  Actually I find that burning a Candy Corn candle will often placate a candy corn craving. 
We all know what happens:  we buy one bag of candy corn and insist this will be THE ONE bag... until 24 hours later when that bag is gone.  Hopefully it at least made it to a dish.  Nobody likes to admit they stood in the kitchen pounding candy corn 'til an empty plastic bag floated to the floor.  Oh the shame.
So before I start checking my watch and seeing if I can break the time-space continuum trying to make it to the store before they close to get another bag... I light a candy corn candle.  Mind over matter.  And it's part of my Candy-Corn-Twelve-Step program.

Hard to tell what the other scented candles available smell like.  Sure there are loose descriptions and they've got great names like "Trick or Treat" and "Witches Brew" but you really have to get in there and find out if a "mix of Harvest and Spice" is your cup of tea.
 
Once you've got your candles picked, you have to have something to burn them in and Yankee Candle delivers on that too.  They've got 5 different lines this year:  Boney Bunch, Skeleton Crew, Creepy Crawlies, Scarecrow and (shudder) "Harvest Babies."
Creepy Crawlies is (as you would guess) spider-themed. 
Scarecrow is... duh.
Harvest Babies I'm going to completely gloss over due to their uber-cuteness.
Skeleton Crew and Boney Bunch are both skeleton/skull themed but definitely have a different slant. 

SC could be called "Day of the Dead" minus the bright colors.  The skulls are less sinister/realistic and have more of a pudgy-bulbous-ness to them.

My favorite piece of the Skeleton Crew line doesn't even have a prominent skull/skeleton on it.  It's the tea light holder (see pic left) that looks like 3 black specimen bottles surrounded by a black wire spider-web tray.  I must be a good gauge of what's popular too because according to the website today:  it's sold out. 
Get theeself to a brick and mortar store quick if you want to try and grab one. 

I think the winner of the bunch (no pun intended) is the Boney Bunch. 
The line features an almost Disney-fied version of a skeleton reaper.  It's cute, but it's still got an edge.  You can't have a smiling, top hat-wearing skeleton standing over a frowning jack o' lantern votive with a CHAINSAW not have an edge of creepy to it. 

Plus I can't help but feel this "sitter" (see pic) looks like one of the hitchhiking ghosts from Disney's Haunted Mansion ride... which is ok by me. 

Go see the whole line HERE at YankeeCandle.com.