These days, there’s a staggering range of advent calendars available to help you count down to the big day. From traditional chocolate options to big-money beauty offerings and calendars filled with socks or even pork scratchings, there’s something to suit just about every taste and budget.
For something with a distinctly festive feel, however, a candle advent calendar is a great choice. Plus, it won’t be as pricey as some upmarket beauty calendars and won’t come in a huge box that needs storing all month (we’re looking at you, wine advent calendars).
Better still, the candles behind each door will instantly give your home a more Christmassy feel, if lit each day throughout December. Most candle calendars offer up festive scents, such as gingerbread, pine or cinnamon, while a flickering candle will always make dark winter nights feel cosier.
When it comes to candle brands, Yankee Candle is one likely to spring to mind, and it knows a thing or two about Christmas. The brand produces a range of festive-themed candles and gifts each year, as well as a selection of advent calendars. This year, there are two available – each cost less than £50 and comes packed with a selection of candles that will make your house smell like Santa’s grotto this Christmas. We got our hands on both, so, keep scrolling for our full review.
How we tested
We didn’t wait until December but instead rushed to open all the doors on both these calendars, to find out what was inside. For each one, we considered if the packaging was suitably festive to be displayed alongside our Christmas decorations, how easy the doors were to open, and how much we rated the candles inside. We considered if they smelt particularly festive, if they would feel like a treat to receive each day, and if these calendars offered good value for money this Christmas.
Yankee Candle advent book
This calendar comes in a lovely Christmas-themed box that opens like a book, making for easier storage throughout December.
Some doors are a little hard to open but, inside, there are 24 candles: 12 tealights, and 12 mini votives that come in small glass jars. It’s worth stating there are 12 scents on offer in total, so, over the entire month, you’ll receive each fragrance twice, once in each format. Behind the first door, you’ll receive a pretty, silver-plated glass tealight holder, which you can use with other tealights beyond Christmas. There’s also a gorgeously scented silver sage and pine tealight to get December started – ideal to give your home a fresh, forest fragrance, even if you’re sticking with a fake tree this year.
Other particularly Christmassy candle scents included are cinnamon stick, spiced banana bread and vanilla cupcake, though, there are also several that are less typically festive, including wild orchid, red raspberry and black cherry. With so many candles to get through during December, we liked the inclusion of non-festive scents, as we would be able to save these and use them after the Christmas period has come to an end. There are no plastic inserts used, either, so the whole calendar can be recycled.
Buy now £49.99, Yankeecandle.co.uk
Yankee Candle advent wreath
We think this advent calendar is fantastic value for money. It comes in a fairly slim octagonal-shaped box, so it shouldn’t get in the way throughout December. The festive picture and subtle branding on the front also mean this calendar should sit perfectly alongside your usual Christmas decorations. Plus, the cardboard has been sourced from responsibly managed forests, and the calendar has no plastic inserts, so can be entirely recycled.
There’s a tealight behind every door and the first day also includes a clear glass holder. The tealights come in eight fragrances, so you can expect to get each one three times throughout December. All smell fantastic but it would have been nice to have had a little more variety.
Still, we loved the more Christmassy scents, including (our favourite) Christmas cookie and cinnamon stick. All had a very strong, evocative smell that really put us in a festive mood and even lingered the following morning after using the night before. Each tealight burns evenly and cleanly, without giving off black smoke.
Like the Yankee Candle advent book, there are some less Christmassy scents included here, such as bayside cedar, but they still smell great, and lighting one each day will feel like a treat while you count down to Christmas.
Buy now £27.99, Yankeecandle.co.uk
The verdict: Yankee Candle advent calendars
It will feel like Christmas has come early with either of these advent calendars, whether you treat yourself or buy one for someone special. The Yankee Candle advent book is our favourite, as there’s a greater range of scents inside and we loved the bigger votive candles. If you don’t want to spend that much on your advent calendar, however, the Yankee Candle advent wreath is still a lovely way to count down to the big day.
Want more recommendations? Check out our review of LOOKFANTASTIC’s beauty advent calendar
