I don’t know about you guys, but for me, the Halloween season wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t have a scented candle burning every waking moment. So when I found out that Yankee Candle was dropping their Halloween collection and it just so happened to coincide with my weekend off, I knew what I had to do. I quickly forgot about the standard, shopping mall sized stores and set my eyes on the prize - Yankee Candle Village in Deerfield, Massachusetts. If you weren’t aware, a good portion of the DemBoys team resides in good ‘ol ASSachusetts, so this wasn’t some 17 hour voyage or anything.

When I sent Grimey a text to let him know where I was headed on my Saturday off, he was perplexed when I described it as the “Disney World of candle stores”. That’s when I realized that maybe this ~*flagship location*~ that had always been practically in my backyard, was something that I had been taking for granted. Maybe the idea of animatronics in a candle shop isn’t a run of the mill experience for most folks. So here I am, sharing my experience with strangers on the internet about the world’s largest (unverified) candle store.

Before I really dive in here, I do want to make a point in saying that yes, I fully admit that going to Yankee Candle Village in the midst of a pandemic was entirely underwhelming. If any of you decide that you’re going to take a road trip after reading this, I’d urge you to do it AFTER Covid slows down and things are getting back to normal. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s begin.

Theming

They aren’t exaggerating when they call this store a village. The whole space comes in at just around 90,000 square feet. To put that in perspective for you, you could cram about 5 ½ Old Navy stores into that space. Yes I did the math. Yes I am bored. Leave me alone.

The store itself is broken up into a TON of different sections, from what you’d expect a candle store to look like, to a country store, and they even have Santa’s Workshop that’s open year round. But by far the most impressive, and quite honestly the reasons to visit, would be the Bavarian Christmas Village & the Medieval Castle. Just take a look at this -

That’s INSIDE of the store guys. It sort of brings to mind the Casa Bonita episode of South Park, what with having these elaborate set pieces inside something as unassuming as a candle store. While you’re inside the Bavarian Village, every few minutes it “snows” some flecks of dish soap which really sells the whole Christmas Village theme. I know I said this was a Halloween trip, and I’ll get there. I swear.

My favorite part of this whole place easily has to be the castle. This is odd for me, because everyone who knows me, knows that I have absolutely ZERO love for anything medieval. I don’t care about kings or knights, sword battles or dragons, I don’t give a shit about peasant life. None of it. The closest I’ve ever come to enjoying anything from this time period is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and that’s really just because Eric Idle is a god of comedy. While I’m on this rant, I’d like to put this out there: FUCK A Knight’s Tale.

You still with me? Good. So anyways, I really think the reason I dig this castle so much is because in a way it is not unlike Walt Disney World. Seriously, after looking at these pictures, if I hadn’t told you this was a Yankee Candle and instead said this was in Epcot you’d absolutely believe it to be true. Shut up, yes you would.

On the totally opposite end of the spectrum, they’ve got this hallway that features the biggest little town display I’ve ever seen. Think about your grandmother’s tabletop porcelain town she puts out for Christmas, now multiply that by 30. Just look at this monstrosity -

Oh, and I suppose that you’re probably wondering why I’m still showing you Christmas stuff. Well I was GETTING TO IT. Here, have your mini Halloween Town.

HALLOWEEN DISPLAY

That reminds me, I guess I should probably get to the seasonal stuff. This was honestly the most disappointing part of the trip for me personally. While they had two small-ish Halloween displays set up, as well as a few things out in the country store section, as of August 29th, 2020, there were only two actual Halloween candles on the shelves.

Both of these three layered candles had three scents, but unfortunately due to the design of the candle, you could really only smell the scent of the top layer so I can’t even give you a proper “review”. Not to mention, I’m almost positive that these were out last season, so it really isn’t anything to report on. I know we’re in the midst of a pandemic, but you’d think the flagship location would have all the scents all the time. Meh.

What they DID have out though, was just about every spooky candle accessory that’s available this year. They were all pretty cool, but I was particularly fond of all of these little skeleton dudes, which Yankee is officially dubbing The Boney Bunch. It’s my understanding that these have been around before, and they’re making their triumphant return once again this year. They’re all pretty good, but I want you to take a good long look at “On A Roll”.

Remind you of anyone? To me, this guy absolutely screams Dr. Finklestein from A Nightmare Before Christmas. I can’t tell you whether that was their actual intention or not, but the end result is absolutely an homage in one way or another.

IN CONCLUSION

There’s a lot of fun to be had at Yankee Candle Village, though as I had said in the beginning, I would wait until this whole pandemic finally blows over to take a trip out there. While I’m still a bit bummed that Halloween wasn’t very well represented during my visit, I understand that I went in August, in the middle of a worldwide crisis...not exactly the best odds for having a mind blowing experience. Finally, I’d like to add that this place was absolutely designed around the Christmas Holiday, and I do think you’d probably get the most out of it visiting some time between November and December. That said, check this place out when and if you ever have the opportunity! If not, hopefully this article will help you scratch that adventurous itch while you’re stuck at home.

I may have wrote this whole article just so I could show you this absolute shit post of a custom candle I made.

Visiting Yankee Candle Village

Visiting Yankee Candle Village: The Disney World of Candle Shops

Derek Laganelli

Theming

HALLOWEEN DISPLAY

IN CONCLUSION