Boy is this place popular. Finding parking was a challenge.
It's basically a big mall that sells holiday decorations, locally made crafts/gourmet condiments and candles. There are several departments throught the building, "Yankee Candle Toy", "Yankee Candle Home" (with separate kitchen shop), "The General Store", "The Black Forest", "The Nutcracker Castle", "Kringle Market" and the Candle Emporium. There's also a horse drawn wagon ride, and a high end restaurant. Supposedly there's a museum with candle making demonstrations but I saw no demonstratons and the museum was undewhelming. The restuarant was too expensive for us, so we ate in the Food Court.
Don't do that. It's overpriced. My aunt's sandwhich and water were $9. My nachos were a pile of chips, a tiny plastic tub of what is probably generic storebought salsa, and a tiny plastic tub of cheap melted cheese sauce. Apparently, in addition to paying more for it than we should have had to pay, I was required to assemble my own lunch. The cheese was cold by the time I finished drenching my chips with it.
However, refills for your drinks are free, so you could get a shopping cart, set the drink down in the front basket, and when it's empty, go back and refill it for free.
And as for food, I mean, just eat a real meal somewhere cheaper and then snack on the lucious popcorn and fudge options.
What I noticed most were all the thoughtful little details around the store. It starts with the long, wraparound wooden porch, which is draped in flowers and leaves. The ceiling in the "Black Forest" occasionally spits big drifts of fake snow. Everyone who noticed would stop and watch excitedly. A tiny train zips around the complex on a track above the heads of customers.
There is an animatronic band called "The Candle Mountain Boys". I don't know how I feel about that. But I did love the Black Forest. I have this thing...I really enjoy a nice indoor forest. I tried to get at least one picture of the ceiling, with the lighted canopy of evergreen but the camera just didn't want to cooperate.
The Nutcracker Castle. For one thing, there's a moat with running water. But the Nutcrackers themselves-that industry/art form has really taken off, for better or worse. You can get a Nutcracker of almost anything now, and about half of the options were in that castle.
And speaking of thoughtful little details, the staff there are amazingly polite and helpful, which cannot be easy to do when you spend all day in a year round equivalent to Christmas at the Mall.
The home decor store is not that special. There's a whole lot of Vera Bradley, Bakegarde, etc, which you can get in any high end gift or home decor shop in New England.
The candle store though...is everything you'd want in a candle store. They have every single Yankee Candle scent currently available, plus exclusives and they have them in all the forms (tea light, tart, votive, small jar, medium jar, large jar), as well as their new soy candles, reed diffusers, and "Simply Home" line (although I can't figure out what makes "Simply Home" different from the normal ones). If you can't find the scent you want in the main emporium, it's somewhere in the building.
I'd wanted to go and get one of those custom candles, the ones where you choose your color, scent, and mold (you can even get one shaped like your own hand) but I remembered about the sales tax and wanted to make sure I'd even have enough money.
But the line for the registers was so long I did not want to leave it once I got in, and I didn't want to go back through once I got out. There's a row of cashiers in one room- you don't pay for separate stuff in separate departments.
On the one hand, this is good because you can wander about the entire store without having to stop and pay before leaving each department, but it not only makes for a depressingly long line at the checkout area but it also means you have to really
work to keep track of what you're spending. I think they *want* you to lose track.
It's why the food court and bathrooms are buried deep in the middle of the store and you have to go through at least one other department to reach the candles.
I bought two cases of 12 mix and match candles.
Christmas on the Beach
Holiday Home Sweet Home
Frosted Cedar Wreath
Moonlight Harvest
Eggnog
Mulling Spices
Mulled Wine
Fresh Water
Holiday Bayberry
"Fresh Water" is a new favorite of mine. It actually smells...like water. you wouldn't think water had a smell, not good water anyway but it smells like water. It's a trick perfumers often use, Yankee Candle has a few "aquatic" scents (Spring Rain, Mountain Lake, Ocean Water, Coming Storm among them) and so does BPAL.
"Moonlight Harvest" is some type of outlet store exclusive. I LOVE it. I would've filled a whole case with it if I'd found the votives before I found the other scents. It's like Midsummer Night with a lot of fruit underneath.
"Holiday Home Sweet Home" is "Home Sweet Home" all winter-holidayed up.
"Christmas on the Beach" has a coconutty undertone, I just like the idea of Christmas on the beach and wish I could do it again.
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