I probably check out Yankee Candle shops a few times a year, but the only day I am guaranteed to be there is for their annual Yankee Candle Halloween Preview Party. And despite being a once-per-year customer, the staff seems to remember me every August. "Hey, Zombie Pumpkins! Ryan, right? You carve the pumpkins. You've been here 3 or 4 years in a row."
As usual, the "
Boney Bunch" figures are their biggest collectible, and as OldTrustyLegs mentioned, this year there are 17 new pieces!
Each "
Boney Bunch" ceramic sculpture is either a Jar Candle Holder, Taper Candle Holder, Votive Candle Holder, Tea Light Candle Holder, Jar Candle Topper, or Wax Melts Warmer. Here are a few I saw...
My favorite was probably this grave digger. "Graves Dug While You Wait."
Unfortunately, they did away with their "Skeleton Crew" collectibles this year, which were always my favorite because they had realistic looking skulls and bones. There are still remnants of that style though, in their "
Spellbound Collection." I like this
wax melts warmer on the left, with the skull, raven and potion books:
Most of the spooky Halloween decorations are part of this "
Spellbound Collection" which is themed primarily around witches and potions:
It's pretty cool how Yankee Candle focuses on different themes each Halloween season. In 2012 it was all about black cats. This year, the witches take flight.
These
witch hands really caught my eye. Much like the similar skeleton hands they were selling for the past few years, these are meant to hold a jar candle:
What's great about the witch hands is that they don't have any obvious indentations where the candle is meant to go, which means you can pose them by themselves (even stand them up on the wrist), which they illustrated in the store:
Again they have
bottles to hold tea light candles. In the past they used to be a dark purple (almost black) but to go with this year's witch theme they are colorful and have witch potion labels:
Oh, and of course there are candles... first we have these three options with a matching design theme on the jar. "
Witches' Brew" (patchouli) and "
Candy Corn" are returning classics. The new Halloween scent is "
Ghostly Treats" which has the scent of goeey toasted marshmallows. All three of these scents are available as jars, votives, tealights or tart melts.
The other Halloween candle options are these jars. "
Trick or Treat" is a swirl of "Candy Corn" and "Harvest." And the striped "
Halloween Trio" candle has layers of "Ghostly Treats," "Candy Corn" and "Happy Halloween."
Their website says the black layer is "Witches' Brew" but that appears to be wrong. The label says it's "Happy Halloween" which is a licorice smell. Makes more sense, combined with the other sweet layers of candy corn and marshmallow.
For more general autumn candles you can check the
fall favorites list on their website here. I endorse any of them with "pumpkin" in the title.
I didn't go too crazy with my credit card. I have so many Halloween decorations, so I try to be pretty selective with what I bring home. Also, I still have a lot of Halloween/Fall candles from Yankee Candle that I've yet to burn all the way (Pumpkin Patch, Harvest Welcome, Candy Corn, Pumpkin Buttercream, Salted Caramel, Cider Web). So I didn't buy any more big jars. But I did pick up that 3-flavor "Halloween Trio" candle so I could try that new "Ghostly Treats" scent. It does smell a bit like marshmallow, by the way, but it's not overly powerful which is good.
Here's a photo of my 2014 haul:
In addition to the witch hand and trio candle, I also bought an
Illuma-Lid with jack 'o lanterns on it and
vent sticks so my car will smell like candy corn. Oh, and that candy corn votive was a free gift for showing up and spending too much money.