12 Candles that Smell Like Christmas

BUY IT: $10; shopterrain.com

Welcome the winter chill with this tin-wrapped sparkler, which smells like a perfect blend of Christmas trees and that spice-laden potpourri your mom whips up each December for the holidays. At only $10 a pop, these are great to keep on hand for those visitors who swing by with an unexpected gift!

Related: The Best Christmas Gifts Under $15

BUY IT: $110; nordstrom.com

Jo Malone is known for its sophisticated signature fragrances, and that same elegance is at play in this lovely suite of tiny, mantle-ready candles, which deliver hints of “Sweet Almond & Macaroon,” “Green Tomato Leaf,” “Frosted Cherry & Clove,” “Pomegranate Noir,” and “Peony & Blush Suede.”

Related: 10 Vacations to Give for the Holidays

BUY IT: $100; anthropologie.com

These darling gold votive candles are embossed with illustrations of each of the 12 Days of Christmas’ traditional gift, from the Partridge in a Pear Tree to the 12 Drummers Drumming. The first four days of candles bring smells of mistletoe, followed by four days of aromatic cinnamon cloves, and finished with four days of sweet winter berries’ scents. Gift the set to your favorite holiday hostess, or treat yourself to the festive scent parade.

BUY IT: $21; bedbathandbeyond.com

Because nothing declares you’ve made it home for the holidays quite like the smell of fresh-baked cookies. But fair warning: This candle smells so sugary sweet that Santa may be tempted to slip down the chimney before the little ones are even in bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

BUY IT: $32 (set of 4); nordstrom.com

These pretty, pocket-sized candles come in a quartet of festive fragrances: “Blanc de Blancs,” a fruity blend that smells like your holiday cocktail party’s signature drink; “Visions of Sugar Plums,” which calls to mind – you guessed it – ripe white plums and sugar-dusted cherries; “Spruce Cuttings,” a zingy scent that smells like a house decked floor-to-ceiling with fresh-cut garland; and “Cinnamon Ceylon and Copal,” a warm mix of cinnamon sticks and a blazing Yule log.

BUY IT: $20; shopterrain.com

Count down the days to Christmas with this sweet little luminary. Hand-poured and made of a soy wax blend, this candle smells like Sicilian oranges and winter spices, a nostalgic, scent-fueled throwback to the days when fresh oranges were prized stocking stuffers.

BUY IT: $16; bedbathandbeyond.com

Crisp pine fragrance is packed into this teeny tumbler, bringing the smell of your front door’s holiday wreath inside. Place one in your entry for a pleasant, aromatic welcome, and put another one in the mudroom to keep your home’s drop zone smelling fresh.

BUY IT: $34; shopterrain.com

Is there any day more deflating to holiday cheer than the dreaded day that the Christmas tree is taken down, hauled outside to the curb, and left to be spirited away by the nearest trash truck? Keep the merriment alive long after you’ve bid farewell to your tree with this all-natural, fresh-cut fir scent, that’s topped with pleasant notes of cedar and citrus.

For the consummate holiday hostess who hand-letters place cards and crafts immaculate centerpieces with flowers freshly cut from her garden, there’s this candle from French perfumery diptyque. Scented with spicy cloves, incense, and vanilla, this candle is the perfect backdrop for holiday fêtes.

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BUY IT: $70; nordstrom.com

Intended to follow diptyque's Act 1/Sparkling Incense Candle, this sweet little number is lovely on its own, too, bursting with heavy notes of gingerbread and mellow hints of golden honey and star anise.

BUY IT: $70; nordstrom.com

With notes of pine, cedar, resin, and patchouli, the final act in diptyque’s trio of holiday scents is so true to its inspiration that it may lead to a spontaneous chorus of “O Christmas Tree!”

BUY IT: $28; bedbathandbeyond.com

A 78-degree Christmas will hardly inspire you to pull out the yule log (we’re looking at you, Key West dwellers!), so bring in the smooth, smoky scent of a crackling fire with this snowflake-adorned accent instead. Crank up “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” on Spotify for the full wintery effect.