information

Address: 
25 Greenfield Rd, 
South Deerfield, MA 1373
(directions)

Hours:
Open Daily

Jan. 1 to July 31
9:30 am - 6 pm 

Aug.1 - Nov.1 to Dec.31 
9:30 am - 8 pm 

Contact:
(877)636-7707

On the Web:
yankeecandle.com

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Makes scents to go to Yankee Candle

by
Elizabeth Joyce-Brandt

On a particularly gray and boring February afternoon, a couple of girlfriends and I decided to check out the Yankee Candle Flagship Store.  We have lived just ten minutes from the famous candle shop for over a year and had never seen it.  We had heard that it was the largest candle store in the country and thought, "candles are fun, why not go check it out?"  We piled into the car and headed down Route 116.   

We found that the store was much more than just candles. The store is a massive red-and-white, farmhouse-style building, which also has an adjoining building, that houses an employee gym and once-a-month candle clearance sales. It is surrounded by a white picket fence and green lawns that beg to be picnicked on.

We entered the store and were greeted by a potpourri of scents, over 160, in fact, mingling in the air.  My friends and I joked about candle names and tried to find the grossest scents to shove in each other’s faces.  My least favorite was melon, which smells exactly like melons and gives me a headache.  We explored the multi-room building and were surprised by the rest of the creative rooms.

 

My favorite room is the Black Forest where the walls were created to look like a German mountain range, their texture jutting out from the flat walls. A miniature toy train runs around the top of the room as if making the journey to the North Pole through the mountains.  A soft faux snow falls on the mountains.

One of the flagship store's claims to fame is the gorgeous Bavarian Christmas Village.  The room is decorated to look like the journey to the North Pole.  A 25-foot fake pine tree is decorated festively with brightly colored bulbs and ornaments. There are replicas of Bavarian home fronts that sit under the ceiling painted blue evoking a midnight sky, complete with blinking lights.  

The Black Forest leads to Santa’s Enchanted Toy Workshop, where toy elves sing and encourage children to make a wish into a large color-changing orb on the ceiling.  Santa’s house is there, too, and children line up to have their picture taken with the man himself. 

The room that connects to Santa’s Village is the Build-a-Bear room.  My friends and I explored all of the flat-bellied un-stuffed animals that lie on the shelves, waiting to be filled with soft cotton and taken home to be loved. We created a green frog dressed in Army fatigues for one of my friend’s boyfriends who is in the Army. 

   

Mike Kittredge

 
Yankee Candle was started in 1969 by 16-year-old Mike Kittredge, after creating a candle as a gift for his mother.  In 1972, Kittredge rented retail space in South Hadley to sell scented candles.  In 1974, he moved his young business from his parent's garage and basement to an old paper mill. In 1983, Kittredge moved to South Deerfield, Mass.  The Flagship store was opened in 1993, seven years after Kittredge was honored as the Massachusetts Small Businessman of the Year.  

The store features an award winning restaurant, the Chandlers Restaurant, as well as The Candlewick Café and the Candle Mountain Lodge. Visitors have the option of visiting the Candle Making Museum where they can learn how candles were made in the olden days and take their newfound knowledge to the Dip-Your-Own candles area and create a candle all their own. 
   



 


We were amazed by how much thought goes into the preparation of the build-a-bears from selecting a heart for the animal to reciting a pledge to love the bear and celebrate each day.  We were like little kids picking up every adorable accessory, from the boxer shorts covered in red hearts to the nurse’s uniform, all of which had holes in the back for the bear's tail. 

These are just some of the delightful rooms in the Yankee Flagship store.  There are more candle accessories than can be imagined ranging from votive holders, tiny lampshades, perfume sprays, towels, ornaments and dishware.

Two hours after we arrived at the Flagship Store, my girlfriends and I piled into the car. Some of us had candles, a few had build-a-bears, and we all had empty wallets.  The Flagship Store is a fun mix of shopping, dining and entertainment, but it doesn’t come cheap.  Candles and bears range in prices from $16 to $30, and the restaurants are pricey.  Despite the empty wallets, we left with a good feeling. The store had entertained us for hours on a very boring, wintry February afternoon.

 

This website was created by the students of Journalism 375 at the University of Massachusetts 2005