As early as August I start to feel it. Even though the sky is still bright, the landscape is full of abundant cornfields, and fall is still more than a month away, there is beneath it all a hint of autumn. While I am enjoying those hotter, drier days of August (and that fresh corn on the cob!), a little bit of me is jumping ahead to September and even into October. Quietly, I start imagining the leaves falling and the days turning crisper and cooler. I start thinking about jack o’ lanterns, hanging orange and purple twinkle lights, and putting out the handmade haunted mansion and vintage witchy décor. It is like a stroll into Halloween, and this past weekend, when I visited the Yankee Candle flagship store in South Deerfield, MA (aka Yankee Candle Village), I did take a little stroll into Halloween.

Halloween room, Yankee Candle store
At the entrance to the Halloween room

Yankee Candle does a great job with their displays in this store. For every season they feature something specifically geared towards major holidays or pastimes, and they do it with creativity and originality. This year they devoted an entire room to Halloween. Woohoo! a retailer who understands that for some customers, Halloween might be as important – or more-so – as Christmas! And, they start it early enough to offer inspiration and motivation for getting into the mood of the holiday.

Halloween display, Yankee Candle
“Haunted” books flapping their pages up in the air (they did actually flap up and down, hanging from “invisible” wire)

Their displays often feature a lot of thoughtful elements and fun details. This year they had ghostly flying books, floating tarot cards, and a nook that looked like a witch’s workshop. My dad was a display artist back in the 1960s and 70s, when displays were created in-house in major stores. My dad, and others in his team, loved the work. It was artistic and creative, nothing cookie-cutter about it. At Yankee Candle I often feel that they must give their display artists liberty to design freely, enjoying the process, and knowing their visitors will enjoy the results.

Candles, of course…

Yankee Candle sells candles (and lots of them!), of course… but many other things as well. If you have never visited the flagship store, I’d highly recommend it (especially if you also love Christmas). Unsurprisingly, the Halloween room featured candles for Halloween, but it also sold a lot of other Halloween merchandise. Wednesday and Beetlejuice games were available, as well as socks and other accessories, mugs, and puzzles, everything in tune with the Halloween spirit. They even carried the Salem Ouija board.

Inspiration

Halloween displays, Yankee Candle
A witch’s workshop, with giant spellbook, spiders, and snakes

I realize of course that to some people this whole thing smacks of blatant consumerism, and that’s all they see. I get it. Sure, it’s about selling, essentially. I can be as cynical as the next person. But I also see beyond the superficial consumerist aspect of it. I see the creativity in the work, and I see as well how it inspires customers (people like me?), to go home and create our own vision of Halloween, in our own homes. Everyone else shopping while I was there, seemed to be having a great time. It looked like everyone loved every bit of the displays.

Bringing it home

So, did I bring it home? As I said earlier, I always start to “feel” Halloween by sometime in August. Most years I start to take out some of the decorations, or plan new ones. At Yankee this month, from the Halloween room, my husband and I bought a Halloween puzzle – that’s it. Though I would have loved to get the Salem Ouija, some new Halloween decor, or even some fluffy jack o’ lantern socks, I showed great restraint. But it did inspire me. If things aren’t too busy this month, I hope to put that inspiration into action, in decorating for one of my favorite holidays of the year.

If you’re interested and able to visit the flagship store, see Yankee Candle Village to learn more.

Just a note, included below are affiliate links to Amazon, so if you click through and make a purchase, thank you! Those purchases help support the site, and thus, me! The links to Yankee Candle are not affiliate links.

A few things I saw at Yankee that I was tempted to buy but didn’t, were the Salem Ouija Board, and Wednesday and Beetlejuice boards and games. I did buy this puzzle, All Hallow’s Eve, by Vermont Christmas Company. Unfortunately, the Yankee Candle website isn’t as fun as the store (especially the flagship store). You could still peruse the site for Halloween or other fall scents. Their Halloween collection is honestly a little lacking these days (they used to have some great collectible items for the holiday). I’ve tried a number of reportedly higher-end, trendy scented candle brands, but have honestly found I prefer the Yankee candles. They don’t irritate my sinuses and allergies the way some of the more potently scented natural ones do.

Ready for the holidays

I hope if you celebrate Halloween or Samhain you can find your inspiration, and maybe even find it early! As always, please reach out to say hello, ask questions, or send comments. Thanks for reading.

~ Nellie