Back in 1969, 16-year-old Mike Kittredge decided to melt some crayons to make his mom a candle for Christmas. When a neighbour saw the candle and offered to buy it, he got enough to make two more. In the ensuing years, Yankee Candle grew to be the one of the largest candle maker in the United States. To a certain extent, we candle makers owe a debt to Yankee Candle for being a pioneer in the handmade candle making business, introducing a variety of styles and scented candles to a larger market.
Today, Yankee Candle is one of the world’s biggest names in candle manufacturing, and it was acquired for 1.75 billion by Jarden in 2013. Two years later, Newell Rubbermaid bought Jarden.
Made-in-Canada candles for your home
At Country Affair Candles, we began making our handmade scented candles using many of the same techniques that Yankee Candles began with. But we brought our own Canadian style to it, and years later, we retain a true hand-crafted candle making technique. We’ve resisted the temptation to move to more automated, mass production. That would take away too much of the unique, country feel of our candles. Our signature ice candles are still one-of-a-kind items you won’t find anywhere else.
Many Canadians are familiar with the name Yankee Candle, and the company has a number of candle stores in Ontario. But as of yet, they haven’t offered online sales of Yankee Candle to Canadians – if you go there, you’ll get routed to their U.S. online store.
One of the reasons we began our online store was to offer an alternative for folks who like offerings such as those made by Yankee Candle – but prefer true hand-crafted quality and prefer to buy Canadian.