A Gift So Nice We’re Posting It Twice, one of the many holiday gifting series we’ll be running this month and next, is a look back at the gifts we wrote about last year that our readers actually bought. Here, Jillian Mapes on the candle she gifts to loved ones, which comes in a handsome green glass version, too. Though she now works at Pitchfork, Jillian still stands behind it: “It remains a staple gift for a sick relative, a friend in need of a cheer-up, or a housewarming. Honestly, I should just keep one of these in my house as a spare gift, but I would definitely just use it myself. If you don’t want to splurge on this one, Target also sells a great candle for about half the price in a very cozy scent called grey flannel (whatever that means).”
Sometimes I joke that my backup plan is to become a candle vlogger, subsisting on a meager cut of YouTube ad revenue and destroying my nostrils like I’m in Fleetwood Mac circa Tusk. With as much as I spend on fancy candles now, I’d probably make about the same after factoring in all the free wax I’d score in my new gig. For now, I’ll settle for casually spreading the joy of Thymes Frasier Fir candles.
I first found these potent votives at Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store in Park Slope, a shop that, while not stocking anything you necessarily need, is filled with many things you want but are alas overpriced. Depending on how many times I’ve watched White Christmas wrapped in an afghan, I can usually talk myself into splurging at Annie’s for gifts; last year I walked out with Thymes Frasier Fir candles for my godmother, my grandma, and a friend who seemed like she needed a little nudge toward holiday town (the piney scent will do that to you). I know a fancy candle seems like the least personal gift imaginable, but this one is just that lovely – heavily scented so you don’t have to burn it all night, but not overpoweringly so, owing to its complexity of scents (pine candles can be truly cloying). I will weep if they ever stop making this candle.
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