I received a Yankee 'Christmas Eve' votive sampler candle a couple of months back as a gift and decided to keep it for Christmas. Meanwhile, I was shopping for some wax tarts and noticed the Christmas Eve scent was reduced as part of a 'fragrance of the month' promotion and decided to buy one. I lit both the votive sampler and wax tart in different parts of my house on Christmas Eve.

Yankee have a large range of festive fragranced candles available at this time of year and my favourites are the ones which smell fruity and spicy, as quite a few have a strong pine fragrance which I am not as keen on unless it is a subtle pine fragrance blended with something else.
So the fact that Yankee's Christmas Eve fragrance is described as a traditional holiday scent of a warm hearth, sugared plums, and candied fruits, meant that this would no doubt be one of the festive fragrances I would enjoy.
Apart from the appealing fragrance, the bright red wax and festive label depicting Santa on his sleigh is very attractive too. The red wax conjures up images of warmth and also cosy nights in front of the fire, perfect to use over the winter evenings and festive period.

I have found that generally the wax tarts seem to release more fragrance than a votive candle. Indeed I find that it is the stronger scents which work better in votive form and although the votives are slightly more expensive than the wax tarts and offer a longer burning time, it is often the wax tart which offers better value for money in my opinion and this was certainly the case here with the Christmas Eve fragrance.

Using the wax tart, I noticed the fragrance appearing around 3 minutes after placing it in my burner and lighting a tealight underneath. Yankee state you can expect up to around 8 hours of fragrance from a wax tart and I find this does vary from fragrance to fragrance, with some even surpassing the 8 hours, although there are some disappointing ones too.
I am pleased to say I achieved around 8 hours of fragrance from my wax tart and the scent filled the room with its fruity and spicy notes. The scent hung in the air for quite some time after the tealight had burned or was extinguished too.

The votive, I wasn't as impressed with. Although I could detect the scent, it was not as strong as that which was coming from my burner where the wax tart was melting. Yankee state you can experience around 15 hours of burn time from a votive candle and whilst this was an accurate statement in this case, I have to say there was very little fragrance coming from the votive in its latter burning stages.
It looked attractive enough burning as a candle, but if fragrance is what you are wanting, you may find yourself a little disappointed, as it was consideraby weaker than the wax tart in the same fragrance.

Overall, I really enjoyed this Christmas Eve fragrance, although I would recommend the wax tart format over the votive with this one. Of course you can buy the larger glass jars and tumbler formats which are considerably more expensive, but by buying these sample candles and tarts it is an ideal way to sample the fragrance before spending a lot of money on a glass jar.
I have only had a couple of the glass jar candles and they have been very good, but I still prefer to buy the wax tarts as I have definitely found these release the strongest fragrance when in use.

Christmas Eve wax tarts and votives are available to buy from branches of Clintons, Collectables and other card and gift outlets and are also available to purchase online from Yankee stockists such as www.yankee.co.uk where the votive is currently priced at £1.31 and the wax tart at 90p. Yankee candles are also available from Amazon and Ebay.