Although during most of the year I'm pretty loyal to just 3 or 4 Yankee Candle fragrances and only tend to try out odd new ones every now and again, when it comes to this time of the year I do like to branch out a bit to make our home smell more festive, giving it a warm, cosy and seasonal atmosphere. Previously, my favourite one for this was called Frankincense and Myrhh but unfortunately Yankee, in their wisdom, discontinued that one several years ago so I had to find a new festive favourite. I tried a few in tart form before settling on this Mandarin Cranberry fragrance.

Although it is not part of YC's official "festive" range it is still a great one to burn at this time of year and despite not really liking the fruity fragrances so much, I find that this one is absolutely perfect in giving our home a more autumnal atmosphere without being too sweet or sickly.

I normally use tarts to fragrance my home and only invest in the jar style candles of fragrances that I know I really love as they are expensive and a big investment to make if you end up not really liking the smell. At Christmas though I always invest in a medium jar sized candle. I decided on the medium sized after buying a large one one Christmas and only using half of it. A small one would be too small as these only last between 25 and 40 hours so a medium one, lasting between 60 and 90 hours is just about right for us. I don't light it every day, but from now until Christmas it will be the main one I burn so will probably lit for 2-3 hours at a time 4 or 5 times a week and, judging by last years candle, that should take us right up to when we leave for our Christmas holiday.

I won't go into the details of Yankee Candle or the different forms of candles they do (there are many reviews of them on here if you have been living on another planet for the last few years and want to find out more, including some of my own previous reviews) as these reviews can get very repetitive! I was lucky enough to visit a local garden centre recently who were getting rid of a lot of their YC stock to make way for their Christmas displays and I managed to pick up my medium jar this year for just £12.99, which is quite a bargain as they normally retail for upwards of £15.99 now. If I get the full 90 hours of burning from it that works out at less than 15p an hour of fragrance so I'm more than happy with that.

I started our Christmas candle at the weekend and, as always, when starting a new jar candle I trimmed the wick to 0.5 cm (you should do this before every time you light the candle for optimum burning time and minimal smoking from the wick) and set the candle on the mantlepiece. When using a large or medium jar candle for the first time you should always leave it burning for a minimum of 3-4 hours to get the wax pool on top as large as possible. This will help the candle burn evenly all the way down rather than tunnelling down the middle and will actually give you a longer overall burning time.

Within a few minutes of lighting the candle the fragrance started to waft gently around our living room until gradually after maybe 15 minutes it was really quite strong and noticeable. One of the things I like best about Yankee Candles is the strength of their fragrances and as the ground floor of our house is quite open plan, this medium candle gave off enough scent to be noticeable across the whole of the floor. One of the main reasons I like this fragrance in particular is because it is strong enough to spread the fragrance across quite a big area but it's not too strong as to be overpowering or cloying in your throat.

The fragrance itself is said to be "bursting with the vibrant fruity sensation of sweet, sunny oranges and crisp, tangy cranberries" which I would say is a pretty accurate summation of this scent. It is a really lovely combination of the two fruits so it is zingy without being too citrussy and tart without being too heady. It's sweet and powerful and just gives a really nice, warming smell, making my home feel lovely and festive and creating just the right atmosphere for these cold, dark winter nights.

Some people insist on burning cinnamon type candles or the pine fragranced ones at this time of year but for me this fruitier version of a Christmas scent is just perfect. I find the cinnamon candles much too strong and the pine ones don't really make me feel festive whereas this one has put me in the Christmas mood so much over the last few days that I've now made a start on my Christmas baking and am looking for a decent cranberry and orange cake recipe to see if I can replicate the feeling of this candle in a cake!

I would highly recommend the Mandarin Cranberry fragranced candle if you're looking for something to give your home a nice warming feeling but don't want something that's too strong or spicy. This comes in a nice deep red colour so doesn't even look out of place with Christmas decorations (no, don't worry, even I don't put my deccies up until December! But we had the same fragrance last year and it really complemented our traditional red, gold and green theme) and the picture on the front of orange halves and cranberries looks good too.

Every time we had visitors last Christmas this candle was always lit and everyone, without fail, said how nice it smelt in our house and asked what it was so it is also going to be going into a few stockings this year as a filler (just the small jar size, I'm not that generous!). Not only is it a nice gift for yourself to get you in the festive feel, it will also make a great present. All in all this gets a good 5 stars from me. For a Christmas candle I couldn't ask for anything more and I don't know why they don't actually have it as part of their "festive" fragrance family.