Every season has its definitive, nostalgia-inducing scent. In summer, it's the balmy combination of warm air, sunscreen and barbecue; come spring you're likely to get a whiff of fresh air and fresh laundry. It's harder, though, to pinpoint winter's signature scent. There is that distinct smell of firewood permeating people's homes or the baked good wafting from someone's oven or another. But you could also say the fragrance of winter is the ever-present scent of freshly-cut pine.
We aren't ones to pass up a challenge here at HuffPost Home, so we rounded up 20 home fragrances that claim to embody all the things about winter that we love, and put them to the test: What is the most authentic holiday home fragrance out there?
To determine the most Christmas-y scented candle money can buy, we had our editors rate each one on the following:
How likely is this fragrance to...
... Evoke holiday cheer
... Take me back to childhood holidays
... Make me want to cozy up next to it on a chilly winter night
... Smell like the holiday ingredient it promises
Naturally, we couldn't test every candle, diffuser or air freshener on the market, but here's how the ones we did test ranked:
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