Impulsive Traveler: In Massachusetts, Kringle Candle store rivals Yankee Candle

My nose was on a mission: to sniff out home.

At Kringle Candle in western Massachusetts, I lifted dozens of lids in search of a scent redolent of the warmth, comfort and co-dependence of my childhood.

I breathed in the sweet fumes of Vanilla Bean and Sugar Plum and the piquant smells of Cayenne Pepper and Balsam Fir. I rode a sensory sleigh through Christmas Stroll and Snow-Capped Fraser. And I dined calorie-free on Brownie Cheesecake, Pancake Breakfast and Banana Cream Pie.

Where to go and what to know abuot Deerfield, Mass.

Despite all my inhalations, I failed to nail down the defining scent of my youth: a mixture of coffee, pipe tobacco and Siberian husky fur. But instead of giving up, I decided to create a new aromatic history.

“Fragrance is the longest tie to memory,” said Michael “Mick” Kittredge III, who owns the candle company with his father, Michael “Mike” Kittredge. “Something as simple as a candle can evoke an emotion.”

Scented wax courses through 21-year-old Mick’s veins: His father was the founder of Yankee Candle, a company he sold in 1998 for millions. It also streams through western Massachusetts, home to at least three candle emporiums: Yankee Candle and New England Candle in South Deerfield, and Kringle, 15 miles north in Bernardston.

Many local shops, such as the gift shop at Historic Deerfield, a collective of museum houses, also carry the mood lights. The store stocks fingerlike tapers and beeswax candles in the shape of a hive, complete with resident bug. Not quite a period piece, but truer to the 18th century than, say, a flashlight.

Of the three emporiums, Kringle is the baby at 15 months old, and Yankee is the papa bear, at 40-something. (New England is like the third cousin who’s never invited to reunions.) Yankee’s flagship store, which also features a Christmas village, a DIY workshop, a museum and a restaurant, is the state’s second-most popular attraction, after the Freedom Trail in Boston.

Kittredge pere made his first candle, a holiday gift for his mother, in 1969. The then-16-year-old used crayons for color, a shoelace for a wick and his grandmother’s Queen Atlantic stove for the goopy experiment. (The hulking appliance now greets visitors to Kringle.)

“It truly was horrible,” Kittredge said of his creation of more than four decades ago. But he stuck with the craft, driven by a dream: “I wanted to make enough money to buy a sports car.” He succeeded (Jaguar XKE) and then some (assorted Ferraris and classic cars, plus a 200-foot yacht).

Kringle is a departure from Yankee. The most obvious change is the color of the candles. The 92 fragrances in the 10,000-square-foot showroom all share the same tasteful palette — the crisp white of Frette sheets and fresh snow.

“An orange candle does not go in a blue room,” Mick said during my November visit. “It clashes with the decor.” In addition to aiding with interior harmony, the white candles glow more brightly and throw more light. Art and science unite in a glass jar, or a ramekin, if that’s more your style.