The 2024 Trader Joe’s Candle Advent Calendar is Here!

I missed out on this candle advent calendar last year so I’ve been not so patiently waiting for it to hit the shelves at my local Trader Joe’s for awhile. I know that advent calendars are meant to be opened one day at a time in the month of December, but let’s be real – I’ve already opened all 12 of these scents and burned several of them. And I have lots of thoughts, so let’s get into it —  

Before you Buy the Trader Joe’s 12 Days of Candles Collection

Here are some things to know:

• There are 12 candles inside the Trader Joe’s 12 Days of Candles Advent Calendar for a price of $29.99.
• Please note that these are not all holiday themed scents. Personally, I like that because I’m not going be able to burn all of them in the next couple of months, but if you were hoping for a set filled with seasonal pine/evergreen scents, this is not it.
• These candles are smaller than the typical 5.7 oz Trader Joe’s candles that they offer individually throughout the year. These are 2.5 oz tin candles with a burn time of 10 hours each. Don’t expect to get an intense hot throw in a large room. To me, these are perfect for bathrooms or other small spaces.

Before I dive into my reviews of the scents, I will warn you that these tins are very hard to open. I struggled so badly on a few of them that I had to wedge a knife into the tops to pop them off. If you are able to pry these open, here is what they smell like…

What’s inside the Trader Joe’s Candle Advent Calendar?

You’ll notice that all of these scents are named after Trader Joe’s products. Here’s a list of all of the candles inside of the advent calendar:

1 Scandinavian Swimmers

This candle smells like fruit snacks in the best way. I’m assuming that this was inspired by the Scandinavian Swimmers candy because this and several of the other scents are named after Trader Joe’s products. I can’t even identify which fruits are in the fragrance oil, but it’s a nice blend and it’s not overwhelmingly sweet (like some of the other candles in this set… but we’ll get to that later).

2 Sweet Nectarine

Smells exactly as advertised. This is all nectarine. It is fairly sweet, but not cloying. This is one of three citrus scents in this advent calendar. This candle and the jalapeño limeade candle were both pretty one note to me, so I’m going to try burning them at the same time to see if that creates a more interesting scent profile.

3 Jalapeño Limeade

I do not get jalapeño vibes from this. It’s all lime to me. This was the scent I was most excited about and while I don’t dislike it, I was hoping for something a bit spicier and more complex. It’s not bad, but I’m bored by it. As I mentioned above, I will try burning it with Sweet Nectarine to see if I prefer the combination of the two.

4 Yuzu Hot Sauce

This was my favorite in the bunch. It’s another citrus-y scent, but it also has something I can’t quite put my finger on. I don’t smell hot sauce (although to be honest with you, I’ve never sniffed a bottle of hot sauce), but there is something behind the yuzu scent that balances it out nicely.

5 Candy Cane Joe Joe’s 

This candle is way too sweet for me, but you might like this if you typically go for gourmand scents. I am not a dessert candle type of girl so I am the wrong person to review this, but it basically smells like a candy cane mixed with chocolate. I think the chocolate fragrance oil is what’s throwing me off, because I would like the smell of peppermint by itself. The combination of the two was kind of nauseating in my opinion, but you can’t win them all.

6 Blueberry Waffles

The blueberry in this smells so artificial. This was another miss for me.

7 Tea Tree Tingle

This smells exactly like tea tree oil. I use the Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle shampoo & conditioner and it smells almost identical. This is the kind of scent I would burn in the bathroom during a bubble bath. 

8 Watermelon Cucumber Cooler

This one is like a watermelon cocktail. I can kind of smell the cucumber, but I wish it were stronger. It feels like the ratio of watermelon to cucumber is 90/10 and I would prefer more 50/50. If I burned this one for too long, I feel like I would get a headache.

9 Cacay Oil Body Butter 

Slightly nutty is how I would describe this one. I have no clue what cacay oil is, but this candle has a lightly sweet, nutty vibe. It is way more subtle than the coconut body butter candle (which I hated – see #12 below).

10 Cold Brew

I’ve always wanted to try a coffee scented candle, but this didn’t smell like coffee at all. Strangely enough, it smells like… caramel popcorn? This was another miss for me.

11 Cookie Butter 

I know that the cookie butter is a beloved Trader Joe’s product, but I could not stand this candle. I wish it smelled more like freshly baked cookies, but it’s just a vaguely dessert-like scent that I would describe as sickly sweet. This was the worst of the gourmand scents in this advent calendar in my opinion.

12 Coconut Body Butter

This is another candle that I will have to give away because it is entirely too sweet for me. I actually use and like coconut body butter, but to me this smells more like a dessert than a body butter. The coconut fragrance feels just as artificial to me as the blueberry in the Blueberry Waffles candle. Hard pass.

Final Thoughts

I was slightly underwhelmed, but that’s the risk you take with any advent calendar. Too many sickly sweet scents. Not enough balance or complexity to most of the fragrance oils. That’s not shocking given the price point, but I wish they would have swapped some of these for other really good TJ’s candles (like Mango Tangerine, Peach Black Tea, or Strawberry Basil, even though none of these are holiday scents). At the end of the day, these are basically $2.50 candles. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

I liked and will continue to burn 5 of the 12 scents. I will try to find new homes for the rest. If you picked up this advent calendar, what are your thoughts? I’m dying to know if anyone else smelled caramel popcorn instead of coffee in the Cold Brew candle!

I liked…

I can tolerate…

9 Cacay Oil Body Butter

I hated…