What's That Smell?

The fine folks at Glade have put their staff to work to answer the age-old question "What does Christmas smell like?" 

They've whittled it down to five scents, all available for purchase at your local retailer, of course:

Apple Cinnamon

Cinnamon Gingerbread

Glistening Snow®

French Vanilla

Cranberry Delight® & Everlasting Pine®

Their website goes into gorgeous detail about their holiday collection, including a feature that lets you "explore" each scent. Enjoy the blurry-lensed photos of happy, non-threateningly beautiful people engaged in various forms of G-rated winter frolicking, nuzzling, and wearing flannel.

In case you're a bit of a dim bulb in the inference department, they also include text to remind you that Cinnamon Gingerbread should make you think of "You and Mom in the kitchen", and Glistening Snow® is meant to conjure up images of "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening". (Say, isn't that Robert Frost I hear rolling in his grave?)

Click here to, as they say at Glade,  "experience this collection."

I can't quite decide if writing copy for the Glade website would be the most awesomely mellow job in the world or if being employed there would drive me to drink heavily. Good to see some English majors getting a steady paycheck, though.

I struggle with the notion of holiday air freshener on two levels: 

1.  I am not, in general, a fan of air freshener. Since there is a ton of shelf space devoted to this product year-round, I get that a lot of other folks are out there pluggin' in and spraying away on a daily basis. At our house, we keep a can of it in the bathroom for those days when someone in the family is, shall we say, having a rough ride, but that can lasts for a year or more. Do people really go through this stuff quickly enough to merit buying a special scent (or five) for the holiday season?

2.  Scent is a powerful emotional trigger, to be sure. (Don't believe me? Go open a can of Play-Doh and try not to sigh with delight at the memories of a simpler time.) But, if we crave these smells of pine boughs, apple cobbler, and gingerbread, why don't we just celebrate the season by participating in the traditions that make our homes smell so homey for real? You diminish the glory of the smell of cinnamon if you imbue your home with it too frequently and by artificial means. And, c'mon, baking cookies ain't all that difficult. They even make ready-to-bake ones; they're in the refrigerated section - just past the air freshener aisle.