<Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.yankeecandle.com </Td> </Tr> <P> The Yankee Candle Company (referred to simply as Yankee Candle) is an American manufacturer and retailer of scented candles, candleholders, accessories, and dinnerware . Its products are sold by thousands of gift shops nationwide, through catalogs, and online, and in nearly 50 countries around the world . The company operates about 560 small - box format stores, located in malls across all fifty 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and nine locations in Ontario, Canada . The company is headquartered in South Deerfield, Massachusetts . </P> <P> The Jarden Corporation agreed to buy candle maker Yankee Candle for $1.75 billion in the fall of 2013 . In 2015, Newell Rubbermaid announced that it would acquire Jarden for over $15 billion of cash and stock . Newell is therefore the current parent company of Yankee Candle . </P> <P> Yankee Candle Company was started in South Hadley, Massachusetts when Michael Kittredge, originally from Holyoke, Massachusetts, created his first scented candle, Christmas 1969, from melted crayons as a gift for his mother . Neighbors began expressing interest in buying his creations, and Kittredge began producing them in larger quantities . The company itself was founded with help from Donald MacIver and Susan Obremski, who were high school friends with Kittredge . MacIver helped fund the start - up business with earnings from his part - time job . Candle production grew considerably after Obremski's father devised a "heated room", which enabled cost - saving liquid wax deliveries at the first factory site in Holyoke . Obremski's invention of a turntable taper wheel allowed production to double, while at the same time decreasing the need for more labor hours . In 1975, she managed the first Yankee Candle Shop located where the Village Commons in South Hadley now stands . </P>

Where did the name yankee candle come from