Well, maybe.
Homme for the Holidays is a fragrance released in 2019 from a US indie fragrance house based in Ohio. The house, Happyland Perfumes, is run by EJ Wells who also serves as the nose behinds its fragrances.
Wells, who had to take a small hiatus earlier in 2020, is thankfully back and fulfilling orders now. His imaginative, borderline-whimsical take on fragrances is a welcome edition to anyone’s fragrance shelf.
Aside from Homme for the Holidays, Happyland also puts its stamp on standard fare such as barbershop fragrances with its aptly titled Barbershop and gourmands fragrances with Signature. The house also uses more exotic notes or combos such as the geranium, cannabis flower, oud, and cinnamon concoction Gerannabis.
Homme for the Holidays belongs to a trio of “coffee” scents, which also includes Dawnbuster and Cuir Café. Let’s take a look at the notes before jumping into why Homme might be the best holiday scent.
Homme for the Holidays Notes
Top: Coffee, maple sap, cardamom
Heart: Pumpkin, nutmeg, ambroxan
Base: Cedar, leather, vetiver, oakmoss
Verdict
For me, this scent reminds me of waking up on Christmas mornings. However, it does not recall going out to Christmas shops, or stores that have pumped in so much cinnamon they want to gas any potential customers out. Homme for the Holidays has a more grounded association. This is sleeping in a little, past the time the kidlets all wake up, and stumbling out of your room to the scent of coffee that’s been brewed for a little while along with scents of the big holiday meal in their prep stage. There are little wafts of that poor abused tree that’s on its last legs and been knocked around mercilessly by little hands trying to find presents, and a hint of warm leathered sofas.
Homme for the Holidays isn’t a rosy seasonal scent that you crack out right after Halloween. It’s the grounded reality of spending time with family, and all the noise and food and mess and love that threads in between the days we have off to spend with each other. And a cup of very stout, maybe ever-so-slightly-burned coffee that’s been sitting at the bottom of the pot.
Is Homme for the Holidays an everyday scent? Probably not for most of us, and I definitely recommend wearing it in colder weather. This is going to be far too cloying for summer months, especially with the projection this juice achieves. As far as longevity goes, this is going to stick with you for a while. If it WERE Christmas morning and you sprayed it on right when you woke up, it’d still be with you well into the evening.
That said, it feels particularly apt for this year as so many of us stay home for the holidays to stay safe. If we can’t be with family this year, at least Homme for the Holidays can help bring a slice of family to us.
Pricewise, Happyland is extremely reasonable. Not only are the samples very generous and packaged well, but the price is also right too. (If you live in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands, you can order directly from Happyland’s online store.) You can order a 50 mL of Homme for the Holidays for $55, or pick up a 5 mL sample for $7.
The Fandomentals “Fragdomentals” team base our reviews off of fragrances that we have personally, independently sourced. Any reviews based off of house-provided materials will be explicitly stated.
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