I’ve a great, and unquenchable love for peppermint.

As a kid, I’d always grab the green and black swirly dinner mints at restaurants, a classmate having told me the red and white ones would make my eyes bleed.

But one fateful night, I accidentally ate one and thus, I was introduced to the wonderful world that is peppermint.

It became quite a problem around Christmas.

My mom would always buy twelve or twenty-four packs of candy canes to hang on the tree.

I believe my sisters were rather peeved when I ate most of them before we could decorate each year.

When I was seven, I got a candy cane corn snake.

And guess what I named her…

I was about nine when someone sent me a tin of peppermint pillow mints straws for Christmas.  They’re truly some of the most magnificent sweets in the world.  I was sitting downstairs at the table, watching a movie and shaving the red and white stripes off the surface of the candy with my teeth when I broke my first bracket on my braces.

I discovered peppermint bark and Burt’s Bees, shortly after.

Needless to say, it’s the only Chapstick I use consistently.

I also stumbled upon Bath & Body Works‘ Holiday Traditions Collection.  My favorite lotion was originally their Vanilla Bean Noel.  But I tried on some Twisted Peppermint and fell in love with the sweet, spicy scent and the way it made my skin tingle and feel so deliciously cold.

Just wearing it made me feel like I’d taken a long shower and left refreshed.

I now have a Twisted Peppermint candle on my bedside table.  I leave it open to scent the room, but I can’t light it because my parents have forbidden my pyrotechnic practices.

I love peppermint because it smells clean and sharp, and like Christmas and snow, and reminds me of being warm while watching dark fall outside.