Easy ways to make your home smell like the holidays using natural ingredients and botanicals with recipes and essential oil blends.
Don’t you just love to walk into your home and have it smell amazing?
Bonus if it’s winter holiday time and it smells like you’re walking into Santa’s house in the North Pole!
I think because Larisa is a candle maker and I am a soap maker we are both very aware of smells and scents.
The smell of a space is an important part of home decorating and our favorite home design feeling…cozy.
So, my blogging partner Larisa and I want to share with you our favorite ways to make our homes smell like Christmas.
What does Christmas smell like?
Haha! That’s a funny question!
Christmas smells like different things to different people.
But what comes to mind when we think of Christmas scents are:
- Balsam fir trees – outdoors, walking through the forest or a Christmas tree farm or lot.
- Peppermint – Cool winter wind, snow, and ice.
- Warm baked goods – Cinnamon, gingerbread, and nutmeg.
How to Make Your Home Smell like Christmas
Table of Contents
- What does Christmas smell like?
- How to Make Your Home Smell like Christmas
- Jill’s Favorite Ways to Make a Home Smell Good
- 1. Natural Carpet Refresher
- 2. Fresh Evergreens
- 3. Use Christmas Decorations as Essential Oil Diffusers
- 4. Make a Reed Diffuser
- 5. Candles
- Larisa’s Favorite Ways to Make Her Home Smell Like Christmas
- 6. DIY Room Spray
- Homemade Linen Spray Recipe
- 7. Balsam sachets
- 8. Garden Potpourri with fragrance and/or essential oils
- More Christmas Decorating Ideas
Posts on timeonourhands may contain affiliate links which means that we may earn a small commission on purchases at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Jill’s Favorite Ways to Make a Home Smell Good
1. Natural Carpet Refresher
Unfortunately, one of the first things I think about when I think about smells is getting rid of bad ones.
So, my first way to make your house smell like a Nutcracker dream is to get rid of the bad smells and add good ones.
This all-natural baking soda refresher can actually be used in many spots in your home.
Sprinkle it on your mattress, in your garbage can, in your sink, compost bin, and your carpets to absorb stink and leave scents of nature.
I don’t like carpet. It smells weird sometimes. But I have for about 50% of my homes floors.
A great way to refresh your carpet and …is to use baking soda
Baking Soda and Essential Oil Carpet Refresher Recipe
Supplies:
- Baking soda
- Essential oil of your choice. I used fir needle.
- Measuring cup
- Dropper pipette (if your essential oil doesn’t come with one on the top)
- Fork to stir
- Maybe a shaker type container. See below.
1. Measure baking soda. Measure baking soda into a jar or container. You can make a small 1/4 cup batch or a larger batch, it’s up to you.
2. Measure essential oil. Add 2-3 drops of essential oil for each 1/4 cup measured baking soda.
3. Stir well. Stir essential oil and baking soda well.
4. Use on carpets. I made a shaker out of a mason jar and plastic mason jar lid that I drilled holes in. In the past I have just carefully shaken the mixture from a jar onto the carpet.
Leave the baking soda mixture on the carpet a while to let it absorb odors and the carpet absorb essential oil scent.
Vacuum it up when ready and enjoy the fresh scent!
2. Fresh Evergreens
I always used to have a real balsam fir for my Christmas tree.
I loved going to the tree farm or tree yard to pick out the perfect tree.
But I hated that no matter how much water I gave it it always dried out and dropped pine sprills everywhere.
So now I have an artificial tree.
But I still love the smell of a real tree.
So I add small amounts of real tree to my home during the holidays like this greenery floral arrangement that I made this year.
How to Make a Greenery Christmas Arrangement
Supplies:
- Vase
- Greenery
- Tape
- Water
- Decorations
1. Gather tree branches/greenery.
2. Prepare your vase for floral arranging.
I filled my vase with water and then I used scotch tape to make a makeshift floral frog to help me arrange the branches in the vase more easily.
Just put a few pieces of tape across the top of your vase in a crisscross manner.
3. Insert Greenery and branches.
I cut my branches to the length I wanted and inserted them into the vase through the holes left by my “frog.”
I filled the vase until it was packed with greenery. Then I carefully removed scotch tape I had applied to the vase in the first step, without disturbing the foliage too much.
I used balsam fir and pine branches, sage that was still half alive in my herb garden, and added a pine cone stem.
The house smelled so good of pine and balsam! Now I want to make a Christmas bouquet for every room of the house!
3. Use Christmas Decorations as Essential Oil Diffusers
Did you know that you can diffuse essential oils without a diffuser machine?
I actually don’t even own a diffuser. When I want to diffuse essential oils, I use an item to do so.
The object needs to be able to safely absorb a few drop of essential oil to work correctly.
Just add a few drops of essential oils to Christmas decorations such as pinecones or unglazed ceramic ornaments.
4. Make a Reed Diffuser
Do you remember when Larisa taught us how to make our own reed diffuser?
The winter holidays would be a great time to make a reed diffuser or add a Christmassy scent to the one you already have.
When I used to sell my handmade soap at Christmas craft fairs, a few years ago, one of my best-selling scents was peppermint and Lavender, made with essential oils.
Refreshing Winter Essential Oil Blend
- 4 parts Lavender
- 1 part Peppermint
This essential oil blend is classic and cool scent especially great for use in bathrooms or kitchens.
5. Candles
Candles are one of the best ways I have found to add your favorite scent to your home.
I like to make my own candles in tins and that I can place in containers that fit my decor.
Not all candle scents are natural. Candles made with essential oils are natural. Most other candles are scented with fragrances that are combinations of synthetic chemicals and natural ingredients.
Also, not all waxes used to make candles are 100% natural.
When buying supplies or purchasing a candle look for ingredients like essential oils and natural waxes such as beeswax and/or soy wax.
Larisa’s Favorite Ways to Make Her Home Smell Like Christmas
6. DIY Room Spray
Room sprays are very easy to make and require only a few ingredients: essential oils, alcohol, and distilled water. You can use whichever essential oils you like, and you can mix them as well. The general rule of thumb for a harmonious fragrance blend is to mix 30% of a top note with 50% of a middle note, and 20% of a base note. Here’s a handy chart that breaks down which oils fall into which category.
This is my favorite essential oil blend for the holidays:
Winter Holiday Room Spray Recipe
60 drops of alcohol (vodka or perfumer’s alcohol)
18 drops of grapefruit essential oil
30 drops of cypress essential oil
13 drops of Balsam of Peru essential oil (if you’ve never smelled this before it’s wonderful!)
1 4 oz. amber glass container with a spray nozel
About 1 cup of distilled water
Homemade Linen Spray Recipe
First add the alcohol to the clean container and then add the essential oils. Shake very well for about 2 minutes to blend. Then add enough distilled water to fill the container, and shake well again for another 2 minutes. It’s so easy and smells so good!
DIY room spray tips:
- Shake before every use. Alcohol and water will separate, so they need to be blended.
- Even though it’s called “room spray,” you actually have to spray it onto something. Like pillows or a blanket, or even a rug. The smell will not linger in the air, but it will stay on fabrics!
- Be careful not to spray anything too delicate though, that antique cashmere or something… I’ve never had room spray spoil a fabric before, but use your head and don’t spray anything irreplaceable.
7. Balsam sachets
Is there any smell more Christmasy than the sweet and piney smell of balsam needles? I think not. Balsam sachets smell amazing, are easy to make, and can be used in many different areas of the home.
You can sew your own fabric bags to completely customize your look or buy some ready-made, like these adorable buffalo plaid bags I bought on Amazon.
For the needles themselves, you can gather them yourself if you live in an area with a lot of balsam firs, or you can purchase them. I purchased this bag several years ago from the local Christmas tree farm, and it still smells great. You can also buy balsam online.
How to Make Balsam Fir Sachets
To make them, you simply add the needles to your bags and fasten them with a drawstring or a ribbon. Then, you can add them to a linen drawer, hang them on the tree, or just leave them around for whenever you want that wonderful Christmas smell!
8. Garden Potpourri with fragrance and/or essential oils
If you have a garden or live near a natural area, it’s really easy to gather materials for potpourri right from your garden. Then, you just need some fragrance or essential oil (or both), a pretty container, and some orris root powder to enhance the aroma.
How to Make Potpourri from Your Yard
I went out this morning and gathered some small pine cones, some little acorn hats (they don’t smell but they’re awfully cute!), some pods from echinacea blooms, some hydrangea blooms, some alder berry cones (adorable), and some leaves from sage, thyme, and lavender that was still hanging on the garden. Then, I added some star anise, whole cloves, and a cinnamon stick from my pantry.
To start, since I gathered my materials in the rain, I dried them out a bit in a low oven to remove any moisture. Then, in a bowl I mixed 1 teaspoon of Orris Root power with 1 teaspoon of Candlescience White Birch fragrance oil and 1 teaspoon of orange essential oil and stirred to combine. Then I added the materials and stirred some more. I added a few (about 7) drops of Clove Bud essential oil, and then put it in a pretty glass container. I happened to have some dried orange slices on hand and added a few of those. You could dry your own orange slices in the oven at low heat.
It’s that easy! It does smell nice but it’s not overpowering.
Posts on timeonourhands may contain affiliate links which means that we may earn a small commission on purchases at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
More Christmas Decorating Ideas
- How to Make a Cheap Christmas Wreath Look High End in 4 Simple Steps
- Sustainable Linen Gift Wrap Ideas
- How to Make Simple Hand Painted Christmas Ornaments that Look Expensive
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