Easy tips to make your house smell festive: how to create a warming Christmassy smell for your home and kick off the holiday season
There is no faster way to envelop your home in festive atmosphere than filling it with the distinct and homely smell of Christmas.
The smell of your home is the first thing guests pick up when entering your door so making your house smell Christmassy is a powerful way to dual up the festive atmosphere and set the tone of the night right.
Trading your clean home smell for a festive one is easy! These are our top tops to make your house smell festive!
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How to make your house smell festive: before you start
Fragrance can be a lovely addition to a home, however, a mix of mismatched fragrances or, worse, adding fragrance to a home that suffers from a bad smell will quickly turn into a disaster!
Before you start looking at the fragrance options below, make sure you follow our tips to remove bad smells from the house so you start from a clean canvas.
What are some Christmas smells?
Several fragrances are good at evoking Christmas, either on their own or when combines with one another.
Some of the best Christmas smells are:
- Cinnamon
- Spiced apple
- Roasted chestnuts
- Mulled wine
- Gingerbread
- Fir (Christmas tree)
- Cloves
- Star Anise
How to make your house smell Christmassy naturally
Bake Christmas cookies
The most natural way to get your house to smell like Christmas is by baking Christmas treats, especially gingerbread biscuits, a wonderful seasonal treat that is also easy to make. They also make for a delicious snack, so you get two results in one!
The natural perfume of baked goods permeates your house in a subtle and gentle way that will make pleasant also for those guests who may find artificial fragrances hard to take.
For best result, bake them just before your guests are due to arrive: the perfume is strongest when in the oven and as soon as ready.
Simmer spices
If baking is not your thing, there is another way you can use your kitchen to create a festive atmosphere and it is as simple as simmering a few natural ingredients and let the fragrance develop.
Things to simmer for a Christmassy smell are:
- Cloves
- Cinnamon
- Cardamom pods
- Pine springs
- Citrus peel
- Star anise
- Vanilla pods
Make Pomander balls
Another natural way to give a festive smell to your home is to make pomander balls aka oranges pierced with cloves!
They are super easy to make and a lovely project for kids, all natural!
More ways to make your house smell like Christmas
DIY scented pine cones
You can create a delicate Christmassy smell collecting small pine cones and spraying them with cinnamon fragrance or another winter smell of your choice – see a selection here.
The fragrance will slowly dry out and will leave the cones smelling delicious for a long time: arrange them in a pretty bowl for a lovely table or fireplace centerpiece.
Fragrance candles
The fasted and easiest way to give you house a Christmas smell makeover is to light a fragrance candle. Shops are full of options for smells and looks so you are guaranteed to find some that go with your decor.
Potpourri sachets and bowls
Potpourri is another quick way to create a subtle Christmas around your house and can also be a lovely gift!
You can buy ready-made sachets or bowl or make your own. Good ingredients for your Christmas potpourri are cranberries, cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, candied ginger, rosemary, dried orange peel, dried cardamom pods and vanilla.
