Making your home smell like Christmas

[Acornhat]

I used to love candles but toddler dd does not get on well with them, and I miss having a lovely smelling home. So I was wondering how do you make your house smell nice at Christmas?
I saw a post on tik tok about putting cinnamon and orange in the slow cooker which I like the sound of.

Oh lots of people have said this now and I’ve found it online. This looks like a lovely idea, how long do they last?

They buy their 'scents' from the same place almost everywhere else does and then shove a huge markup on them (and sometimes their product is even weaker at c.8% instead of 10%). There are sellers on Etsy who sell the exact same scents for about £10-20 cheaper size for size.

With White Company & Jo Malone, you pay for the brand - not the quality.

I sell soaps and it's the same thing - my company use the same distributor of fragrance oils etc, as White Company and Jo Malone for our soaps. White Company 'Winter Soap' which they sell for £12, we sell for £8.

I dry orange slices and then hang them up with cinnamon sticks.

These are fantastic. I have 2 and have bought others for gifts

Previously someone very kindly shared this seller on Etsy for wax melts - omg they are fabulous. They are Jo Malone dupes and are even better than I imagined.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BattleFragrance

I was going to say oranges stuck with cloves too! If you make holes first with a toothpick then a young child can stick the cloves in. If you're not at all artistic (like me!) you can use a biscuit cutter as a template!

This is very interesting - I used to love the white company, but I found them very disappointing last year, especially for the price point.

@HollyGolightly4 it’s really bad! It’s because they can rely on their name to sell for them, rather than quality. Smaller businesses won’t take that risk as they know they’ll go out of business if they do as they don’t have their ‘brand name.’

FWIW I was the original person who linked the company above that @MrsPositivity1 linked - I posted about her ages ago on the Christmas Small Business Supporters thread! The seller is really good and does do Jo Malone & White Company dupes for a fraction of the cost so if you do want cheaper options that are strong, worth taking a look there. I’ve bought both wax melts and candles from her and been really happy, including a White Company dupe (Christmas tree scent).

I came to mention these. They are brilliant and we use them every year on our artificial tree. We usually use half a pack though as they can be quite strong, the teal coloured pack is our favourite scent.

A few days ago I sprinkled all of the door and window tracks with peppermint essential oil (trying to fend off the spiders) and I love how you get a subtle waft of it through the house. I think it would be lovely to do the same with a more chrsitmassy scent.

The Perfume Parlour essential oils and diffusers are great. I get Bordeaux II at Christmas time which fills the house with a lovely orange and vanilla fragrance. It does not smell chemical at all. I have relatives with asthma and they are fine with it. For years I have bought the Jo Malone Pine and Eucalyptus diffuser (which absolutely does not smell like loo cleaner!) when it comes out. I used to be able to justify the price by the fact that it had fantastic sillage and lasted until the end of March but it's very spendy. Not sure if I will be able to afford it this year.

I gave in to the hype last year and not only bought the WC winter candle, but their advent calendar. The scents are horribly artificial and the winter scent set my asthma off really badly. Not sure if something in them had changed if you feel they aren't the same. I couldn't put my finger on what it was and trawled their ingredients lists.

I tried those scentsicles a couple of years ago and found them quite artificial too.

Agree with PPs about Next Festive Spice. It's absolutely gorgeous and I have the diffusers in a couple of rooms. Their large candles are £20 at the minute (300g) but you can buy a 24 pack of their tealights for £6 and the total weight is over 300g so I think they are a bargain and could work well as a 'candle advent'

I did this a few years ago and also rather liked the freshness. I have a lot of essential oils as I make candles and soaps, so I've made various 'mixes' I keep a couple of spray bottles with water + around 30 drops of oils in and use for various things. I have one under the kitchen sink with just peppermint and the sink gets a spritz every night so that it smells fresh. Another one with clary sage in gets used in the bathroom which had a lovely soothing / cleansing effect for want of a better description.

I used to put a fee drops or oil on a cotton pad and leave on radiators but I don't do that now as it stained some of my lovely white enamel radiators

I like to have bowls of pine cones around the house at Christmas, I have collected them over the years, all different shapes and sizes, so completely free. I mix in some big cinnamon sticks and a sprinkling of whole star anise - the star anise looks really pretty and has a lovely minty aroma, and you can get big bags of them quite cheaply from amazon etc. For extra christmassy scent drip some essential oil onto the cones eg.rosemary, pine etc.

They have pumpkin spice reed diffuser at Poundsavers. Lovely smell, I love tucking up in bed with a cinnamon or pumpkin latte, lots of throws on the bed and a good book!

Thanks when it's Autumn in our house

@HeatingFiddler thank you for the original recommendation - such great wax melts

Yes, I agree, we pick rosemary, bay, thyme, sage and fig leaves from our allotment.

Smell wonderful!

Don’t use anything like scented candles and essential oils if you have pets. They are toxic to them. Not only are they breathing chemicals and essences in but also when they lick themselves the deposits on their fur is ingested.

I get a real pine wreath for the door, so you’re breathing in the scent as you walk in.

Paperwhites and hyacinths can be forced for Christmas and are highly scented. There’s a poster on the poncetadtic thread who explains the process really well. Or you can just buy them if you prefer.

I bake from scratch and spread the work out, and every so often the house will smell heavenly. Christmas cake, pudding and gingerbread are the best.

if you have a real tree, push some off cuts of pine and fir in among the branches. Or into garlands. I put bay and rosemary into mine because we have them in the garden.

Make some orange and clove pomamders now - I criss cross the oranges with masking tape (to mark where my ribbons will go), then prick holes with a long flat top nail. Rub powdered cinnamon or nutmeg into the holes then push a clove gently into each. Remove the tape and store in a brown paper bag in a warm place until they shrink after a good few weeks. Once they’re hard, they won’t mould, so you tie a ribbon round them. These last for years. I hang them on my Christmas tree, and put some in bowls with pine cones.

I also make a batch of orange slices, studded with cloves each year, closer to Christmas..the house smells amazing the day they’re made as they have to dry for hours in a low oven (the trick is to pat them dry before you start)

You can also find these at craft fares if you don’t want the hassle of making them,

I was looking for this comment! 100% this
No candles, room sprays or diffusers and wax melts needed.
Genuine Christmas smell comes from a genuine Christmas tree, cannot be beaten.😍🎄

How come the oranges don't go mouldy @deliveroo?

I was given a white company winter candle over a decade ago and it was amazing, smelt divine even when not lit. I replaced it last year and the new one smells completely different and really artificial. I think they’ve definitely changed the formulation

Glad it's not just me @Shryykjrg! It's a real shame.

I think White Company is grossly overpriced. Chrissie Rucker must be laughing her cashmere socks off.