Christmas Journaling - Holiday Scents

 What smells remind you of Christmas or mean Christmas to you?

 

 

Mmmm... The smell of a fresh Christmas tree, wreath or garland. Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves...  Candles and fruit.  There's so many scents that reminds me of the holidays. But my absolute favorite smell of all has to be pine.

 

I absolutely, positively, love the smell of pine.  We have a lot of pine trees where I live and some days, when the wind blows, the smell of the pine fills the air. Especially in the spring after a rain shower. In the fall I like to go out and pick up the pinecones that fall to the ground and bring them in the house.  I put them in baskets and even decorate with them. 

 

I remember as a little girl - me, my brother and my parents going out a week before Christmas to buy a fresh Christmas tree.  The whole apartment would smell like pine.  My brother and I would get so excited decorating.  My parents always let my brother and I to decorate the tree. It was a lot of fun.  Years later, when we moved into our house, my parents started using an artificial tree and the pine scent was no more.

 

I too put up an artificial tree every year.  So to obtain that evergreen, pine scent throughout my little palace, I use candles, room air fresheners (like plug-ins) and clippings of fresh pine.  Home supply stores like Home Depot and Lowes take the cuttings from their trees and put them in a large box marked free. I use them everywhere - on the mantle, in my artificial tree, around a grouping of candles.

 

In addition to the pine I like to incorporate other scents in to my home.  One thing I do is take cinnamon, nutmeg, giner, clove spices and orange slices.  Add them to a pot of water and let the pot simmer on the stove under a low flame (Never leave stove unattended). Oh what a heavenly scent.  I got that idea from the ladies at the old Organized Christmas forum.

 

Baking cookies, pies and cakes also are smells that put me in the holiday mood.  Which reminds me, I need to double check my shopping list of ingredients.  I am going to be doing a lot of baking.