With a few weeks to go until Christmas, you will find an abundance of Christmas scented items in shops, ready to get your home smelling and feeling festive. However, if you aren’t a fan of artificial scents you can try making your own homemade ones and incorporate them into decorations. Take some inspiration from these ideas.

Stovetop Potpourri

This simple recipe is great for creating a Christmas scent all around the home. You can also let the ingredients dry out and then put into a jar or muslin bag, to create a dry potpourri.  If preferred you could also substitute the cranberries for apples. A tip when drying apples and oranges is to thinly slice and put them on a baking sheet on a baking tray in the oven on 150 degrees. Apples take around 30 minutes and oranges take longer until at least mostly dry. (Image credit: i heart naptime)

You’ll need:

• ½ Cup fresh cranberries
• 1 Orange (sliced)
• 4 Cinnamon sticks (broken in half)
• 1 Tablespoon of cloves
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 2-3 Cups of water

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Layered Scent Candles

Scented candles are a great and simple way to make a home smell Christmassy. Making a layered candle means you can add different scents that you like and the candles also add a splash of colour to any room. The process may be slightly messy but they can double as a great homemade gift for candle lovers too. Others methods of dyeing include, reusing old taper candles, wax colour dye chips or special liquid drops. (Image credit: hello glow)

You’ll need:

• Soy wax flakes
• Crayons in assorted colours
• Small heat-proof jars
• Wicks
• Essential oils

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Cinnamon Scented Ornaments (DO NOT EAT)

These homemade ornaments will make a great addition to your tree and you can use different cookie cutters to create an assortment of ornaments. You can get kids involved in cutting the ornaments out and use craft glue to decorate with beads and glitter. Remember however appetising they may look DO NOT EAT the ornaments, just enjoy the sweet aroma of cinnamon. (Image credit: Pillsbury)

You’ll need:

• 4-oz of cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon of cloves
• 1 Tablespoon of nutmeg
• ¾ Cup of applesauce
• 2 Tablespoons of white glue
• 1 Drinking straw
• Ribbon

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Essential Oil Ornaments

A few of these DIY decorations add a great scent to your tree. They add to the Christmassy atmosphere and you can use a scent or scents of your choice. There is also the added satisfaction of saying you made them yourself. Hopefully they will look as good as they smell! (Image credit: Taylor Bradford)

You’ll need:

• 70mm Glass ball ornament
• Grapeseed oil
• Essential oils – orange, cinnamon and fir
• Whole cloves
• Cinnamon sticks
• Ribbon or twine

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We hope we’ve provided some ideas to add to your Christmas traditions and decorations and how to bring the smell of Christmas into your home. For some edible recipes take a look at our 5 Autumn Recipes Packed Full of Flavour blog.

Tags: christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas scent, Christmas scent ideas