It’s the season to indulge in blankets, films, baking, and hot chocolate. However, if you want to really immerse yourself in the Christmas festivities, you’ll need to create a cosy atmosphere in your home. This means putting up your classic decorations that come out every year, turning on the Christmas songs, and making your home smell like Christmas. One of the easiest ways to liven up your home with Christmas scents is by diffusing some of your favourite festive essential oils.
But what are the best festive diffuser scents and blends to get you into the holiday spirit? Read on to find out.
Why use essential oils at Christmas?
Christmas time is filled with memories of the past, and these memories can be reignited by certain aromas. This means that a particular scent can transport you back to happy evenings snuggled up by the fire, with precious family and friends.
When you think of Christmas scents, you may think of Christmas cookies baking in the oven, turkey roasting with pigs and blankets, or the fresh aroma of pine trees as you crunch through the snow in the woods. It’s not always possible or practical to bring these scents into your home, but that’s where essential oils come in.
With essential oils, you can fill your home consistently with seasonal scents to reminisce on old times and create new memories to look back on in years to come. At the same time, you can lift your mood and emotions throughout the holidays, leaving you feeling content and joyful, without the usual stress that the season can bring.
The best scents for the festive season
There are so many scents that blend perfectly to create a festive atmosphere with their relaxing and calming effects. Here are three of our favourite scents to get you started in transforming your home for the holidays.
Sweet Orange
The crisp and clear scent of sweet orange essential oil is guaranteed to add sweetness to any occasion, whilst lifting the mood of anyone that inhales it. This essential oil has a rich aroma reminiscent of orange and clove, a traditional Christmas scent, or of turkey stuffed with orange, making it ideal for the Christmas holidays.
With an energising yet warming scent, sweet orange essential oil is ideal for restoring your mind and body after endless late nights at festive gatherings. This will enable you to truly cherish and appreciate every get together with close family and friends.
Peppermint
A symbolic and notorious Christmas scent, peppermint essential oil is known for its presence in a wide range of festive treats, instantly reminding you of the exciting holiday season. Allow yourself to be fondly reminded of candy canes and sweet baking whilst replenishing your energy levels to make the most of all the holiday hustle and bustle.
With their clear and crisp highlights, minty aromas help you to think and act with clarity, freshening up your home and body when you need it most.
Frankincense
Frankincense is an iconic scent which has been associated with Christmastime for centuries. Associated with the nativity, this scent holds significant spiritual meaning as well as helping to relieve anxiety and boost the immune system.
Warm and spicy in scent, frankincense essential oil has a natural and organic ability to soothe and comfort the body and is great for adding to a carrier oil to nourish the skin for a subtle festive scent. Helping you to find inner peace and tranquillity, frankincense is widely used during meditation to help increase awareness and to awaken the senses.
Christmas essential oil recipes
Every essential oil has its own unique range of benefits when it is inhaled. Combining essential oils can help to boost their benefits, enabling you to enhance your mood, calm your emotions and treat both your mind and your body.
Creating your own festive diffuser blends is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. If you’re looking for inspiration, we’ve included some of our favourite recipes for festive diffuser blends below for you to try out.
Christmas Candy
The sweet scent of Christmas candy is one of the most popular scents during the holidays. If you’re in need of a mood boost, adding this essential oil blend to your diffuser will be sure to give your home the comforting aroma of home baking, even when you’re deservedly sitting with your feet up after a long year of running around.
The Christmas holidays are the perfect opportunity to reset your body and mind in preparation for the New Year to optimise productivity and wellbeing. Relax with a book, take part in some much needed self-care and diffuse some essential oils to get yourself back on track with where you need to be.
If you’re craving the sweet scent of Christmas candy, try adding the following essential oils to your diffuser, then enjoy the sweet and fruity aromas as they fill your home with a traditional Christmas atmosphere:
- 8 drops Organic Spearmint Essential Oil
- 8 drops Organic Peppermint Essential Oil
- 8 drops Organic Grapefruit Essential Oil
Woodland Wonderland
When your home needs a refresh from the festive period, these woody and warm scents will bring the outdoors inside and leave you feeling like you’ve just returned from a winter walk in paradise.
Fresh scents of the outdoors help you to blow away the cobwebs and leave you feeling revitalised and awakened. This consequently improves your concentration, enabling you to really be in the moment at all times and to enjoy all of the exciting moments that the festive season has to offer.
To bring the woodland wonderland into your home, add the following essential oils to your diffuser and then sit back as you reap the benefits:
- 8 drops Organic Spruce Essential Oil
- 8 drops Organic Sweet Orange Essential Oil
- 8 drops Organic Cedarwood Essential Oil
Wiseman’s Gift
Frankincense and geranium are luxurious aromas with familiarly earthy and herbaceous scents. These scents provide a warming effect on even the coolest of winter days. When the snow is settling and it’s too cold to brave the outdoors, bring the natural scents indoors to settle your mind and alleviate any stresses which have built up.
The scent of frankincense is even known to cleanse the body of toxins and to build you back up when you’re feeling under the weather, leaving you feeling at your best to enjoy the busiest time of the year. Meanwhile, geranium essential oil is great for lifting your mood and leaving you feeling stress free and ready to take on the festive period.
Add the following essential oils to your diffuser to create a warm and tranquil atmosphere, which will soothe your mind and comfort your body:
- 10 drops Organic Frankincense Essential Oil
- 10 drops Organic Geranium Essential Oil
Festive gatherings
There’s no better excuse to get the whole family together and to reunite with friends from over the years than at Christmas. It’s a time of celebrations, festivities, food, happiness and those that are closest to us, leaving us with memories we treasure for the rest of our lives.
As most of our time during the Christmas period is spent indoors, you want to be able to create a homely and inviting atmosphere that you’re proud to welcome guests to.
Preparation is key when it comes to hosting the party of the year, and it allows you to enjoy the celebration as much as your guests by getting all of the stress out of the way. Plan what food/drinks you’ll serve and have them prepared the day before. Have fun decorating and making sure everything is just so, selecting a colour scheme and deciding whether you want to give off a modern or more traditional vibe.
You can also select your essential oils in advance, which you can add to your diffuser to give the night the finishing touch. You can do this ahead of time, creating the perfect blend in your diffuser ready to flick the switch just before guests start to arrive. You can then spend the evening enjoying whatever entertainment you have planned for your guests, with the confidence that everything is running smoothly.
Think about who you’ve invited to your gathering and what their interests may be. Do you need to plan something to keep the children busy whilst parents can have a much needed catch up, or is your crowd up for playing some team games?
Sometimes, it’s best to pull out the traditional board games such as Monopoly whereas other groups may love it if you create your own pub-style quiz to get everyone giggling and chatting. Games are a fantastic way to keep your guests occupied for hours on end and to break the ice, particularly if you have people coming together who have not yet met each other. In the background, play your favourite holiday playlist to suit the atmosphere and everyone will be sure to feel in the festive spirit.
Get into the festive spirit
Don’t just reserve your essential oils to be used when guests are coming over; there’s no better time to treat yourself to the wellbeing benefits of diffusing essential oils than December. Try some of the above recipes or create your own to give your home a warm and comforting scent that you can enjoy day after day.
Why not try using essential oils in other ways to spruce up your home? Add a few drops to a spray bottle filled with water and spritz it over your furnishings, carpets, towels, and bedding to have them smelling festive and seasonal. If you’re fortunate enough to spend extra time at home during the holidays, use a day to indulge in an at-home spa day, preparing for the New Year ahead. Add a few drops to the base of your shower or to your bath and unwind whilst the stress leaves your mind and body, leaving you feeling replenished and reenergised. Mix a few drops of frankincense essential oil with a carrier oil or your go-to moisturiser and massage into your skin for a subtle festive aroma that stays with you wherever you go.
If you’re not able to put your feet up this Christmas, whether that be due to work or family commitments, that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the magic scents of Christmas. Spritz your car with your favourite blend of festive essential oils for a long-lasting air freshener that you know is safe for you and your family to inhale all day. Better still, enjoy all of the benefits such as soothing and calming the mind whilst you’re on the go! Get the Christmas radio on, turn up the car heating and inhale the sweet Christmas scents as you keep an eager eye out the window for festive lights whilst you go on your way.
Hopefully, you’re able to be excited about the holidays, with all of the love, happiness and high spirits that it brings along with it. However, up to 70% of us feel weighed down by stress throughout this time. This can be for so many reasons, but whatever it is that’s making you feel uneasy, it’s important you set aside time away from all of the hectic day-to-day activities to simply breathe and unwind. Focus on the positives and remember that Christmas is a time to enjoy the natural and simple things in life.
To sum up
When it comes to the festive season, there’s nothing that quite beats sweet and warm scents that fill your home, adding the final touch of festive magic to any occasion. There are many essential oils that are commonly associated with the festive season, such as frankincense, peppermint and sweet orange, but it’s important to find the scents that work best for you.
Each family will have scents that instantly snap them back to those all-important memories of past years. It’s all about discovering which scents ignite old memories from years gone by, and which you wish to make new memories with along the way.
Whether you’re working through the holidays or are taking some time out to spend with family and friends, awaken your senses and enjoy winding down from the year by relaxing and indulging in the Christmas tastes, smells, sounds and sights as you reconnect with what is really important in life.
