Magical Homemade Christmas Potpourri Simmer Pot
Make your home smell like the magic of the holidays with a natural Homemade Christmas Potpourri Simmer Pot recipe!
This Christmas potpourri simmer pot was originally posted December 5, 2012. It’s been updated with new tricks we’ve learned over the years.
One of the things I love most about the Christmas holiday season is the fragrances! Without the smell of spices, citrus fruits and mint it just wouldn’t be a complete Christmas!
I take advantage of many different ways to fragrance my home during the Holidays, but one of my favorites is a homemade natural air freshener commonly known as a Christmas Potpourri simmering pot! It is all natural, easy to make and creates the most magical fragrance for your home!
Heavenly Christmas Potpourri Simmer Pot
All Christmas potpourri simmer pots have the same basic few ingredients for the base potpourri effect. Then you can build on it to make the scent unique to your home.
Basic ingredients:
- Sliced Lemon
- Sliced Orange
- Cinnamon Sticks
- Cloves
- Bay Leaves
Optional Ingredients:
- Fresh Cranberries
- Mint extract
- Fresh Pine needles
The Magic of a Christmas Potpourri Simmer Pot
It is really quite simple to put together a Homemade Christmas Potpourri Simmer pot and fill your home with the magical Holiday aromas! Simply slice half an orange.
Then slice a lemon.
Combine the sliced citrus fruit into a simmering pot along with 2-3 sticks of cinnamon, 4 bay leaves, and 2 teaspoons of whole cloves.
Then you simply add some water and place on the stove to simmer! To get the scent started quickly I place it on a high heat just to heat the water faster; then I turn it down to a low simmer setting. Within five minutes my home starts to smell amazing!
See I told you it was super easy! And best of all it is all natural! There are no chemicals, and it also helps to humidify your home! Plus many of the ingredients are common to most spice cabinets!
Make a Festive Christmas potpourri simmering pot
Now you know how to make a basic homemade Christmas Potpourri simmering pot. But you can always add other natural ingredients to recreate your favorite Holiday scents.
Let me show you one of my favorite alterations to my homemade potpourri simmering pot.
I add in a handful and a half of fresh cranberries, and it brings a more festive fragrance!
And since I love mint, I also add a few drops of Mint Extract! Oh goodness, I was blown away by how amazing my home smelled! I couldn’t get enough of it! And even my kids came home from school, took one breath, and exclaimed how amazing our home smelled.
Just like the magic of Holidays from my childhood!
Everyone who visits my home always comments on how sensational it smells too!
I even got a smile from the Mailman when he dropped off some packages when he got a whiff of my Homemade Christmas potpourri simmering pot.
This is definitely a way to enjoy festive holiday scents in the home. And all in a way that most likely won’t overwhelm the Husband. Usually candles are too potent for him, but he really enjoys my Homemade Christmas Potpourri simmering pot.
Another variation to bring the festive scents to your home is to add fresh pine needles! This is something my mother used to do when I was younger because she really missed the fresh pine tree smell when we converted our home to a fake Christmas tree.
It made our house smell as though we had a fresh Christmas tree! But when you add the pine needles to our basic simmer pot recipe above it makes it that much better! It was a smell that everyone in our home enjoyed; men and women alike!
Our Christmas Potpourri simmer pot can also make a fabulous homemade gift for friends and neighbors. Simply put all the ingredients into a wide mouth jar with a little water, close the lid and attach a fun bow and gift note!
You will not only give a thoughtful gift that everyone can enjoy, but it is also rather inexpensive. Unlike a plate of cookies; they won’t be overwhelmed with your gift, feel guilty about more sugar they have to try to avoid, and will probably appreciate the uniqueness of your gift!
What do you like to put into your Christmas Potpourri Simmer pot?
Be sure to PIN our Homemade Christmas Potpourri Simmer Pot for later.
And Share our article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, their noses will thank you!
I love that this is homemade! I have most of the ingredients around the house too- my boyfriend can’t handle powerful scents either.
I usually burn scented candles but this sounds like it smells amazing and is easy to make. I am going to give it a try.
I love it! And I actually have all of those ingredients here. 🙂
I have never actually done this–but it sounds so simple I just might–on Sundays-the only day I could leave my stove on simmer cause all the other days I am out either working or on errands
I am seriously going to make this. I was looking for a recipe for the holidays. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I used to love to put potpourri out. Your pictures look great. I think I might want to try this too!
I had no idea that making a fragrance was that easy. I’m definitely going to try this. It’s hard to get the true feel of Christmas down here in South Florida (where it’s going to be at least 80 degrees today), but this might help! Thanks!
I’m definitely trying this! Thanks for the recipe.
I am a fragrance lover…and I have been looking for a good Christmas smell…
I am putting this in my favorites….will be going to the market tomorrow…I will try this…
I always put apples in mine 🙂
OH Maureen!! Apples would be so awesome in this! Thanks for the idea!! I need to do that as soon as the pot I’m simmering right now runs out. 🙂
That looks amazing and you have a few of my favorite scents in there!
What an awesome idea!
Thank you so much for sharing I am going to make some great gift idea
great homemade gift Idea I just pinned it going to make some thank you so much for sharing.
Love love love this idea. 🙂
I will be making a trip to the store tomorrow when I get off of work. My husband and I love anything that smells good. We have all kinds of wax warmers, candles, febreeze, you name it. LOVE IT!
I may sound like an idiot, but I’m not a DIY-type person and don’t have a lot of experience in even the easiest of easy fun things like this. Do I just leave it in the pot, simmering, until I’m “done” with the scent? Put it in a jar and sit it out? What do I do, next? 🙂
No problem Michelle!
You leave it simmering in the pot until you are finished with it, or the scent is done. You will want to check it periodically throughout the day to make sure it doesn’t boil dry and burn the fruit/spices to the pan. But at the end you can just leave it in the pan, or put it into a jar and save it for another day. It will store about a week in the fridge.
For me, I just keep it in my designated simmer pan and the next day just start simmering it again. When I’ve boiled the scent dry (meaning the same batch of ingredients no longer puts off much scent) then I drain the water, dump the old fruit/spices into the trash, wash the pan and then it’s ready for the next batch.
What a great gift and a gift you can give to so many people! I for one LOVE potpourri so this is just wonderful!
I’ve simmered cinnamon sticks before but haven’t tried this mixture. I’d love to try it this season!
What a great idea! I love using candles to scent the house but they can get expensive! This looks like a cheap but still delicious smelling idea!
Came over from Pinterest 🙂
I’ve heard variations of this recipe all winter long! I clicked this one specifically because you have a picture of it in a jar. Is this something suitable to gift? Do I just add the ingredients into a jar, fill it with water and then seal it up? Please get back to me soon! You can email me personally if you’d like!
Shary, that is one thing I LOVE about this; it is definitely a perfect Holiday gift!
There are two ways you can “gift” it. Yes, by putting all the ingredients into a jar and attaching a note that says to put into a pan, add a few cups of water and simmer. Make special note to let them know it lasts approximately 1 week in the fridge.
The second way it to get ahold of some DRIED fruit slices, add them and the spices to a cute sealed bag and attach a sign to it telling them to add to a few cups of water and simmer all day for holiday fragrance. (if you do it this way and you want to incoorporate mint, you will have to add mint leaves and not the extract; as you want all ingredients in the bag to be dry so they last longer).
Very cool! Bet that smells great!
I bet this smells absolutely wonderful, it looks beautiful as well! I am a huge fan of scents, potpourri, etc, but I have never tried to make a homemade blend before! I can;t wait to try this! Thanks!
This is awesome, I am pinning and making very soon. Thank you!
First off mine never looks that awesome. I usually put slices of oranges, cloves, and vanilla in mine or something simple that I have on hand. I love fresh potpourri 🙂
I can’t wait to try this! Thanks!
sounds yummy! I love these types of things – thank you for sharing. Wish you had a pin it button!
Actually I do have a Pinterest button. Just above the tags; there is a “sharing is caring” line and there is a Facebook, twitter and red Pinterest button. 🙂 easy way to keep track of all of it.
Mmmm…I LOVE these types of scents! I actually have a little crock pot that I might use as a simmering pot. You’ve inspired me!
Oh Deb! That crock pot idea sounds AWESOME! We often can find small crock pots at our thrift store for less than $5! A small one would probably be perfect for this so I don’t continually take up my stove every day, all day!
What a great idea! I love that it is natural and not full of chemicals.
Hubby does this on occasion, but his is boring. It’s vanilla and cinnamon sticks. I love your variety much better!
This is a great idea! I love how the house smells when I make mulled cider, so this is a nice alternative to fill the house with fragrance even when we’re not having cider. Thanks!
That is a great idea. My sister would be jealous if my house smelled so lovely. I am going to make a grocery list for this.
I love this idea! And I’d love to add pine needles like you mentioned! (I’ve got PLENTY of those…lol) and they look just gorgeous… I love the beautiful pictures! Such a cute idea and I already have all these on hand…pinning this! THANKS!
I love to do this. My mom would always take the peeling from the Christmas oranges and simmer them with a few cloves on the stove top. The scents of the season are one of my favorite things but so many store bought potpourris have an unpleasant synthetic smell!
I would love to try this! I bet the smell is amazing as opposed to the fake smells other store bought ones have.
This is wonderful! My mother used to do something like this and still does cloves in oranges sometimes for that scent at Christmas. It’s just a great time to smell those holiday scents in the air, it brings back memories!
i ususally put vanilla i like this one though that u posted
It’s so simple and I know it smells just amazing! Now I want to make some for my own house!
What an easy to follow craft for making the home smell awesome.
This is such an awesome way to fill your house with festive holiday scents! Isn’t it ridiculous how much money we shell over for potpourri and candles when we could just do something so simple like this? Thanks for sharing this! 🙂
I make something similar to this sometimes and it smells divine! Makes the entire house smell like the holidays.
I never thought of making it fresh. I’m sure it smells amazing!
I would have never thought to make my own potpourri, but this looks rather easy and I bet it smells wonderful. Thank you for this recipe to make our home smell better in a cheaper manner than by buying candles and potpourri already made.
Wow, this combination must be really nice – the scent should be really good – I love experimenting with scents and will try with this soon too.
Some scents I’m sensitive to so I love the idea of making my own potpourri, whether it’s Christmas or any other day. Thanks for sharing how
I bet that smells amazing all of those scents just say Christmas. I want to try to make this.
That sounds & looks so easy & must smell amazing! 😀
I would have never thought of something like this! so cool! I would do like a apple cinnamon type smell!
I have never done anything like this before but it sounds like it would be amazing and what an aroma it would give off – definitely something I should add to the ‘to try’ list I think. x
I love that this can be made at home with all natural ingredients. We have a dog so I am always looking for ways to keep the house smelling great.
Ive never thought about making my own potpourri before. This looks like it would smell fabulous! I will try this this week and see how it goes!
Oh, I’d definitely do mine with cranberries. It’s great that there aren’t any nasty chemicals involved. I’m always looking for ways to reduce those in my home.
Potpouri reminds me of my mom – good and well I know she did it to cover smoke. i like the idea of making one like this to use. I think I will tomorrow!
I make something like this each year and hand it out as gifts. Always fun to make
AWWW I can smell it.. Love this idea and been wondering what i could use to make it smell “Christmas”.. could I use the crockpot to make this, too…?? Thanks for sharing; I have everything and I think this will be dished up tomorrow..hahaha… soo excited
I bet that smells amazing. I have never made my own potpourri before.
I love lemon scents in my house. It definitely gives my home a nice clean scent. I will have to try this out! Thanks!!
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What a great way to celebrate the smells of Christmas with less calories! 🙂 Pinned to my “Having a Natural Christmas.”