8 Ways to Fill Your Home with Holiday Scents

Smell is one of our most powerful senses. It can quickly set off a variety of responses in our bodies. Smell can cause us to recall memories with vivid accuracy. Smell can make us hungry, or make our mouths water. Smell can even cause physical reactions such as a deep breath and smile as we take in a delicious scent. In fact, our sense of smell has a large part to do with how things taste to us.

The holidays are one of the times where scent plays a big part of our sense of enjoyment, comfort and memories. Here are a few tips for bringing wonderful smells into your house this holiday season.

1. Bake Something: Few things make your house smell like the holidays more than something yummy in the oven. Whether it's cookies, gingerbread, cinnamon rolls or pie, the smell of these delicious baked goods will bring a delicious scent into your home. If you don't bake, don't worry. There are plenty of frozen desserts, or refrigerated rolls and dough just waiting to be popped into your oven.

2. Candles: Add warmth as well as a festive scent to your home by burning scented candles. Yankee Candles have at least 100 scents, with at least 40 of them deliciously appropriate for giving your home a holiday smell. The glow of candle light in your home will set a cozy atmosphere on a cold winter's night.

3. Cinnamon Scented Pinecones: Many craft stores sell cinnamon scented pinecones which will bring the aroma of cinnamon into your home. These pine cones also make a festive holiday decoration. Put a basket of scented pine cones on your hearth. Scented with cinnamon oil, eventually the scent will fade. At this point, you can throw them in the fire and burn them, releasing more cinnamon scent

4. Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments: Cinnamon dough is highly fragrant and when rolled out and cut into shapes, will make darling, home-spun Christmas Tree ornaments. The smell will waft through out your home and the scent can last up to 2 years. Here is the simple recipe: Mix 1 cup cinnamon and 1 cup applesauce with 1 Tablespoon of white glue. You want a consistency that can be rolled with a rolling pin but not quite as sticky or it will stick to your counter! Sprinkle counter with cinnamon and roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Cut a hole in shape with the straw so you will be able to hang them. Let dry about 24 hours. They shrink as they dry. Cut lengths of gold thread, make loops and hang. Refresh scent with cinnamon fragrance oil.

5. Plug-in Room Fresheners: For continuous home fragrance for up to 6 weeks, try a room freshener that plugs directly into your wall socket. White Barn Candle Company's "Wall Flower" brand room fresheners are sold through Bath and Body Works. For $12.50, you can choose from lots of delightful sounding scents. Kitchen Spice combines the smells of marzipan, nutmeg, hazelnut, cinnamon and vanilla and would make your home smell like there was always something yummy in the oven.

6. Room Sprays: Room Sprays are a great way to add a quick burst of fragrance to any room in the house. Scented sprays can be found at your local grocery store, or even at high end retailers like Macy's and Nordstrom.

7. Oil Warmers and Scented Oil: Similar to potpourri burners that were popular in the 90's, oil warmers work with a tea light which, when lighted, heat up drops of oil on a warming plate. Bottles of oil can be purchased in many different scents for around $7, and oil warmers come in all styles and can be found priced as low as $7. Since you only need a few drops of oil, a little bottle will last a long time and bring many hours of holiday scent to your home.

8. Fresh Evergreen: Whether from an 8 foot Christmas tree or a fresh wreath, the smell of evergreen boughs and trees says "Christmas is here" like nothing else. If you purchase a fresh Christmas tree for your home, often you must trim lower branches so it will fit in your stand. Keep these branches and arrange them on your mantle with some pretty Christmas balls or other decorations. If you have candles, don't light them around the dried branches. They will dry out quickly with out water. With a little florist's wire and a small dose of craftiness, you can string together several small branches into a garland to spruce up your banister or drape across a doorway.