How To Make Potpourri Aroma Jar For The Holidays

We love cutting our own Christmas tree from a local farm, and with a few extra branches and such, I learned How To Make Potpourri Aroma Jar For Winter! It is so simple to throw together, and a super frugal holiday decoration idea.  I love adding this to our mantle or table!

We cut our own tree from a local tree farm. Not because we’re wildly ‘GREEN’ or anything like that. It started as just a great opportunity for a bunch of boys to get to hack away at a tree with a saw.  But it’s evolved into wonderful yearly Christmas tradition which conveniently involves a sharpened tool. I still go along to provide hand-wringing safety coaching, and my husband leads the band of merry men.

Now, the smell of a freshly cut tree is a wonderful thing, but I’ve found that it seems to quickly fade and is soon completely drowned out by the cacophony of everyday household smells. So when the guys trimmed the tree’s height to fit our room, imagine more enthusiastic sawing, I rescued some of the smaller branch pieces, all sticky with sap, and threw them in a vacant bulb jar. I’ve been sticking my nose in that jar for a whiff of The Season for the last couple of weeks. Clean, sharp and fresh – I’m LOVING this homemade aroma jar of evergreen winter fragrance!

How To Make Potpourri Aroma Jar For The Holidays

I never imagined that this simple little idea would lead to really learning how to make potpourri as an aroma jar for the holiday season.  Natural elements have the best pure smells, so it was obvious that this should fit into our holiday routine!

Supplies Needed: 

Large mouth glass jar

Aromatic clippings

Trim some lively branches from any evergreen tree.
You’ll want haul in two or three boughs, with at least a finger-sized central branch. The strongest scent comes from cut sections of these branches, so cut a few one inch-ish sections of thicker branch pieces to put in the bottom of your jar to get that strong evergreen smell.  *If you are sensitive to sap, you might want to wear gloves.

Then tour your gardens, fencerows, and hedges looking for other fragrant or decorative items to include in your aroma jar. Look for sturdy stems like these rose hips (below) which will last through the holidays. Consider cutting some seed pods, other berries (watch out for white poison ivy berries!), more varieties of fir branches, small pinecones, even nuts! I found a black walnut to add – it has a really distinctive aroma. My grandmother always prepared black walnut fudge for our Christmas celebration, so adding some cracked pieces of that to my aroma jar triggers some great memories of her. *If your cuttings are wet, let them dry on layers of newspapers overnight.

Here’s what I collected as I figured out how to make potpourri for the holidays using natural elements.  I gathered enough supplies to make four aroma jars for the holidays. I have my nubs of evergreen branches, some Frasier fir and white pine twigs, a few Rose of Sharon seedpods, rose hips, and some honeysuckle berries.

Use whatever containers you have on hand. Raid your summer vase collection, your unused glassware stash, or enlist the recycled food and condiment jars you have stashed away for summer lightning bug hunts. Maybe you have some mason jars left over from canning? Containers with lids will trap the fresh scent for an even longer time.

Add bits of the fragrant cuttings to your container – whatever suits your fancy. You can make it extra special with a scrap of ribbon or a twine bow tied around the neck of the jar or vase. String something on the ribbon or twine for even more charm – a tiny jingle bell, an old key, a discarded bit of vintage jewelry, or a small vintage ornament from the local thrift shop.

Enjoy your handmade aroma jar, straight from your own garden! Just open the jar and poke your nose into recapture that fresh evergreen fragrance, naturally, any time you need a Holiday boost.

If you want to know how to make potpourri using aromatic natural elements, this is a great option for the holiday season.  Add these to your mantle, side tables, bedside table, and even as a centerpiece on your dinner table. The beautiful presentation and natural holiday smell will be a hit.

More Holiday Crafts:

• DIY Advent Tree Ornament Tutorial
• Pinecone Trees
• Homemade Peppermint Play Dough
• DIY Yarn Trees
• DIY Winter Village

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