I love Christmas. Everything Christmas. I love the sounds, the sights and the smells. I especially love the Reason for the Season, my Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ. Christmas is fun, sentimental, biblical and SHINY. In our home, starting with the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas begins and continues until mid-January the next year. Yes, you heard it right… mid-January. Despite the moans and groans from the adults and concerned onlookers, the tree, Christmas movies and music, ornament making and decorating doesn’t stop until then. The paper snowflakes, ribbons, cinnamon cookie cutter ornaments and snowman art renditions keep coming until the fateful day every year when I know that it is TIME to put it all away till next Christmas. It really is the most wonderful time of year to me. One of my favorite things to do as soon as possible is to get FVWoman’s Christmas Potpourri simmering on the stove so that the second you walk into my home you smell Christmas. It has taken me several years to get it to the point I like it, for me, the missing ingredient for years was the peppermint herb, once I added that…Christmas!
Play around with the scents, potpourri is so fun to create! Add sugar cookies baking in the oven and some hot cocoa in the crock pot and you’ve got a bona-fide Christmas Village in the making! There’s lots of ways to make a Christmas potpourri, but this is my favorite version (I’ll share another next week for you pine-loving friends!) and I must say, I never get tired of it and neither do the visitors that come to our home. Enjoy!
FV Woman’s Christmas Potpourri:
The peel from one orange (it can be any orange, but I am partial to tangerines, they seem to give a sweeter orange smell)
one tangerine or orange cut in quarters
one small apple cut in quarters
1 cup fresh cranberries
4 small cinnamon sticks
a handful of dried whole cloves
2 teaspoons dried peppermint herb
1 teaspoon of allspice
1/2 a teaspoon of ground ginger (OR 1 teaspoon of dried chopped ginger)
3 teaspoons vanilla (even better, try a whole vanilla bean!)
Place all ingredients into a pot and cover with water. Simmer gently on the stove. ( I have heard of others doing their potpourri in the crock pot, but I have never tried it) This potpourri will last for about 3-4 uses before needing to replace with fresh ingredients. I almost always add more water as it evaporates and I will also add a teaspoon of vanilla with each use.
You can also give this mixture as a great gift in a mason jar or cheesecloth tied up with a ribbon and instructions.
Merry Christmas & Enjoy!
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