Aug 04 2008
The Scented Christmas Guest Author [book]
Ooh, I was practically smelling the nutmeg already when I got my hands on this book. I love spiced winter beers and hot buttered rum, pumpkin pies and cinnamon sticks, potpourri and new pine branch wreaths. What these all have in common are their evocative scents, traditionally associated with the Christmas season.
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Adding scents to Christmas crafting seems a natural idea. This book is a marvelous fount of aromatic wisdom for decking the halls or holiday hosting. I appreciated the plethora of gift ideas that will smell good through the gift-wrapped box.
The ideas in The Scented Christmas offer the chance to express deeply buried holiday fantasies: making rosemary Yule logs, decking the halls, dipping bayberry candles and making rich, spicy Christmas pudding.
There are hundreds of crafty ideas - scented place names, cards and garlands. Spice ribbons, scented pine cones and citrus pomanders. Advent potpourri. Scented teddy bears and angel dolls.
Then there are the classier projects - scented finger bowls (use herb infusions or scented oils in warm water, topped with a sprig of herbs in a small pretty bowl at each place setting); Christmas incense (with scents of frankincense, sandalwood, rosemary, clove and lavender); potpourri of the Three Kings (you guessed it - gold, frankincense and myrrh); spiced bath oils, skin-softening body vinegars, spicy colognes and rose petal toilet waters. Scented talcum powder gifts! I feel like a kid in a candy store.
Most of these projects would be super to work on with children. Since the olfactory areas of the brain are intimately tied in with memory, you will be actively tracing your children’s future holiday scent paths home to you. 
Stumble it!
Good article. I could almost smell the scent on this page. I will get this book for my wife. Its only about .50 now. She loves to decorate with scents for Christmas.