Winter fragrance…
On a winter’s afternoon traveling home from a day filled with activity the still cold air hangs with a perfume of watery cleanliness and freshness: snow is coming. Once home a warm draft of mulling spices and firewood entices and beguiles the senses into deep respiration – a sigh of contentedness. Someone opens the oven releasing into the room steaming sweet vanilla scents of hot cookies ready to eat. Night has fallen and lights glow brighter settling people into quiet conversation over cheese plates near the resiny aromatic spruce tree or snuggling into blankets while cracking open a book that puffs up a subtle hint of dusty old places that store buried mysteries and secret treasures.
Fragrances, odors, scents, and aromas paint the winter world with unseen color. They create another dimension of depth and delight. It’s hard to imagine a winter or Christmas scene without conjuring forth elements of fragrance. There are so many winter scents that are particular to this time of year. If you get a strong whiff of pine in the summer it may send you on a direct mental flight to putting up the Christmas tree. Wood fire smells can take you instantly to a winter night, though to be fair they may take you to summer camping too. For me there are so many wonderful smells that put me in the mood for winter fun and winter coziness. Here are my favorites.
Oranges…
Those sunny balls of citrus sit at the top of my list. My number one favorite winter fragrance is oranges. Like bringing lighting into the winter dark, having oranges around, on display, and to eat is like magically having a little container of sunshine that’s all yours. I love peeling into an orange and smelling that bright pop of zesty citrus. Oranges offer visual, tactile, and olfactory pleasures. They are beautiful. They are practically a toy you can peel and section. They taste sweet and delicious, and they smell like a great day is about to begin. Oranges and orange scent have a strong association with Christmas and the winter solstice, but they can be used through the winter months of January and February as well to freshen the air or cleanse the body. Use orange essential oil in cleaning products or to fragrance a room. Add orange slices to drinking water for a slightly sweet, slightly citrusy drink (wintery bonus: add rosemary to the orange water as well).
Pine…
Evergreens have many nuanced and distinct scents from cedarwood to blue spruce to pine. For me, pine is the winter evergreen fragrance I usually associate with season. Most strongly associated with the Christmas tree, pine smells evoke Christmas time. Evergreen wreaths, garlands, and arrangements of greenery also contribute to the wintery pine or evergreen aromas of the season. In my neck of the woods piney smells are available during a winter’s day walk through most parks and trails. It’s just a part of this time of year. A friend and I have an intermittent tradition of going for a Christmas walk on Christmas day through a park filled with enormous Douglas firs. The resinous, vaguely sweet, earthy, rich smell of the trees coats the park in a layer of winter evergreen perfume. I use pine essential oil to add to my vinegar cleaning sprays, and, as mentioned in the oranges section, rosemary is a great herb to add to food and scented products for a bit of evergreen aroma. Having a tough time choosing a Christmas tree to take home, just use the Gandalf school of decision making, pick the one that smells best!
Mint…
Candy canes are SO Christmas. Unlike oranges, candy canes only come but once a year. The mentholating peppermint fragrance and flavor tastes like putting winter into your mouth! Their red and white stripes make them an attractive visual feature, and their typical cane shape, while sort of annoying to eat, makes them distinct and easy to use in decorations. For me, it’s just not Christmas without candy canes. Mint can still be a part of the winter experience past December 25th. Mint tea or mint infused water is a great way to get a little minty calm into the winter months and feel a little of that cool whoosh in a healthy herbal beverage.
Chocolate chip cookies…
Chocolate chip cookies are really an any time of year baked good, but since this is my list, they’re going on it as a yummy winter aroma. It comes from my early forays into baking as a teenager. My best friend and I both loved Christmas and would start baking and listening to Christmas music pretty early in the fall. The only thing I was any good at baking were chocolate chip cookies. When I smell the oven-warmed fragrance of chocolate chip cookies I hear the dulcet tones of Bing Crosby. Nat King Cole stops by to serenade the Christmas tree, and Frank Sinatra livens up the party with a jovial note or two. Forever linked for me: chocolate chip cookies and winter baking. The best recipe is and will always be the classic Nestle Toll House recipe: https://www.verybestbaking.com/toll-house/recipes/original-nestle-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Books…
I can’t imagine that it’s only me who associates reading with cold. It’s only natural, if one likes to read, to indulge on a dreary, freezing, or windy day in that interior pastime of opening a book and getting lost in the pages. I would lend the fragrance of books and libraries to rainy days as well, but generally speaking book smell is a winter smell. I adore the smell of books. I’m one of those people tempted by old book perfumes. The idea of dowsing my body in the smell of a mushroomy, malt-like, dusty fragrance is oddly appealing to me. Behold, I have become a library personified! My eccentricities aside, adding several stacks or arrays of books from the used bookstore will provide a simple winter pleasure to your bookworm-inclined guests, or for yourself. It’s the smell that transports you from your dark and dreary world into realms, fictions, histories, and anecdotes that surprise and intrigue, educate and inspire.
Cinnamon…
An incredibly aromatic spice, cinnamon flavors and scents the fall and the winter. Whether using rolled up sticks of bark or ground spice, cinnamon has a potent and immediately recognizable aroma. The sticks can be used attractively in winter and Christmas décor. The ground spice is most commonly used to flavor sweets and baked goods, but I recommend it also for seasoning savory winter fare. Try it in chili, marinades, dressings, rubs, and sauces. Cinnamon adds wonderful complexity to flavor profiles of food and tastes and smells so warm and cozy during the cold winter.
Wood fire…
Whether you think of wood fires, firewood, or fireplaces, the smokey cut wood smell of fires in winter is the peak of winter ambience. The smell of a crackling fire evokes the remote winter cabin, the cozy hearth, the stockings hung on the fireplace. Just writing this sentence has me nearly catatonic with happiness. There must be something primal about the heat and light and smell of a fire in winter. Who on Earth doesn’t love that feeling? A funny thing I see where I live is bundles of firewood for sale at the grocery store during the Christmas season. I don’t know anyone who has a working fireplace for burning wood. Obviously, people are continuing the aesthetic of a wood fire during Christmas even if they’re not actually burning a fire. It’s deep in us to have a fire to relax by when it’s cold and dark outside. Bringing the wood fire smell into your home heated by gas and electricity can be a little more challenging to achieve than some of the other fragrances. Essential oil compounds and candles are the best options I’ve found. Burning sage is a fair, but not exact, alternative. Personally, I wait for and enjoy the occasional surprise hint of burning wood smoke outside during my winter walks.
Mulled cider…
Mulling cider, or wine, or just the spices in a pot of water will perfume your home for winter better than any of the other winter fragrances. I highly recommend this option. It’s low barrier. It’s fun. And it smells sooooooo good. Even if you don’t enjoy a mulled beverage, I think most people will give the mulling fragrance an extra long inhale. It smells like the spices of winter. Not quite like baking, not quite like food, not even quite like potpourri. Mulling spices smell like welcome. They’re an invitation to take off your shoes and be peaceful and be together. Traditional mulling spices include: cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and star anise. Other spices and fragrant foods can be experimented with in blending mulling spices like orange slices, pepper corns, rosemary, and ginger.
Snow…
Yes, you can smell snow…well, sort of. It is possible to detect the scent of snow, but the smell is actually the absence of other smells. Truly, snow smells like purity. It’s clean, fresh, crisp, and clear. If you’re lucky, the smell of snow will come to your doorstep in the form of lovely white flakes and blankets. If you’re like me and usually dreaming of snow rather than experiencing it, you may want to find ways create the pure scent of snow in your home during winter (or other times of year). The best starting place is to give your place a deep and thorough cleaning. Since the fragrance of snow is the absence of other odors, eliminating as many other scents as possible sets up the best conditions for a smell of freshness and clarity. There are also some essential oil blends that provide an interpretation on fresh water or snow. These fragrances may help promote an air of clean crisp snow in your home.
Ginger bread…
When do you have ginger bread or ginger bread cookies except for Christmas time? I’ll admit, a gingersnap or two may complement my coffee a couple non-wintery times of the year, but I still think of snowy, bare, winter landscapes when I smell a ginger cookie. Like cinnamon, chocolate chip cookies, and mulled cider, ginger bread smells homey and friendly. The ginger spice in the baking adds a kind of sparkling spiciness to the already sweet scent. Gingerbread aroma conveys being taken care of, relaxing, and having fun inside where it’s warm and life is easy. Gingerbread cookie recipe: https://www.lovefromtheoven.com/gingerbread-cookies/
Cheese…
Ah, the stinkiest of the winter smells: cheese. This one probably isn’t for everyone. Like books, cheese is on my list because I love it, and it’s an even better elevated smell in winter. Richer foods taste better in winter. Our bodies are primed for heavier, calorie dense food when it’s cold outside. At every winter gathering I have my eye out for the cheese platter, and I’m not shy about liking the smelly ones. Cheese is an olfactory sensation! The taste and the aroma combine to create a creamy umami melty delight. To add the sharp, mushroomy, yeasty, nutty pungent fragrance of cheese to your winter scent repertoire, just go to the local deli and buy some cheese!
Almond…
Another overlooked scent of winter is the aroma of marzipan: almond. Almond’s cherry, almost liquor-like fragrance smells like confectionary, baking, and drinks made for sipping. It’s a great addition to eggnog or buttery baked goods. Sliced, slivered, and whole almonds with their wood-like texture and skins add a woodsy-winter cabin aesthetic to dishes and snack trays. The smell of almond offers an air of luxury to winter aromas. Somewhat similar to oranges, almonds provide a little window into other places and other times. They are little stored bits of nutty warmth, and symbolically they convey storage, preparation, a stocked pantry, wealth, and seeds for the future.
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