Homemade Christmas Love: Potpourri Sachets

One long-held belief I have is that life would be exceedingly happier if every place I went smelled delicious. When Mark and I have people over, I spend a lot of time trying to make our house smell warm and inviting. When I want to relax, the first thing I turn to is relaxing scents.

So it made sense to me that when people opened their Christmas boxes from us, I’d want that experience to be immediately pleasing visually and aurally.

Each of our Christmas gifts this year is packed with a potpourri sachet that can be popped into a bath, placed into a simmer pot, or dropped into some water in a pot on the stove. Potpourri can be found at almost any craft or home goods store, but it is often laden with artificial scents in petroleum bases.  I find it mildly terrifying that there is a warning on some packages that if you boil the potpourri inside you should never use that pot for food….ever….again.  What the heck is in that stuff that will apparently never be able to be washed off? And why would I want to vaporize it throughout my house?

Since all aromatherapy oils come from things you can find in nature, and the best aromatherapy is really just a home cooked meal, I knew I could make a delicious smelling sachet of yummy smelling love for my family and friends. It took a little bit or work to find the right kind of muslin bag, but you could also use cheesecloth tied off with a natural ribbon. You can find cheesecloth at any hobby, brewing, or cooking store.

I made two types of sachets. One is filled with relaxing herbs and the other warming, spicy herbs. Relax blend has lavender, chamomile, eucalyptus (grown locally!), and lemon peel. Warming has cinnamon, cardamom, orange peel, allspice, cloves, anise stars and cacao pods. The first smells like a day snowed-in at the spa and the second smells like coming home to fresh baked pie.

Before I put the herbs and spices into the sachets, I stamped them using calligraphy acrylics that would not be waterproof- this way it will not harm anyone’s tub or pan if they should choose to boil it or bathe in it. These sachets are also wonderful in a sock drawer, under your pillow, in a closet, etc. They can be placed in vacuum bags, where a gentle heat will send them through the house. We have one in our car near the heat vent so that our car smells of Christmas morning.

Since all our gifts are packaged into adorable boxes, when you open the box the very first thing you notice is that both smell of Christmas in their own way.