These DIY scented pine cones are a great, festive way to freshen your air during the colder months. They make a fun little gift idea, too!
Scented pine cones are a classic, nostalgic holiday decoration that brings the spiced fragrance of Christmas to your home at this time of year. You can often purchase them in craft stores if you’d like to display them and enjoy their aroma throughout your house, but if you have pine trees, or any kind of cone-producing conifer growing nearby, you can easily make your own fragrant pinecones with the help of easy-to-find fragrance oil. They’re also a great flame-free home fragrance alternative to scented candles or a store bought reed diffuser . Here’s how to make your own this holiday season.
Christmas decorations using materials from nature: Decorating for Christmas With Foraged Greenery
Choosing the Right Pine Cone for Scented Pine Cone Crafts
Really, any natural pinecone you can forage will do for this. Pine cones are obviously quite porous and absorb scent really well. The one important thing is that you need to use well dried pine cones so that they’ll be ready for absorption, so fresh-off-the-tree pine cones aren’t ideal.
I think the reason why I never really realized that I’m the owner of cute pinecones is that the ones on our trees don’t look so great (for crafting purposes, at least) when they’re on the tree. The key for projects like this is to pick them off the tree or find them on the ground, then bring them inside and let them dry out for a week or so. They’ll dry fully, open up really nicely, and look great if you just give them a little time to sit.
If you have a tree with pine cones, but you aren’t sure if they’ll work for this or not, bring them inside and do a little test to see if they look more presentable after they’ve dried out for a bit even if they aren’t from the perfect classic Ponderosa pine tree. They may be the perfect addition to the next holiday gift set you put together!
More natural ideas to decorate your home for Christmas: Foraged Christmas Door Swag
Adding the Perfect Christmas Scent
The first thing you’ll need to do after drying out your pine cones is to give them a good shake and get all of the seeds out, which will be released during the drying process. Then you can work on getting them smelling like Christmas.
By the way, if you don’t have access to pine cones right outside your back door, you can definitely use basic craft store pine cones for this as well.
Once your pine cones are de-seeded, drop them all into a big ziplock bag.
Add in:
- 4 drops of Juicy Mandarin Orange Essential Oil (regular orange oil will work too)
- 4 drops of Cinnamon Essential Oil
- 2 drops of Clove Essential Oil
Seal the bag up and shake it around a bit to distribute the essential oils so they’re all blended together. Let the pinecones sit and soak in the bag for about three to five days so they really absorb the scent.
Display the scented pinecones in a bowl with berries, birch bark, cinnamon sticks, and fresh cut cedar as an intoxicating spicy potpourri air freshener, or tuck them into botanical garlands and other greenery to make your home smell like the holidays and even block out unpleasant odors if needed.
Read next: How to Make a Bow Christmas-Tree Topper
More Ideas for Scented Pine Cones
Pine cone decor is perfect for during the holiday season, but you can also keep these out during the entirety of the winter months. Once the scent fades and you find you need a refill, you can try scenting them with something a bit different, like vanilla and nutmeg, for a cozy fragrance.
If you’d like to start displaying your pinecones earlier in the year, you can create an autumn aromatherapy experience with an apple cinnamon spice fragrance oil, or a combination of essential oils like cloves and ginger.
These also make a great little hostess gift at this time of year! Wrap a few pinecones up in cellophane, tie with a bow, and you’re all set to delight your host. These also make great aromatic Christmas decorations if they’re gifted in beautiful jars or bowls that can be displayed right away.
See also: Pine Cone Christmas Decor Ideas for Your Christmas Home
Let me know if you end up making these for yourself or as gifts this Christmas season! I’d love to see how you display them, so tag me on Instagram if you share a photo! I’m @creeklinehouse 🙂
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.