Christmas Simmer Pot Recipe

Try this Christmas simmer pot recipe to make the feeling of the holidays come alive in your home. This aromatic blend creates a wonderful, festive atmosphere for making special memories with family and friends.

If you want to make your house smell like Christmas, there no better way to do it than to set this Christmas simmer pot on your stovetop and let it gently steam away on low heat. The scent from this natural air freshener will fill the air almost immediately and it’s really the most effective way to add instant coziness to your home for a special gathering or a quiet evening watching movies or trimming the tree. I love candles, home scent products, and store bought air fresheners of all kinds, but there’s something about the fragrance that is released when you use real fruit, spices, and herbs that just can’t be replicated perfectly by even the best Christmas candle. If you’re having friends and family in your home during the holidays and you want to create the perfect backdrop for happy memories, this a fun, elegant, and natural way to add a feeling of warmth and comfort that everyone will enjoy.

A homemade tradition for the holidays: DIY Mulling Spices for Mulled Wine and Cider

Ingredients and Tools Needed for the Christmas Simmer Pot

You’ll need:

• 2 sliced oranges
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
• A few cinnamon sticks
• A small handful star anise
• A small handful whole allspice berries
• A small handful whole cloves
• A few black peppercorns
• A small sprig of evergreen tree

For the small greenery branch, use a clipping from your Christmas tree, or any type of fragrant evergreen bough that you find outside such as pine, spruce, fir, or cedar. In a pinch, a few pieces of fresh rosemary will work wonderfully as well.

Whole spices are prettiest for this recipe if you’ll have your simmer pot boiling away somewhere visible, but ground cinnamon and spices and a teaspoon or two of dried orange peel will give off the same wonderfully festive aroma, so feel free to use up what you have.

Any regular cooking pot, stock pot, or saucepan will work well on the stove for this recipe. I love to use my white oval le creuset, but you can also buy clear glass pots, which are intended to be used for simmer pot recipes and allow you to see all the beautiful ingredients. A slow cooker or crock pot will work well, too, for an all-day scent, but it will take an hour or so to heat up enough to release the fragrance of all the aromatics.

Christmas kitchen trick: The Easy Way to De-Seed a Pomegranate

Preparing the Spiced Holiday Season Simmer Pot

Slice the oranges and add all the orange slices to the pot, followed by the frozen or fresh cranberries, spices, and your greenery. Fill the pot with water until the orange-spice-cinnamon-stick-pine-needles-cranberry mixture is just covered by about an inch.

Place the pot on your stovetop over medium-low heat until it comes up to a low boil. Reduce the heat enough to let it simmer. Allow your simmer pot to steam for up to several hours, checking it regularly as it’s simmering to make sure that the water has not boiled away. Continue adding room temperature as needed to maintain a continuous steam.

A reader-favorite Christmas cookie for your gathering: Cardamom Fig Thumbprint Cookies

Other Ideas for a Christmas Simmering Potpourri

If you’d like to scent your home naturally but don’t have all the ingredients listed above for a perfect Christmas simmer pot recipe, simply adding oranges, vanilla extract, and a few tablespoons of cloves to water is a traditional, easy-to-make version that still works very well and smells so cozy and fresh.

A few drops of essential oil in steaming water is also a great way to scent your home if you happen to have any spicy or fruity essential oils in your collection, like cinnamon bark, cloves, nutmeg, mandarin orange, or ginger. Peppermint is also quite cheerful and festive in a diffuser or simmered in water, of course. You can find all my Christmas essential oil recipes here.

Several of my Autumn simmer pot recipes also work really well throughout the year and for Christmas, so those are some other great options to try. I particularly love the classic rosemary and lemon peel scent of the Williams Sonoma simmer pot recipe that I have listed in that post, which makes your home smell just like the famous kitchen stores.