Getting a house beginning to smell like Christmas does not take a tree, only the right fir candle, and the picks in this post are a good place to start.
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Imagine a walk through the woods on a crisp winter day. Bright blue sky overhead and clean air filling your lungs. You’re on a journey to find the perfect Christmas tree. You stop and pull a small strand from a Frasier Fir and snap the needles between your fingers. The cool and invigorating scent of pure evergreen refreshes you. Snow crunches beneath your feet. You continue on your journey anxiously awaiting the burst of fragrance from a newly cut fir tree to fill your home with the scent of Christmas.
Want to bring that fresh fragrance into your home without the tree? Try a Thymes Frasier Fir, Linnea’s Light Forest Fir, K. Hall Siberian Fir or Trapp White Fir candle. All of these candles off the clean, bright fragrance of a fresh fir tree. Of these fir fragrance options, Thymes Frasier fir is the most bright, opening scent while K. Hall Siberian Fir offers a more relaxed scent bringing in the heart/trunk/woody notes of the tree to balance the energizing green needles.
Thymes Frasier Fir and K. Hall Siberian Fir fragrances are also available in a diffuser to provide a constant fragrance. Place next to your real or artificial tree to fill your home with the smell of Christmas.
Thymes Frasier Fir also offers a room spray and sachet as additional ways to spread the scent. Hang the sachet on your tree, in your closet, in your car or use as a tag on a holiday present to spread holiday cheer.
Forest photo from http://fr.123rf.com/photo_352464_hiver-sapin-recouvert-de-neige-fra-che-sur-le-fond-le-ciel-bleu-vif.html
When the house is beginning to smell like a forest
Fir trees give off a bright, green, slightly resinous smell, and the Frasier variety is the one many families picture when they imagine Christmas. Candle makers copy that by blending green needle notes with a bit of cool air.
The result is clean rather than sweet. If a gingerbread candle is the dessert of the holiday season, a fir candle is the walk through the woods before it.
There is a reason trees smell the way they do. The needles contain aromatic oils, and those oils are what you catch when you snap one between your fingers, just as the post describes. A candle recreates the effect with a fragrance blend instead of a branch.
That is the moment I love, when the house is beginning to smell like Christmas and nobody has hung a single ornament yet.
A fir candle gets as close as wax can to that cold green snap, and it is a fine answer for homes without a live tree.
Beginning to smell like Christmas is half the fun of the season.
Bright versus relaxed fir scents
Four fir candles made my short list. The Thymes version is the brightest, almost a splash of cold air, while the K. Hall Siberian Fir is calmer, with heart and trunk notes to balance the green needles.
That difference matters in practice. Choose the bright one for a hallway or kitchen, where you want energy. Choose the calmer one for a bedroom or reading nook.
I would add that fir candles suit small apartments especially well. If there is no room for a tree, a lit candle and a sprig of greenery on a table is enough to set the scene. Your nose supplies the rest.
The candle names matter less than the feeling. Whether it is Frasier, Siberian or White Fir, the question to ask is whether it feels bright and cold, or soft and woody. Smell two side by side and your answer will come quickly.
Light the fir where people gather, and let the other fragrance fill the kitchen.
Beginning to smell like a fir tree is a gradual thing, so light the candle an hour before guests arrive.
Compared with a spiced candle, a fir candle keeps things crisp, so the house stays fresh while it is beginning to smell like the season.
Getting more from the scent
Thymes Frasier Fir also comes as a diffuser, a room spray and a sachet, which is smart. A candle is only lit when you are home, while a diffuser keeps working in the background.
I like to put the diffuser near the tree and the candle on a table across the room. The two scents meet in the middle and the room smells whole. Use the sachet in a closet or a coat pocket for a small surprise.
Keep any open flame well away from dry branches. A real tree dries out fast, so a candle should stand on a heatproof surface at a safe distance.
Do not forget the car. A small sachet in the glove box or a tag on a gift carries the smell outside the house, and it costs very little. People notice it when they open the present, and the gift feels more finished.
One caution: if you have pets or small children, keep fragrance oils and diffusers out of reach. The liquids are not meant to be tasted or touched.
A house beginning to smell like fir feels ready for guests, even if the ornaments are still in their boxes.
Put the candle where you will see it, such as a mantel or sideboard, and keep other decor away from the flame.
You can tell a layered scent is working when the room keeps beginning to smell better as the evening goes on.
If your home is beginning to smell like pine, you are halfway to a festive evening.
Other ways to build a holiday home
Fir is only one piece. For an entire season of scent, see the roundup in the 2011 holiday gift guide, and for an angle on fragrance as a gift, read Caitlin’s holiday notes guest post.
If you are curious about the tree itself, the Wikipedia article on the Christmas tree traces the tradition. Then pick a candle and let the season begin.
Real trees need care, too. Cut the base fresh, give the tree water every day, and keep candles at a good distance. Many families prefer electric lights for that reason and let the candle do the scent.
Once the whole house is beginning to smell like Christmas, a candle becomes the quiet background to wrapping paper and cocoa.
Whichever fir you choose, enjoy that first week of beginning to smell the season.
A fir candle keeps the house beginning to smell like the holidays long after the tree goes up.
