my momma’s christmas potpourri in a jar recipe with gift tags

I love that I can’t smell Christmas scent without thinking of my Momma, and now I’m sharing her Christmas potpourri in a jar recipe because bottling up my Momma’s Christmas scent is one of my very favorite teacher gifts to make with my kids each Christmas season. They are simple, fun to make and EVERYONE loves them!

My Momma’s Christmas potpourri is one of my core Christmas memories. The day after Thanksgiving every year, my sweet mom would start our first batch of Christmas potpourri on the stovetop and burn it all day while we decorated for Christmas. She kept it burning most of the Christmas season.

Read to get the Christmas potpourri in a jar recipe and how to gift them up for teachers, church volunteers, or neighbors! We make these every single year, and I always have multiple people come back and tell me how much they loved burning their Christmas scent on the stove. It’s so very special to get to share one of my beloved Christmas core memories with those we love and appreciate around us!

Christmas Potpourri Ingredients

I bet you already have what you need to make Christmas scent. All you need are

• Sliced oranges (sometimes I quarter them like is shown in the photo below, and sometimes I cut them into circle slices)
• Cinnamon Sticks (if you are just using this for yourself at home, you can use ground cinnamon. The sticks just package up prettier for gifts!)
• Whole Cloves (again, you can use ground cloves if it just for you!)

This is the basic recipe for my Momma’s Christmas scent. If you are going to make this Christmas potpourri in a jar recipe, you will need a few extra things to make it look a little prettier!

• Whole, fresh cranberries
• a spring of pine, holly, rosemary… just something fresh and green to look festive in the jars

The cranberries and greenery won’t add much scent, but they add that red and green Christmas color that will make your Christmas potpourri jars beautiful!

How to Make Christmas Potpourri

The steps are so simple for this Christmas potpourri in a jar recipe, that they almost don’t need to be written down. But here they are in case you are like me and like to follow directions to a T.

Slice the oranges in fourths (or circle slices).  I put them in the jar this way too…much prettier to me than just a whole orange!  And they fit better!

Add a layer of cranberries. (This year Cooper practiced counting to 25 as he added them!) Then, add the cloves to the jar, then 2-3 cinnamon sticks…

I like to stick the cinnamon sticks upright in the jar and add the spring of greenery in there to make it look like a mini Christmas tree inside the jar. Such an easy thing for littles to help with too!

If you are making this at home, this is what your pot will look like when you finish! Bring it to a boil and then put it on a very low setting. Once you start cooking it, the color will darken into a brown color as you cook it and that’s totally fine. It will still smell fantastic! Continue to add water to it. (Don’t forget to check it throughout the day!)

Christmas Potpourri in a Jar Gifts

For teacher gifts, we used the small mason jars. {I really can’t remember what official size they are…they were ones I just had around the house!}

In each jar, we put…

• 4 slices of oranges
• a handful of cranberries
• close to a Tablespoon of whole cloves {no official measuring here, though!}
• a small twig of pine
• 2 cinnamon sticks

A little craft paper circle to add some ruffles under the lid, a string of raffia and a tag. Here’s a pic of the jar with the Christmas tag I made.  Simple, fun to make!

This year, I just wrote our notes on top of the lids with a little washi tape.

Our kids are always so happy to give out their gifts.   And I love that they are learning that, “God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”