The holiday season is filled with beauty. Everywhere I look, there it is. I’ll be writing about different types of beauty throughout this month, but I wanted to start with fragrance in today’s post.

We don’t typically think of the sense of smell as a way of experiencing beauty. But what a gift it is! And it heightens the beauty of the Christmas season for me.

Our house smells heavenly this time of year. I recently wrote about the fragrance of fall, and Christmas brings many new scents to add to those. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Christmas tree, of course. We usually get a fraser fir. I love the smell that greets me when I come downstairs or walk in from outside. Live wreaths, garlands, and greens intensify that evergreen fragrance.
Some of our Christmas décor is scented with cinnamon. I have a vintage bread bowl of my aunt’s that sits on the kitchen island, and I often fill it with small pine cones, cinnamon sticks, and tiny gold balls.
Candles! I have two perennial go-tos: Hot Apple-Spiced Toddy (cinnamon again, paired with apple) and Balsam, a crisp, fresh woodsy smell.
I buy seasonal hand soaps, so whenever you wash your hands at our house, you smell festive too.
Seasonal lotions are sold everywhere right now, but my favorite year-round lotion is orange ginger. It seems especially appropriate when the temperature turns cold, and there's always a bottle or two under the tree for me.
I’m not a coffee lover, as I’ve mentioned before, but my husband and daughter are, and right now I’m enjoying the scent of their peppermint and vanilla latte flavors.
I do like an occasional hot chocolate with spiced chai as well as apple cider or orange spiced tea. The smell of these drinks is always as good as the taste to me.

The holiday season would not be as beauty-filled if it weren’t for special fragrances like these. Now I’m going to go light one of those candles and have myself a nice cup of hot chocolate.

What about you? What are your favorite holiday/Christmas season scents? Do you agree that the sense of smell helps us experience beauty?

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