How To Make Holiday Potpourri Jars

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I love Christmas lights.  In fact when I was a little girl I would take the extra tree lights and use them to decorate the outside of my doll house.  Between the doll house and the small Christmas tree I had my room was fairly bright at night from all the lights.  I’ve never lost that love for Christmas lights, and it seems I’ve already passed it down to my son.  I love to put lights up all over, so I was very excited when my aunt gave me a Holiday Potpourri Jar for Christmas many years ago.

While the idea came from my aunt my mother and I have made it our own.  I have lost count of the number of times that we have made these as Christmas gifts.  They are wonderful for anyone that loves smelly things like candles and potpourri.  They also a a really nice gift idea for a secret Santa exchange (for that last when the gift amount is a little more).

The Holiday Potpourri jars are so pretty and smell so good.  They are meant for Holiday times, but you certainly can leave them out all year. You can choose to use either colored or white lights.  The white ones are better for all year use, but I’m a colored light girl myself so it doesn’t really matter to me.  The jars also smell so good.  The lights heat up the potpourri, so it smells amazing, but the lights don’t get too hot so they’re safe to use with the potpourri.  Best of all making them is very easy!

How to Make Holiday Potpourri Jars

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What You Need

Small glass jar (You can find the jars that I used at Michael’s)
Small strand of lights (a 35 strand is best unless you have a larger jar)
Bag of Potpourri (unless you have a large jar or a tiny bag you won’t need it all)
Ribbon and/or decoration for the outside (optional)

Steps

1. Make sure that the lights work.  Nothing like a defective strand of lights.
2. Start by putting some of the lights in the jar.
3. Add some potpourri.

4. Continue to add some lights, and the some potpourri until the jar is full.  As you go plug the lights in and see if there any dark spots where you need lights.  It’s just like dark spots where you need lights on the Christmas tree.  You want almost all of the lights to be in the jar by the time you’re done.
5. Once you are done you can make your jar more festive by adding ribbon and other decorative items.  Not all jars can easily accomidate this though.
6. If you are giving your jar as a gift secure the potpourri by placing the remaining cord for the lights in the top of the jar and then cover the top with plastic wrap or aluminum foil.  Plastic wrap looks better though.

Your jar will give you many hours of pretty lights and a nice scent.  If you find you aren’t getting much of a scent any more just throw out the potpourri and replace it with new.  Same goes if your lights burn out.