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Christmas Potpourri in a Jar is like bottling up the scent of the holidays. With fresh cranberries, oranges, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg, these DIY Christmas gifts is a simple stovetop potpourri that everyone will love.

DIY Christmas Gift for Friends | Christmas Potpourri in a Jar with Free Printable Gift Tag
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Highlights

Looking for unique and beautiful DIY Christmas gifts? Grab the free printable below and get all the details to make a few of these Christmas Potpourri in a Jar Homemade Christmas gifts for family, friends, neighbors and teachers!

I’m really excited about this Christmas Potpourri, because it’s a great non-food gift that I can give to my kids’ teachers (I mean, they get tons of candy and cookies already!) and I LOVE how the free printable tag turned out!

I love to fill my home with amazing scents during the holidays, and there’s no better combination than citrus and cranberry mixed with cinnamon and spices. This is a simple recipe that you can simmer on your stovetop or in a crockpot to help fill your home with these delicious scents of the holidays. All of these ingredients are combined in a small pot on the stove and simmered for hours.

This Christmas Potpourri in a Jar comes with a free printable and is crazy easy to put together. It looks stunning, and it’s not just another food gift.

Potpourri Ingredients

These are the ingredients you’ll wrap up for your gifts. You can also just simply drop all of this in a pot of water and simmer it for yourself!

  1. ½ cup fresh cranberries – make sure they are really fresh. You’ll start seeing these in the produce department around early November, maybe even late October.
  2. 1 small orange – The size you purchase will determine what type of vessel you can use to assemble the gifts. Larger oranges won’t fit through the mouth of the jar, and you don’t want to slice the oranges. Clementines are great for smaller jars.
  3. 4 cinnamon sticks – These seem to come in varying lengths, but are usually about 3-inches long. You can always find a large bottle of these at Costco.
  4. Whole cloves or allspice (or both) – I’ve used both with fantastic results. But you can choose to use just one of whichever is your preference.
  5. Ground nutmeg

How to Make These DIY Christmas Gifts

For the assembly, you’ll also need:

  • Wide-Mouth, Quart Jars or cellophane gift bags – The jars are obviously more expensive, but they do have the biggest impact. As you can see in the images, I fit a small navel orange inside.
  • Kraft paper or wrapping paper – Kraft paper is stronger, wrapper paper tends to rip, so choose wisely.
  • Ribbon or twine – I like the rustic look of twine, but use whatever you have on hand.
  • Scissors
  • a Printer – if you don’t have a home printer, you can have these printed at your local office supply store for a few dollars.
  • Paper/Cardstock – I tend to prefer cardstock because it holds up better. But it’s your call.

Bag Instructions: Place the ingredients inside the jar or cellophane bag and tie a ribbon around the top, attaching the tag with the ribbon.

Jar instructions: Top the lid of the jar with brown kraft paper, wrapping paper or any other paper you like, secure with the jar lid band, then tie on the free printable gift tag with a ribbon or twine. The gift tag doubles as the instructions!

DIY Christmas Gift for Neighbors | Christmas Potpourri in a Jar with Free Printable Gift Tag

A Few Things to Note

  • You want to make sure that the vessel you choose is large enough for the oranges. If you plan to use small navel oranges, or maybe fresh oranges from your backyard tree, I suggest using cellophane gift bags that would be able to accommodate the larger pieces of fruit. There’s nothing worse than having to jam that orange through the mouth of a jar and the recipient not being able to get it out!
  • If you opt for mason jars, be sure to use the wide mouth mason jars ones, for the same reason as above.
  • You’ll note that on the recipe card it says “cloves” but in the image I used allspice. While these two spices do have different scents, they each blend nicely and one can be swapped out for the other based on what you have available. Or you can use both.
  • For the spices, it’s easiest if you place them in a small bag so they don’t just fall to the bottom. I simply cut the corner of a ziploc bag, poured the spices into that corner piece, then tied it with a small piece of twine. (See the video for the visual). You could also just pour them into the bottom of jar if you like.
  • I recommend printing on cardstock for the best results.
  • Be sure to make one of these cute Christmas gifts for yourself – trust me, these smell amazing and you’ll be glad you did. This recipe works beautifully in the slow cooker, too!

Make Ahead Instructions

You can make these jar gifts about a week in advance.

Assembled jars should be refrigerated and gifted within a week to maintain freshness of ingredients. 

Simmering Stovetop Christmas Potpourri with Cranberries, oranges, cinnamon and spices

Please note – all printables on this site are free for personal use only. They are protected by copyright and not to be sold, altered or redistributed in any way. Thank you for keeping the items we share free for all!

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More DIY Christmas Gifts and FREE Gift Tags

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Recipe

Christmas Potpourri

5 from 9 votes
Make a unique and beautiful DIY Christmas gift! Christmas Potpourri Jars are pretty and practical gifts for friends, teachers and neighbors.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 1 jar

Equipment

  • Quart Size Ball Jars

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
  • 1 small orange clementines work great
  • 4 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 tablespoon whole cloves or allspice
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
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Instructions
 

  • Slice the orange Into thick slices or quarters. Place all of the Ingredients In a 3-quart (or larger) pot on the stove. Pour in enough water to cover the Ingredients by at least an inch.
  • Simmer on low heat, uncovered, checking periodically and adding more water If needed.
  • Slow Cooker: Add Ingredients to the pot and cover with water. Set to low and leave uncovered.

Notes

You can simmer this all day If you like, or until the scent dissipates.
Assembled jars should be refrigerated and gifted within a week to maintain freshness of ingredients. 
Keyword christmas potpourri

Nutritional Disclaimer Kristin Maxwell of “Yellow Bliss Road” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. For accurate calorie counts and other nutritional values, we recommend running the ingredients through your preferred online nutritional calculator. Calories and other nutritional values can vary depending on which brands were used.

Kristin Maxwell

Kristin Maxwell is the creator and main recipe developer, writer, and photographer of Yellow Bliss Road. A self-taught cook and self-appointed foodie, she specializes in easy, flavorful and approachable recipes for any home cook.

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5 from 9 votes (7 ratings without comment)

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Comments

  1. Robbi Spectdor says:

    HI…I am confused about the oranges/clementines….Is the recipient supposed to slice them??? Thanks….

    1. Kristin says:

      Yes they would need to slice them, which is part of the instructions in the printable.

  2. Kim says:

    Any issue selling the pot poured at a craft show and having the orange go bad?

    1. Kristin says:

      I don’t sell these; and the printable is copyrighted to me and cannot be sold.

  3. Megan says:

    Do you have an editable version of the tag so it can say “Holiday Potpourri” instead?

    1. Kristin says:

      No, sorry I don’t.

  4. melody says:

    Hi Kirsten

    I want to use a ckeckered cloth to close the top n then add lid. How would I cut the cloth round or square.

    Thanks melidy

    1. Kristin says:

      I think it would be much easier to cut a square and just have the corners of the cloth peeking out from below the band. It would look super cute, too!

  5. sue rydberg says:

    If you are having trouble printing the label try another browser – Google Chrome work well.

  6. Angie Eplin says:

    I received this as a Christmas gift. I chose to cut up my orange and mix everything right in the mason jar. Filled it with water and sat it down in my candle warmer. It fit perfect and my house smells amazing! Thank you for this great idea. I plan to pay this one forward next year!

  7. Valerie says:

    I have loved giving cinnamon sticks and whole cloves as neighbor gifts at Christmas, but the cranberries and oranges add such wonderful color and aroma. Thank you for sharing your idea and the free printable. Such a time saver and super cute!

  8. Muriel says:

    I try this and I love it! I didnt have the jars so I bagged the ingredients and gave it my friends as a gift bag

  9. Laura Cohen says:

    What a great gift for all the ladies in my family! I never know what to get anyone and these were perfect and inexpensive! I also made the snowflake playdough and my daughter gave each girl in her girl scout troop one. Thank you!!!

  10. Jennifer says:

    I passed these out to neighbors in 2016. They were such a hit I plan to make them for my office team this year (2017). I used cellophane bags tied with a cute holiday ribbon. Your tip about using the corners of sandwich bags for the spices worked great. I must admit I was glad my husband helped hold the bags while I tied them up. Thanks for sharing, Kristin!

  11. Pamela DeLuca says:

    can you use the little clementines?

    1. Kristin says:

      Yes the clementines are great!

  12. Joanna says:

    I cant get the oranges in and when i got one in it wont come out

    1. Kristin says:

      Sounds like you’re oranges were to big. You’d want to choose smaller ones.

  13. Patti says:

    How many days before giving them out can i prepare them in advance?

    1. Kristin says:

      I wouldn’t do more than a day. You want them to be nice and fresh! 🙂

  14. Vikki West says:

    Hi Kristin, I have tried for two in a half hours to down load the recipe instructions for Christmas in a jar… I am so tech challenged that I am about to cry! I want to do this for my friends and neighbors for Christmas this year. But I can’t get the down load to work for me…. Normally one of my daughters would do it but they are grown and live 4-5 hours away from me. Is there anyway you can help me please? I’m disabled so I don’t get out to much… This is something I can afford and I think the tag is perfect!! Please let me know if there is anything you can help me with on your end… Honestly any help would be AWESOME…
    Vikki

    1. Kristin says:

      Hi Vicki, So sorry you’re having trouble. Here is a direct link to the page with the download: http://cf.yellowblissroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Christmas-Potpourri-Gift-Tag.pdf

      When you hover your mouse over the image, you’ll see a drop down at the top right with an arrow pointing down, and a print button. The arrow will download the print to your computer (you just need to save it to the correct place) and the print button will print directly to your printer (so you’d want to have the paper set up). Hope that helps!

        1. Megan says:

          Oh and THANK YOU! I love this idea and your printable tag is perfect. I am using them this year for friends and neighbors!

        2. Kristin says:

          You may have accidentally clicked on one of the ads in the post. Sorry about that!

  15. Heather says:

    Are the cloves and nutmeg both whole?

    1. Kristin says:

      Cloves yes, the nutmeg is ground and I just tied in a little bag.

  16. susan says:

    Can’t get the Christmas Pot Pourri in a jar tag to load. Any suggestions?

  17. Amy says:

    Hi, should this be kept in the fridge until use? Thank you.

    1. Kristin says:

      Yes, but even then I would suggest it be used within a week.

  18. Carol says:

    With the Christmas Potpourri, can dried cranberries be used in place of fresh ones?

    1. Kristin says:

      The dried cranberries have a lot of sugar added, so I probably wouldn’t. But, I haven’t personally tried it, so if you do let us know how it turns out.

  19. charlotte says:

    I can’t get the Christmas Potpourri tag to load. When I click on the download it takes me to a tax sight.

  20. Robyn says:

    Kristin,

    What size jar did you use?

    Thanks
    Robyn

    1. Kristin says:

      It’s a quart size wide mouth jar.