Learn how to make your own essential oil reed diffuser, featuring a delicious Christmas scent. Includes recipes for two different essential oil blends. They smell amazing and make great homemade holiday gifts!
Decorating for Christmas involves more than just hanging ornaments on a tree and arranging pretty things, just so. It’s also about creating an ambiance — a feast for the senses.
Today’s project — a DIY essential oil reed diffuser — definitely helps put you in that Christmas state-of-mind. I’m sharing two different fragrance recipes you can use in your DIY reed diffuser.
The first has notes of vanilla, clove, cedarwood and sweet orange.
The second blend combines clove, sweet orange, clove essential oil, pine scotch and cassia essential oil, smells a lot like cinnamon.
Both smell AMAZING! I can’t pick a favorite.
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These easy-to-make reed diffusers in beautiful glass bottles are designed to be showcased as part of your holiday decor — not hidden. And they can be customized to match your Christmas color scheme and other decorations.
Looking for more ways to make your house smell like Christmas. Try one of these simmering potpourri recipes or make Christmas potpourri with dried oranges.
I first share these DIY essential oil reed diffusers as part of the 7th Annual Handmade Holidays Blog Hop, hosted by Smart Fun DIY. I’ve updated the tutorial with a second fragrance blend called Christmas Morning.
These reed diffusers make handmade great gifts and holiday decor, and you can whip up a batch in no time while sitting at your kitchen table watching a Hallmark holiday movie.
Want to see a brief overview of the process before diving into the tutorial? Click here to watch my web story on how to make reed diffusers that smell like your favorite Christmas scents.
Supplies for Reed Diffusers
This list includes supplies you will need to make two different Christmas essential oil blends – Vanilla Memories and Christmas Morning. You can also mix up your own custom scent
- Vanilla Absolute essential oil
- Clove Bud essential oil
- Cedarwood essential oil
- Sweet Orange essential oil
- Sweet almond oil
- pine essential oil
- cassia essential oil
- Vodka
- Glass bottles with corks
- Reed diffuser sticks
- Pinecones
- Faux berries
- Assorted holiday ribbon
- Baker’s twine
- Miscellaneous labels
- Hot glue
Decorating the Bottles
Before mixing the Christmas fragrance, decorate the bottle you’ll be using. It’s much easier to do when they’re empty than when they’re filled.
I decorated the ones I made in a variety of ways. For the one above, I just hot glued a strip of holiday ribbon around the bottle and added a pinecone to the top of the cork.
You can make your own jar labels, or grab some pre-made ones from the craft store and hang them around the neck of your jar. Tie the reeds to the bottle with baker’s twine.
You can also hot glue holly berries to the jar neck and add a piece of red ticking ribbon.
Hot glue a pinecone to the top of the cork.
The the reeds together with ribbon and add a sprig of berries.
How to Make Reed Diffusers
Once you have decorated the bottles, you can mix up the fragrance to use in the homemade reed diffusers.
I’ve included recipe for two great holiday scents below. But you can also create your own, using the same proportions of carrier oil and essential oils.
Essential Oil Blends for Reed Diffusers
The size of your bottles will determine how much scented oil you’ll need to make for each reed diffuser. I like to fill mine about half-way full.
Vanilla Memories Scent Recipe
- ½ cup sweet almond oil
- 4 Tablespoons vodka
- 12 drops Vanilla Absolute essential oil
- 6 drops Clove Bud essential oil
- 12 drops Cedarwood essential oil
- 8 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
Christmas Morning Scent Recipe
- ½ cup sweet almond oil
- 4 Tablespoons vodka
- 12 drops clove essential oil
- 15 drops sweet orange essential oil
- 5 drops pine essential oil
- 5 drops cassia essential oil
In a glass measuring cup, combine the sweet almond oil and vodka. Stir to combine.
Add essential oils and stir to incorporate.
Pour into glass bottles and cork.
How to Use Reed Diffusers
To use the Christmas scent reed diffusers, uncork and add the sticks to the bottles.
After 10 minute, flip the sticks and you’ll begin to smell the Christmas scent in the air. Use more sticks for a more concentrated fragrance and fewer to a lighter scent.
I really wish we had scratch-and-sniff computer technology, because my house smells so good right now!
And yours will, too, when you make these reed diffusers to add to your Christmas decor to to give as gifts.
Pin This! Christmas Reed Diffusers
Printable Recipe Card
DIY Christmas Reed Diffusers
Equipment
- hot glue gun
Ingredients
For the Diffuser Bottles
- Reed diffuser sticks
- glass bottles with corks
- measuring cup
- ribbon
- gift tags
- pinecones
- faux berries
- baker’s twine
- hot glue sticks
Vanilla Memores Scent Recipe
- ½ cup sweet almond oil
- 4 Tablespoons vodka
- 12 drops Vanilla Absolute essential oil
- 6 drops Clove Bud essential oil
- 12 drops Cedarwood essential oil
- 8 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
Christmas Morning Scent Recipe
- ½ cup sweet almond oil
- 4 Tablespoons vodka
- 12 drops clove essential oil
- 15 drops sweet orange essential oil
- 5 drops pine essential oil
- 5 drops cassia essential oil
Instructions
- Decorate the bottles and corks using miniature pinecones, faux berries, ribbon and gift tags.
- In a glass measuring cup, combine the sweet almond oil and vodka. Stir to combine.
- Add essential oils and stir to incorporate.
- Pour mixture into glass bottles. Add cork to seal.
- Tie a bundle of reed sticks with baker's twine. Attach to the filled bottle with ribbon or more baker's twine, if you like.
- Add a label or gift tag.
Notes
To use the reed diffusers:
- Uncork and add the sticks to the bottle. After 10 minute, flip the sticks and you’ll begin to smell the Christmas scent in the air.
- Use more sticks for a more concentrated fragrance and fewer to a lighter scent.
Michelle James
What a great gift idea! Love the packaging!
Dana Tatar
Thanks for sharing your recipe. I love the way you have packaged the oil. This would make a great gift. 🙂