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Essential Oils for the Holidays

Thoughtful Gifts for Sensitive Souls on Christmas or Chanukkah

Oct 25, 2007

Christmas tree scents - pine, spruce, and more, missyredboots on morguefile.com

When selecting aromatherapy gifts or diffusing aromas at a party, it's important to consider health and safety as well as which essential oils will create a festive mood.

Pure essential oils have the ability to heal deeply and can be a balm to the body, mind and spirit. Pure aromatic oils are the most traditional present of all for the winter holiday season – the gifts reputedly brought to the Christ child at his birth were oils and resins of frankincense and myrrh, two of the most revered healing oils.

Gift Giving Tip: Avoid Returns

If you are considering giving aromatherapy products as a gift, make sure the oils you select are of top quality. Many people react poorly to perfume, potpourri, scented bath bombs, and other products with a strong smell. Even most "natural" essential oils found at the health food store have hidden additives and chemicals that can trigger headaches and other reactions in people who are sensitive. By choosing only therapeutic-grade oils and getting expert advice, you can avoid the pitfalls of giving a gift that will be poorly received.

Aromas for the Christmas Season

The Christmas season is marked for wonderful smells! Scents fill the air: pine, spruce, and other evergreens as well as cooking smells like the orange, cinnamon, cloves and ginger in fresh baking.

Even a dull office party can be livened up with vivid scents like clove, ginger and spruce. Diffusing essential oils can fill the air with the smell of Christmas cheer, warming a room for a party or event. Many of these oils (citrus oils, spruce, flower scents) have calming or sedative properties, bringing a more relaxed and joyful atmosphere to an otherwise tense family dinner. The same oils calm children, helping hyperactive little ones stay settled at large parties and sleep through the night on Christmas Eve.

The most traditional essential oil gifts at Christmas are, of course, frankincense and myrrh – but these are expensive if you want pure oils with genuine therapeutic benefits. For a more affordable gift, practical oils may be best:

lemon, orange and clove to flavor food
pine, cinnamon, and lavender to add wonderful fragrance to a room
oregano, thyme or Thieves blend to boost the immune system
peppermint, ginger and anise to aid digestion
wintergreen and basil for a soothing massage (especially in combination with any of the above oils)

Chanukkah Oils

Despite new understanding of the role of aromas and essential oils in the Bible and in ancient medicine, Chanukkah is one holiday where the oil that counted was not an aromatic healing oil, simply specially blessed fatty oil for burning in the sacred lamps. We can speculate that it might have been scented with spices or essential oils – sandalwood and myrrh were often used in temples – but nothing is certain.

Nevertheless, a thoughtful and practical set of essential oils makes a wonderful gift. Thieves, lemon and peppermint are three of the most useful everyday healing oils.

Contact the author for more advice about choosing holiday oils, or how to assess an essential oil’s quality.

The copyright of the article Essential Oils for the Holidays in Aromatherapy is owned by Victoria Anisman-Reiner. Permission to republish Essential Oils for the Holidays in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.