Scent has always played a big role in the holidays for me. Growing up, they were always filled with smells of pine, gingerbread, peppermint, and warm apple cider. My grandmother had a family party every December since I can remember, and every time I walked in I was greeted with the smell of fresh cut Christmas trees. For me, that was the holidays. She is gone now, and I’m all grown up, but I still can’t smell a tree without reminiscing about my grandmother’s holiday parties. So, when this time of year rolls around I fill my house with that same scent in the form of candles, oils, sprays and all kinds of treats.
I love sharing my favorite holiday scents, so I decided to gather a few items for a holiday gift basket packed with candles, an oil diffuser, and a batch of homemade peppermint bark. I have tested out a lot of different seasonal scent brands throughout the years, but my favorite by far is the crisp but cozy Frazier Fir collection from Thymes. It is seriously one of my favorite smells, and it makes me feel like I’m standing in a tree farm with their mixture of cedar wood and sandalwood for a truly immersive experience.
This is a great gift for anyone on your list, and I love that with each Thymes purchase from their Frasier Fir Northwoods and limited collections they will plant a new tree. You can see the coordinates for your particular tree on the card attached to each product which is super cool!
Thymes have some seriously luxurious products including sprays, lotions, hand washes, candles, and oil diffusers. Last year I tried out their Gingerbread collection and loved it as well! If neither of those are your thing, they have all kinds of other scent options to choose from as well. You can pick up your own FREE sample set with any $25 purchase over at Thymes and decide for yourself, and you can also use the code BestGiftEver for a special promo!
Now, I promised you a recipe to go with my gift basket, and here it is! This is one of my staples every Christmas, and it is super easy to make.
Here is what you need:
- 1 bag of high quality semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1 bag of high quality white chocolate chips
- 1 package of candy canes (it doesn’t matter what size, but the regular 5-ish inch ones work well) If you can find pre crushed candy cane that’s even better!
- parchment paper
- large, shallow pan
To make these you will need to pour each of your bags of chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Set up your space by spreading a sheet of parchment paper onto a cookie sheet and placing it in the freezer. Now, microwave your chocolate according to package directions until evenly melted. Once that is ready, take your cookie sheet out of the freezer and pour your chocolate onto it, spreading with a spatula as you go so that you end up with an even layer of chocolate covering it. Let it sit for around 15 minutes so that it sets and hardens.
While you’re waiting for your chocolate to set go ahead and crush up your candy canes. To do this you can either do it by hand (super slow) or just put them all in a food processor and pulse a few times. So once your chocolate is set, melt the white chocolate and repeat the pouring and spreading process. Immediately sprinkle a generous layer of crushed peppermint onto your white chocolate and then let the whole thing set for an hour.
Once it has hardened, take a knife and cut it into strips, chucks or whatever shape you’d like and serve! This bark is great for holiday parties either as a dish on a table spread or even in little treat bags for your guests to take home!
