14 Heavenly Christmas Simmer Pot Recipes + Tips

Simmer pots are a lovely way to scent your home. They are non-polluting (unlike candles and other air fresheners). They are also zero-waste and eco-friendly (since the ingredients are simple and compostable).

A seasonal simmer pot being prepared — Simmer pots are a healthy, non-polluting way to add scent and humidity to your home.

With so many traditional scents associated with winter and the holidays, there are a great many choices for seasonal simmer pots. To inspire you, we’ve collected 14 of the best to enjoy this Christmas season—and beyond!

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How to Make a Simmer Pot “Recipe”

Ingredients for a seasonal simmer pot — Putting together a simmer pot is a simple matter.

Making a simmer pot recipe or putting together a simmer pot is super simple.

It couldn’t be easier; just:

Choose the recipe from the list below
Put the ingredients together in the bottom of the pot
Fill the pot three-quarters full with water
Bring the pot to a simmer and simmer on low for hours
Top up with more water as the pot boils down
You can keep topping up the same ingredients with water until they are no longer aromatic

Infuse Your Home with Holiday Cheer – Simmer Pot Style!

Apples and warm spice in a simmer pot — You probably have many lovely simmer pot ingredients in your kitchen already.

Not only do simmer pots infuse your home with a lovely scent, but they increase the humidity in your home, which is important -- and healthier for you, too.

Not sure which seasonal scents go together? Try these!

Orange Cranberry Spice Simmer Pot Recipe

2 dried orange slices
½ cup dried cranberries
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon whole dried cloves
2 sprigs dried rosemary (about 1 teaspoon loose dried)

Cranberry Spice

1 cup dried cranberries
1 dried lemon slice (optional)
3 to 4 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
½ tablespoon whole cloves

Christmas Apple Pie

Sliced apples for a simmer pot — Something as simple as an apple and warm spices can easily scent your home and evoke memories of holiday baking.

5 slices of dried apple (Cut the apples horizontally from blossom to stem end for a pretty star shape in the middle!)
3 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon dried nutmeg

New Year’s Egg Nog

2 vanilla beans
2 sticks cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried nutmeg

Savory Citrus

3 dried orange slices
2 dried lime slices
1 slice of dried grapefruit
1 tablespoon whole peppercorns

Lemon and Thyme

3 slices of dried lemon
6 to 8 springs of dry thyme

Rosemary Lemon

3 sprigs dried rosemary
3 dried lemon slices
*Can add vanilla and/or cinnamon if desired

Savory Herb Selection

Dried herbs hanging on a line in a kitchen — Herbs will remind you of a comforting Christmas dinner.

5 sprigs dried thyme
2 sprigs dried rosemary
2 sprigs or about 6 leaves of dry sage
*Optional 2 dried lemon slices

Tropical Christmas Vacation

4 to 5 slices of dried lime
½ cup coconut flakes
1 vanilla bean (or substitute vanilla extract, see below)

Cinnamon Vanilla

2 sticks cinnamon
2 vanilla beans (or substitute 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

Christmas Cookies

star anise and allspice for simmer pots — Check your spice cabinet to see what's there that will work in your seasonal simmer pots.

3 star anise
1 vanilla bean (or extract)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon whole allspice berries

Candy Cane

¼ cup dried mint (or about the equivalent in dried sprigs—more to “taste”)
1 vanilla bean (or extract)

Christmas Home

3 sprigs of trim from a fresh Christmas tree or other seasonal evergreen
1 medium pinecone (or two small)

Christmas Morning Coffee

¼ to ½ cup whole coffee beans
2 sticks of cinnamon
1 vanilla bean (or extract)

Some Notes on Using Vanilla in Simmer Pots

Vanilla beans look nice, but they can be quite pricey, so you may prefer a cheaper option. Instead of using vanilla beans, you can use a teaspoon of vanilla extract in any recipe.

Another option is to save your “waste” when you use fresh vanilla beans. We often scrape or strain out the pods when we use fresh vanilla. If you do, save them! They will still have scent left for your simmer pots!

If you’re not ready to use your scrapped vanilla beans in pots right away, dry or dehydrate them, then seal them up in an airtight bag for future use.

Tip: Use Kitchen Scraps for Simmer Pots!

Cranberries and spices for a Christmas simmer pot — Leftover ingredients, scraps, and peels from fruit are a great way to use "waste".

Even though these recipes list slices of fruits, you can also make them with just the leftover peels and scraps from cooking.

There’s no need to waste perfectly good food that you could be eating—you can get just as much scent from the scraps and peels. (A lot of the scent and oils in fruits reside in the peels or just inside them, anyway).

Apple peels
Orange peels
Lemon peels
Other citrus peels like grapefruit or limes

If you want to save money and put your kitchen “waste” to good use, here are some tips:

You may want to increase the amount of fruit if you’re using scraps and peels
Without pulp and juice, the scents are sometimes less intense
If you are using a food mill to strain dishes, the pulp may make good simmer pot material, too. (For example, if you have cranberries milled out of a sauce that you made.)
If you’re not using the scraps right away, it’s best to dehydrate them

Exchanging Dried for Fresh Ingredients and Vice Versa

Sprigs of evergreen and cranberries — You can use fresh or dried ingredients in your simmer pots--whatever is most convenient.

Since you’re simmering the ingredients for scent and not eating them, if you want (or need) to use fresh ingredients instead of dehydrated, you can easily do this.

For simmer pots, you can just keep the measurements the same. It’s not as if you’re eating it, so you don’t need to worry as much about the dried-to-fresh conversion or substitution.

If you need to only substitute some of the ingredients, again, you can just use the same measurements for whatever needs substituting.

Converting dried to fresh in the right proportions would matter more if you were eating it because then you’d need the right balance of flavors, but as a simmering scent, the difference won’t be that great.

Do simmer pot ingredients have to be dried?

Simmer pot ingredients on a counter — Ingredients should be dried or dehydrated if you plan to make packs ahead of time, or give them as gifts.

There's no reason that the ingredients for your simmer pots would have to be dried. The biggest reason we use dried ingredients in simmer pots is that it’s easier to store them that way.

Another reason you might choose dried over fresh ingredients is that fresh will have juices and may be stickier. So, dry ingredients are less messy and a bit nicer to deal with.

Some things may give a stronger scent from fresh ingredients, but then again, dehydrating can concentrate scents, too, and rehydrating will bring them out.

Make-Ahead Simmer Packs and Gift Packs

Simmer packs make great gifts, too.

It’s easy to put a pack together in a rustic little craft or gift bag. It won’t take you very long, but they are appreciated gifts for teachers, coworkers, friends, family, hosts, hostesses, and others.

If you want to make simmer pot packs for gift-giving, here are a few tips:

Use only dried or dehydrated items
Many herbs, flowers, and sprigs from evergreens can be air dried in a warm room for a few days to dry them enough for the packs
Fruit, berries, and more moist ingredients should be dried in a dehydrator or low, warm oven
Cool ingredients before packaging
Dried fruit slices look especially nice
Whole sprigs of herbs and whole dried flower heads look lovely
Cinnamon sticks and whole large spices like star anise, whole cloves, and whole allspice berries are decorative looking, too
If you need to add a scent like essential oil or vanilla extract, you can add a few drops to some ingredients and let it dry with them when drying or dehydrating

Giving the Personal Touch to Your Simmer Pots

A glass vase with spruce prigs and spices in a simmer pot — You can simmer pots on the stove or place them on a flat-topped heater like this radiator. There are also simmer pots that work with tea light candles and require no utilities.

The great thing about simmer pot recipes is that there are no hard and fast rules to the recipes. This isn’t cooking, and it isn’t food for consuming.

You can make your simmer pots to suit your own tastes.

Don’t like the scent of something? Leave it out.

Like the scent of something more than something else? Add more of it.

You can mix, match, add, and subtract to your heart’s delight. Your simmer pots should only ever be something you like the smell of. The point is to enjoy and relax in your home. And we think these seasonal recipes are just the thing to help you do it and get you in the holiday spirit!