Room Sprays Are Your Best Friend This Holiday Season

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation did the best job of portraying the experience of having family come to stay for the holidays — the love, the celebration, the traditions… the bickering, the less-than-ideal sleeping arrangements, the incinerated Christmas trees… and we’ll add one to the list: too many people for too few bathrooms.

Whether you have friends coming over for dinner, family staying for the weekend or maybe in-laws moving in for a couple of weeks, you know the challenges of adding extra people to the bathroom rotation.

This is just one holiday scenario where room sprays can come to the rescue.

Room sprays are the unsung heroes of the aromatherapy world, and if you’re not using them already, this holiday season is definitely the right time to start. Here are five situations where room sprays can make your life better, along with DIY and instant gratification options to start experiencing room sprays today:

The over-utilized bathroom

Essential oils are great at deodorizing — killing bacteria and killing odour in the process. But the group of essential oils that really shines for freshening up a room is, of course, the citrus oils. Leave this spray in an obvious spot in the main bathroom and let people er… cover their tracks, as it were.

Ready-made: Try the Yuletide Room Mist, a spiced citrus blend that will put guests in the holiday spirit and counteract unpleasant odours in the air (without any alarming carcinogenic chemicals).

DIY: Choose any citrus blend (we like our Walkin’ On Sunshine, Sunflower Citrus or Squeaky Clean synergy blends), measure 1 tsp or 6 mL (using a 3 mL pipette) into a 125 mL bottle and add distilled water to nearly fill. This mix needs to be shaken well before each use — eliminate this step by using an emulsifier in a 1:1 ratio with the oils (add before the water).

The fake Christmas tree

Have you got those I-have-a-plastic-Christmas-tree-so-my-home-is-bereft-of-that-festive-evergreen-scent blues? Look no further than our Into The Woods Room Mist — grab a cup of tea, plug in the twinkle lights, spritz the tree and room with spray and sit back to bask in the holiday spirit.

Ready-made: Into The Woods Room Mist will transport you right into a snowy pine forest where you’ll practically hear the jingle of sleigh bells.

DIY: good options for summoning an evergreen forest include cedarwood, spruce, frankincense, juniper, Siberian, Balsam or silver fir, Scotch pine and oak moss. Measure a total of 1 tsp or 6 mL (using a 3 mL pipette) of the oils of your choice into a 125 mL bottle and add distilled water to nearly fill. This mix needs to be shaken well before each use — eliminate this step by using an emulsifier in a 1:1 ratio with the oils (add before the water).

Mall stress

Holiday crowds got you down? Carry a bottle of nerve-calming mist in your bag and mist yourself as needed. Simply spritz a couple of times into the air in front of you and lean forward to inhale.

Ready-made: Uplift Mist is already waiting to do just as its name promises. Bright citruses and grounding wood notes lift the spirit and lend you confidence and courage to continue on in the face of the consumer hordes. Balance Room Spray is another great option to calm the brain and relieve stress.

DIY: 5 Minutes Peace, Pick Me Up, Secret Garden, Solace and Zen Lotus are all beautiful synergy blends to use in a calming mist; while great single notes include frankincense, Roman chamomile, rose, lavender, marjoram, mandarin, cedarwood and geranium. Add 1/2 tsp or 3 mL (using a 3 mL pipette) into a 125 mL bottle and add distilled water to nearly fill. This mix needs to be shaken well before each use — eliminate this step by using an emulsifier in a 1:1 ratio with the oils (add before the water).

Visions of sugar plums keeping the kids up all night

So the kids are up all night waiting for a jolly stranger to come down the chimney — can you blame them? Try a “sleep spray!” Not only do the essential oils in the spray help to safely calm children and let their brains slow down so they can drift off to sleep, but the nightly ritual of spritzing their room can become part of their bedtime routine. Which is great, because routine is the number one tip for kids who have trouble getting to sleep at night!

DIY: Add 1/2 tsp or 3 mL (using a 3 mL pipette) of Tranquil Touch synergy blend (or try Sleep (Zzz…) for tweens and teens), or lavender, Roman chamomile or petitgrain into a 125 mL bottle and add distilled water to nearly fill. This mix needs to be shaken well before each use — eliminate this step by using an emulsifier in a 1:1 ratio with the oils (add before the water).

All-night gift wrap marathon

We’ve all had those nights where the gift wrapping just doesn’t end, even as bedtime comes and goes. Wouldn’t the energizing lift of peppermint be nice with the added boost of some holiday cheer? Keep a bottle of Candy Cane Room Mist at your side and spritz as needed (as in… each time you yawn).

*Peppermint Schnapps optional.

Ready-made: Candy Cane Room Mist employs spearmint, peppermint, sweet orange, cinnamon leaf and vanilla absolute to keep you smiling and peppy. We recommend screening Elf while you wrap to match the mood. Or, keep it simple and get that mint straight to your brain with the safe option of Peppermint Hydrosol.

DIY: Add 1/2 tsp or 3 mL of your favourite mints (peppermint? Spearmint? Japanese peppermint?) and maybe a little bit of citrus oil of your choice (we recommend sweet orange or mandarin) or vanilla into a 125 mL bottle and add distilled water to nearly fill. This mix needs to be shaken well before each use — eliminate this step by using an emulsifier in a 1:1 ratio with the oils (add before the water). Excite-mint Synergy Blend is another great option for an energizing room mist! And for a straight-up adrenal boost, try Pick Me Up synergy blend.