What are your favorite winter scents?

It is fascinating to see how some particular winter scents awaken memories or emotions that connect us with invisible threads by a treasured past experience and even can induce us a state of well-being. No wonder then we all love the smell of cake baking, for instant, which remind us of times of childhood when we’re waiting to be invited by our family at Christmas dinner.

There are some scents that I never forget once tried, even if for a short period of time, supposing that the circumstances were very special to me.

I was thinking the other day about  winter scents that remind me of a warm and pleasant winter atmosphere. I payed attention to see which are the first scents that come to my mind when thinking about snow and cold weather. I realized that their spectrum is as wide and heterogeneous as my personality traits are. I find it somewhat to laugh when I look at the list below smoked sausages near scented candles but ultimately that’s life itself. 

Let’s see:

The smell of fir tree. Nothing compares to this very special winter odor and I think most people feel that way. In any case, those who buy natural firs for Christmas time and don’t settle for  artificial ones. 

The smell of wood on the fire. When I was child,  my parents and grandparents used to have wood fireplace to warm the house and that smell is special for me. It means warm winter nights playing cards with my grandparents or watching TV comedies together. Sometimes, my grandpa would make a steak on a grill he puts directly on the fire in the fireplace. The smell of fresh grilled pork meat would fill the entire house. Lights flashing necessarily clinging on the window and the atmosphere was magic.:)

Oranges. I do not think anyone from my generation who does not associate the smell of freshly peeled orange with winter holidays and the joy of snowballs fights. Oranges were so hard to find back then in my infancy time that were considered special delights.  Nothing was throw off, the seeds were put to germinate and from the peeling we used to make a bitter sweet syrup that I liked very much. Or they were grated and mixed with sugar and then kept for the whole winter in airtight jars cakes.

Sarmale (Cabbage rolls)  is a dish of cabbage leaves rolled around a filling, usually minced meat mixed with chopped onion, garlic, rice, tomato paste seasoned with various spices and local herbs like pepper, basil, parsley, dill and bay leaves. Usually, I do not like the smells of food scattered all over the house but I cannot conceive a Christmas dinner without the smell of boiling cabbage simmered in the cleaned kitchen  and with all the preparations already completed. 

Scented candles. This is actually an amalgam of scents that embodies everything I like:  vanilla, cookies, baked apple, cinnamon, orange, lemons, lavender and strawberries. Although I like scented candles very much all the year round, I prefer to light them up when it’s cold outside. 

Caramelized sugar tea.  A friend taught me longtime ago how to make tea from caramelized sugar and since then I associate that with long winter nights when we were drinking caramelized sugar tea while chattering about our and our neighbors lifestyle. 🙂  It was a delight and the smell still drives me crazy about. 
The smell of smoke. But not just any smoke, but the one which was coming from the smokehouses built in people’s yards. They were full of smoked clinging huge pieces of bacon, sausages and hams. When I was little, any other house on the street used to have smokehouse in their back of the yard. In the wither evenings, when we were playing in the creaky snow, occasionally we sniffed a trail of smoked sausages odor mixed with the smell of frost outside.  How to forget that?

What about you? Do you have some favorite winter scents? 

(photos source: pixabay.com)