Seasonal Style
Create delicious decorations and alluring aromas with items from your kitchen

Simmer for scent. When it comes to aroma, the stovetop is a very good friend. Let hot spiced beverages simmer throughout the party and perfume your house. Serve these deliciously aromatic drinks at your holiday gathering:

• Mulled cider
  
• Mulled wine
  
• Hot fruit punches
  
• Mexican hot chocolate

Bake for beautiful aromas. Have dessert or other baked goods in the oven when your guests arrive. As you remove them from the oven and set aside to cool, your house will smell fantastic. This holiday, bake:

• Hazelnut Cinnamon Rolls
  
• Gingerbread Cake
  
• Plum Pudding
  
• No-fuss option: put coffee beans in a pie pan and "roast" on low (250 F) heat.

Add zest to holiday settings with citrus. For fresh, spicy aroma, stud oranges and tangerines with whole cloves and then line them up along a mantle. Use a lemon zester to carve patterns on citrus and arrange in a bowl as a fragrant centerpiece, or tuck freshly cut blood orange halves into evergreen garland. Buy extra oranges and make:

• Candied orange peel

Cranberry red signals "party ready." Chill champagne in a mixture of frozen cranberries and ice. Use cranberries in a vase to anchor fresh blooms. Line a rimmed tray with cranberries as a "bed" for hors d’oeuvres. Serve:

• Cranberry Skillet Upside Down Corn Cake

Decorate with "scented" candles. Place pillar candles in hurricane holders and tuck in whole spices such as star anise, cinnamon and cloves. The warmth of the candle will release the fragrance of the spices as it burns. Tie together bundles of long cinnamon sticks, lavender branches and bay leaves; toss into the fire for scent.

Donata Maggipinto