Alexandra Donaldson shares her favourite holiday scents

The quintessential smells of the holidays and what we’d like to find in our stockings: from the team at The Whale & The Rose.

Editor Alexandra Donaldson shares her Christmas nostalgia and what she hopes to find under the tree this season.

My favourite holiday smells

My favourite holiday scents? Well, really it’s always pine needles. I love all the warm, spicy and sweet smells of Christmas too—apple pie, spiced cider, hot chocolate—but it’s the earthy smell of pine, of the Christmas tree before it’s all dressed up that really gets me during the holiday season. I have such strong memories of going and getting a tree with my family, burning my tongue on hot chocolate, picking through all the old ornaments—it’s perfect. I buy a pine-scented candle every year around this time to make sure that the apartment smells like a Canadian forest. Plus it brings a bit of my summer memories of northern Ontario to the holiday season.

At the top of my holiday wishlist

I fell hard for the Oliver Peoples x Byredo collaboration this year, so that definitely tops my wishlist. I’d settle for for a less exclusive Byredo scent—both Sunday Cologne and Gypsy Water are standouts and Gypsy Water has the added benefit of having a pine needle note!
Byredo Gypsy Water, $155 (100 ml), www.holtrenfrew.com

PHOTO: Pinterest