This past weekend I started decorating my house for Christmas. Every year we get a fresh tree and it makes the house smell amazing. There is just something about fresh evergreen in the house that makes it that much cozier. This year I was inspired to bring in even more fresh cuttings to give the rest of the house some extra festive TLC.
I went out to my yard and collected some clippings from the cedar trees and holly tree and brought them inside. I also cut out some festive paper snowflakes to contrast the dark colours of the clippings. I’ve also been dying to try dehydrating my own orange slices for weeks and decided to take this opportunity as an excuse to finally take a whack at it.
Dehydrated or dried orange slices have been causing quite the commotion in the blogging community this season, and I totally see why. Oranges are cheap to buy and dried slices last for years, so they make pretty, long-lasting ornaments and christmas decor. I’ve seen them used in garlands, for ornaments, in shadow boxes, etc and every time I saw them I thought they were just so pretty.
Making the dried oranges is really easy if you plan to hang around the house for a good amount of the day. All you need to do is thinly slice up a few navel oranges and bake them at 180 degrees fahrenheit for about four hours. I know, four hours is a very long time, but I had nothing else going on the day I made them and the house smelled delicious while the oranges were baking.
How to Make Dried Oranges
Things you’ll need:
- navel oranges
- baking sheet
- parchment paper
Instructions:
- Cut the oranges about 1/8 cm thick using a serrated knife (the thicker they are the longer they will take to dry).
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 180 degrees fahrenheit for about four hours, flipping every 30 minutes to ensure they don’t brown.
- Once the oranges are hardened and no longer wet, remove from the oven and let cool.
- All done!
Making The Garland
The garland itself took me only minutes to put together and was practically free given the fact that I had all of the materials on hand. In addition to my dried oranges, I used twine to hold everything together and evergreen clippings from my yard. If you don’t have evergreens in your yard, I’ve found that a lot of stores with a garden section are selling evergreen clippings like Home Depot and Canadian Tire.
I also added some snowflakes that I cut out of printer paper. For the paper snowflakes, you can copy any pattern you like and there are tons available online. I cut mine out to get about a four inch wide snowflake.
To assemble the garland, simply use a skewer to poke a hole through a dried orange slice. Thread your twine through the skewered hole and position your orange slice to where you want it on the garland. Loosely tie a knot around the top to secure it in place. For the evergreen clippings, I just tied the twine in a knot around the stem. The paper snowflakes already had holes in them so I ended up threading my twine through those.
This was an incredibly quick and easy project. I ended up hanging the garland across the kitchen window and plan to make another to wrap around an artificial spruce garland I have to spice it up a bit. I think if you’re looking for fun, inexpensive holiday decor, this is a great idea!