Welcome friends! Come take a peek inside our little home and see how simple and beautiful it is to decorate with dried oranges at Christmas time!

This year I chose to incorporate more natural elements into my Christmas decor. I brought in fresh (and FREE) cedar that I clipped from a nearby tree and I dried my own oranges and have them all throughout the house. I am loving how natural and simple it feels. It’s just so cozy! There is something about natural elements in the home that gives me all the cozy feelings. The soft flickering of warm candlelight, the fresh smell of greenery, and the deep and natural tones of nature that always put my eyes and my mind at rest. The more I pair the oranges with other natural elements, it looks so curated as well. The dried oranges almost function as a neutral, especially against greenery.

I love the nod to history here too. We just finished studying all about Colonial Williamsburg in our homeschool, and we used this project as part of our study. Now the books we used for study didn’t specifically say they would decorate with oranges in colonial times (I’m using my imagination here), but they certainly went outdoors and brought in the holly, the ivy, the cedar and juniper berries. They dried apples, strung cranberries. They brightened up their dark, wintry homes with the fresh smells of life and the colors of nature. They arranged their fruit in beautiful towers on the table for Christmastide (the colonial term for Christmas). The display of food was always grand and beautiful.

And so, I took joy in following that lead and creating beauty in the home for Christmas out of the natural world around me.

I felt so rooted and grounded in what my ancestors have done before me to be using this age old tradition of decorating with nature’s bounty. I really like that feeling. It felt timeless, traditional, rooted, and purposeful. It felt connected to something bigger than me, because mankind has been doing this for generations. Simply working with what they had.

This is my first year decorating with dried oranges, but I think it will be a new tradition. The boys really enjoyed the process! The bigger boys tried their hand at slicing the oranges with a kid-friendly knife, although the slices they produced were far too thick to dry in the oven, haha! So if you plan on having your children help, be sure you have plenty of extra oranges to slice up for display. The younger ones really got into helping me string the oranges once they were dried. And bonus, little ones threading string is also very good for developing their fine motor skills! This size of this project was just right for my four year old’s little hands. And attention span!

Making Your Dried Oranges

What you will need:

8-10 oranges, depending on how you are planning to use them. (scroll down for ideas)

baking sheet lined with parchment paper

serrated knife for slicing thinly and accurately

How to make:

Heat your oven to 200 degrees.

Slice your oranges thin and as evenly as possible with a serrated knife (see above photo for reference). The serrated knife will help you slice through the orange easily without having to put a lot of pressure on it and therefore squeeze out some of the juice and misshaping it some. You could use any knife, but a serrated knife will result in the prettiest slices.

Arrange your slices (here’s where the kiddos come in!) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Don’t skip the parchment because the oranges will stick badly to the baking sheet otherwise.

Bake them for 2-4 hours in a 200 degree oven turning every 30 minutes or so. It doesn’t have to be exact. I definitely let mine go for over an hour without flipping and it was fine. You want the flesh of the orange to be almost rubbery feeling and the outside rind will be hard.

I found that at the end of the four hours that I still had a few stubborn ones that were not drying out completely, and so I removed the slices that were dry and kept going with the stubborn guys for another hour or so. After that I turned off the oven, but let them sit in the oven until the end of the day and that seemed to do the trick!

How to Use Your Dried Oranges

There are so many ways to use your dried oranges, but here are the three ways I used them in my home this year:

• Simple dried orange ornaments
• Dried orange and eucalyptus wreath
• Dried orange and eucalyptus garland

How to make dried orange ornaments

You will need:

Dried orange slices

Single hole punch

Jute string, ribbon, or whatever you find beautiful

How to make:

It’s almost silly to type this out as a tutorial because it’s so stinkin’ simple. This one is very kid friendly too! Threading the string is a great job for the younger kiddos, while the older ones can try the hole punch.

Take an orange slice and use the hole punch to punch a hole in the fleshy (now rubbery) part of your orange. Cut a length of string or ribbon to your desired length, thread through the hole, and tie at the top. Done. Simple. Easy peasy. Thumbs up.

Hang them on your tree and all around the house and feel accomplished!

How to Make Dried Orange and Eucalyptus Garland

You will need:

Dried oranges

Dried eucalyptus, or any other dried or faux leaves you have on hand

Hot glue gun

Jute string, ribbon, or pre-made garland

How to make:

I made this garland by basically embellishing a simple garland I found at the dollar spot at Target for 3 bucks. But the same process with just jute string or ribbon will get you the same results. But dig through your Christmas decor. Maybe you have a garland from years past that could use a little refresh with the oranges and eucalyptus.

Again, this is so simple! Lay out your string and decide the spacing and placement of your dried oranges and eucalyptus or leaves. Start with a leaf. Place a small dot of hot glue on the back of your leaf and then press it lightly on the string. Repeat the same process with the orange, layering it slightly offset on top of the leaf. Once they have dried, place another strand of hot glue over the back of the orange and leaf and over the string to give it even more staying power. Continue this process, spacing them as you desire until complete! I spaced mine about two and half inches apart. I hung mine with a little bit of transparent scotch tape, and then placed other decor items that were already on my mantle over the top to help hold it down. You can also tie small loops in the end of your garland and hang them from cute push pins or something like that.

Don’t have a hot glue gun? You could also skip the hot glue and create a simple garland by using the dried orange ornament method above! Just string the oranges that have been hole punched onto your string, and viola!! Beautiful garland in minutes!

How to Make Dried Orange and Eucalyptus Wreaths

What you need:

Pre-made wreath(s)

Dried oranges

Dried or faux eucalyptus stems

Floral wire and/or hot glue gun

Ribbon for hanging

How to make:

I started with these little boxwood wreaths that I found for 3 bucks each at the Target dollar spot. I got home and hung them up immediately because I’ve been excited for so long to have wreaths hanging on the glass doors of my hutch, but I decided that night that it was a little too minimal for Christmas. They needed a little something extra!

Start by sticking your eucalyptus stems in the wreath all throughout the wreath until you like the balance of eucalyptus and original wreath greenery. To secure the eucalyptus to the wreath I started by using floral wire, but because I was using dried eucalyptus, it was fragile to work with and the twisting of the wire ended up breaking the leaves too often. I ended up just hot gluing them onto the wreath and that was so much easier. If you are using faux stems, it’s likely that the stem will be too heavy to be secured with hot glue, and in that case I think the floral wire will be what works best.

Add a loop of ribbon at the top for hanging and then hot glue the dried orange to the bottom of the ribbon so it hangs on the inside of your wreath.

Again, I just secured these wreaths with scotch tape to the inside top of my hutch door. They are so lightweight that the tape works just fine. Another great hack for hanging a wreath would be a small upside down command hook on inside of your cabinet door. You can hang decorations there all year round and have no damage when removing the hook later!

Tips for Decorating with Dried Oranges

• I found the dried orange to function almost as neutral because their orange tone is so muted once dried. So don’t be afraid to add them to spaces where you might normally think that the color orange would be too much! They might add the perfect Christmas touch!
• Really do try to use a serrated knife if you can when slicing the oranges. This will ensure you don’t squash the beautiful round shape of the orange and will give you more control.
• Dried oranges look beautiful just in a bowl! Consider using a white stoneware bowl to make the oranges pop against the white. Add cinnamon sticks, or sprinkle in cloves, add a sprig of fresh rosemary or cedar for a beautiful and fragrant (AND CHEAP) Christmas display.
• Try using your dried oranges as a vase filler! Again, adding in cinnamon sticks, cloves, and greenery would be beautiful.
• Cut your cost even more and check your local add to see which store in your area might have oranges on sale that week. Oranges are in season and often on sale this time of year. If you see oranges on major sale, maybe this is the week for you to make that dried orange garland you can’t get out off your mind!

Well there you have it! I hope this post showed you how simple it can be to dry oranges and add a handmade touch to your Christmas decor! It’s a fun family craft and such an easy way to DIY.

I just love having personal and handmade touches in my christmas decor. It makes me feel so cozy!

So what do you think? Will you give it a try? I’d love to hear which project speaks to you the most in the comments below!

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you found inspiration with this simple way to add a beautiful, handmade touch to the Christmas traditions in your home.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Emma

Pin for later