Dried Orange Garland

Christmas is one of the most glorious times to decorate your home, and the greatest news is, you can do this spending very little money. One way I enjoy decorating my home for the holidays, and enjoy spending very little chash-ola while doing so, is by making my own natural garlands.

Natural garlands are my absolute favorite thing to decorate with for Christmas, and not just because I’m a tight wad. Natural seasonal decor brings that wintry cozy feeling to my home without being overwhelming. I skip the candy bright colors that go out of style December, 26th.

An Inexpensive and Festive Garland

The garland that I want to tutorial here, is made of dried oranges. You can pick up a sack of oranges at any grocery store this time of year, for a few bucks. Mine cost less than $4.00.

Materials

Sack of oranges

String or Ribbon

Hot Glue or Needle

Sharp Knife or Mandolin

Cut and Dried Oranges

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, then slice your oranges. Try to keep your slices about ⅛ of an inch thick and no more than ¼ of an inch. Use a sharp knife to do this or save yourself a lot of time, and use a mandolin if you have one.

Discard the end pieces, or save them to throw into a simmering pot of apple cider.

Dab your orange slices dry with a paper towel or dishcloth, then lay them out on a large and lightly greased cookie sheet. Make sure you don’t overlap your slices.

If you really want to maintain that bright orange color, place a cooling rack on your cookie sheet and bake your slices on that. Placing the slices directly on your cookie sheet will deepen the color a little.

Bake your slices at 200 degrees, turning every 30 minutes. This will keep your oranges from browning on one side, so don’t skip this step. Continue baking until your slices feel dry. Baking time will depend on how thick you slice your orange, but should take around three hours.

String Your Garland

Once your oranges are dry, you are ready to make them into a garland.

Lay out your string or ribbon and glue/thread your dried orange slices every couple of inches to create your beautiful natural garland. I used a needle and thread and found this to be a pretty quick way to create this garland.

Add Extras

At the last minute, I decided to add some fresh cranberries as well. I kept my oranges in place by tying the thread to the first and last orange slices on my garland. Also, I found it easiest to work with shorter lengths of thread. Then you can either tie them together, or add them to your tree to look like one continuous garland.

Enjoy and merry Christmas!