I don’t know about you, but every year I see beautiful, old fashioned Christmas decorations and think my home would look so beautiful like that. Think cinnamon ornaments, the glow from candle sticks, real pine branches decorating the mantle. This year, I said that’s it! I am making a DIY orange garland for simple old fashioned Christmas decorations, and I’m sharing how I do it with you guys!
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DIY Orange Garland
Over the years, I’ve grown to the love simple decorations.
I enjoy handmade, or thought out gifts rather than spending the money on mass produced products that will be out of style the next season.
Last year we made handmade dough ornaments and the kids painted them to give as gifts.
More handmade gifts we’ve given in the past was this Simple Rosemary and Orange Infused Olive Oil and this Homemade Lemon Lavender Sugar Scrub.
This year we made old fashioned dried orange garland to decorate our home and I absolutely love how it turned out!
Here’s what were using:
- 3 pounds of navel oranges – use however many you want this is just what I bought from our local grocery
- Twine
- Dehydrator – optional, can also use the oven at low heat
- Skewers – just needs a pointy end to push through the orange
- Scissors
Here’s what we did:
I started by slicing the oranges into half inch slices and I laid them flat on the dehydrator trays.
Then, I dehydrated them at 135 degrees for 15 hours. I originally did only 10 hours but they weren’t as dried as I had hoped. So another 5 hours and they turned out perfect.
Be sure to slice your oranges to a half inch or thinner so that they wont take more time to dry. I had a couple thicker ones and they weren’t completely dried all the way.
I absolutely loved using my dehydrator for this project as it was super simple to use and took the guess work out for me by not having to constantly check how dried the oranges were.
If you don’t have a dehydrator, set your oven to the lowest heat setting, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place orange slices onto the tray. Leave the oven cracked and monitor the orange slices so they do not burn. Remove once they have dried completely.
Stringing the Dried Oranges
To string the dried oranges, we took cake pop skewers with a pointy end and carefully pushed it through the front side of top of the oranges. Then push through the back side of the orange.
Then place the twine through, guide it through the front and then the back, this way the twine is hiding on the backside of the orange.
Repeat this process until you have your desired length of garland.
Adding Decorations
I have seen so many different items added to these DIY orange garlands.
Dried cranberries seem to be a hit with the oranges and are so festive in color!
Adding cinnamon dough ornaments in star shapes is a really cute idea.
The idea of real pine branches with this simple orange garland added seems so rustic and dreamy! Hang it along your staircase, mantle, or windows. Sooo dreamy!
I absolutely love how this DIY orange garland turned out! I strung some up in my kitchen windows and I think it looks perfect up against the snowy backdrop!
Don’t mind my sad garden, it will be gorgeous again once summer returns.
I also strung some up around the artificial garland I had draped over the mantle in the living room. I adore the orange against the dark green, giving such a pop of color and a slight scent of citrus.
