DIY Orange Star Handmade Christmas Decorations
We’ve well and truly thrown ourselves into the Christmas spirit here! The tree went up at the weekend, we’ve made DIY dried orange tree decorations. We’ve watched Polar Express, we’ve drunk mulled wine, been to our Church’s Carol Concert, been to the school’s Christmas concerts, the only thing I haven’t done is had my first mince pie. We’re nearly sorted on the present front but nothing has been wrapped yet!! Oh……and the Elves arrived….but more on them in another post. Busy, busy, busy. I love making handmade Christmas Decorations every year and this year we decided to try our hand at making traditional orange slices to create nature inspired Orange Star Christmas Tree Decorations. You can see more ideas for Nature Inspired Christmas Decorations that kids can make here.
Putting up our tree was really lovely this year, with the older ones able to get fully involved and the littlest not old enough yet to ruin their efforts! We only had one smashed bauble this year (rolls eyes). I’m pretty pleased with the handmade decorations I put together this year, the first I shared last week and this week- we’ve been all about …… oranges.
I was inspired by @simpleandseason to give drying oranges a whirl but my goodness it’s far more tricky then it looks! See below for how we dried our oranges.
Handmade Nature Inspired Christmas Tree Decorations
As well as our Handmade Orange Star Christmas Tree Decorations, if you’d like to make some other Nature Inspired Tree Decorations – see here for our easy peasy Nature Tree Decorations or our Beautiful glass Nature Tree Baubles. If you’d like some ideas for easy Christmas Crafts for Kids – these lolly stick crafts are simple enough for kids to make on their own. I also love the kids making their own clay Fingerprint Christmas Tree Decorations – they look so sweet hanging on the Christmas Tree! For more decorations that you can hang on the tree – how cute are these edible stained glass window biscuits?
How to Dry Orange Slices in the Oven
I’d like to blame my failed efforts (the first two oranges) on my not-a-proper-oven (we’re living with a convection oven while we wait for our kitchen extension to begin) but I’m not sure it was my poor oven’s fault but more a case of getting the thickness of the oranges right. They’ve got to be thick enough so they don’t snap and thin enough so they actually bake!!
Drying oranges for Christmas is guaranteed to put me in a festive mood and it makes your house smell delicious and Christmassy. Slice your oranges into 1-2cm slices, pat them dry to get off all the excess juice and pop them into a low oven (120°C) for about three hours. Make sure you turn them every half hour or so and the best thing to do is to bake them on a metal cooling rack over a baking tray so the air can circulate around them easily and they don’t burn or stick.
Anyway, they’re pretty and smell delicious when done. I added some stars cut out of this paper bark and added some twine to hang!
If you’ve been making your own handmade christmas decorations this year, I’d love to see them! An easier version of these are to buy the dried orange slices, if you’re lacking in time.
Family Countdown to Christmas Advent Calendar
If you’re looking to discover a way to connect with your family this Christmas, to bring back the joy of celebration without the trappings of materialism and sprinkle some seasonal sparkle over your Christmas – then you’ll like my 24 fun little ideas to celebrate the Countdown to Christmas together as a family. Make this holiday season memorable and fun with this great Christmas Activities Countdown Calendar for Families printable. Enjoy doing a Christmas activity each day, counting all the way down to Christmas.
