How to Dry Orange Slices For Christmas Decorations

How to Dry Orange Slices in the Oven for Christmas decorations. This easy method of how to dry oranges slices will leave your kitchen smelling delicious.

Making dried orange slices for Christmas decorations gives a simple and fragrant touch to your home. Our Christmas decor is a beautiful mix of rustic farmhouse meets a Nordic Scandinavian Christmas. Bringing natural elements in your home, give a cozy feeling during winter months. Making homemade rustic Christmas decor is a tradition for our family.

Dried Orange Slices For Christmas Decorations

Using real ingredients like oranges slices, cinnamon and pine has filled my home with the natural potpourri scent of Christmas. Making dried orange slices is one of the easiest Christmas decorations you can make. Simply slicing the oranges and baking them, doesn’t get much easier than that.

To incorporate the simplicity of using orange slices as Christmas decorations, we first dry them out in the oven. If you have a dehydrator, then I am jealous 🙂 Dehydrators are awesome and one day I will own one. For now, the oven works perfectly to dry orange slices. It takes several hours, so make sure you will not be needing your oven for dinner. The best part about drying orange slices in your oven, is the delicious smell that takes over your kitchen. The kids and I made these while, my husband brought in the fresh cut pine for our Christmas tree. The lovely smell of pine and citrus was heavenly.

Oranges are a Christmas Tradition

Oranges are very much a part of my family’s Christmas traditions. As a child, I always received an orange in my stocking. I didn’t see anything special about it at the time, because we live in a culture that can get almost anything at the grocery store. It doesn’t matter if it is in season or not. However, when my Mother was a child, getting an orange in your stocking was a much anticipated event. She and her siblings, were so excited for that taste of citrus every Christmas morning. Getting a ripe juicy orange, was a real treat.

My Grandmother told me that during the Great Depression, oranges were hard to come by. We take them for granted now. We have delicious orange juice in the mornings, and can buy them year-round at our local super-market. I love the idea of keeping oranges in our Christmas traditions. It reminds me of a more simpler time, when Christmas was more about spending precious time with your family, instead of the multitude of new gadgets under the tree.

How to Dry Orange Slices in the Oven

1. Wash and dry the oranges.
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Slice oranges into 1/4″ slices.
4. Place orange slices directly on oven rack.
5. Bake for 4-5 hours flipping them every 45 minutes.
6. Let the orange slices cool on a cooling rack.

The art of letting the orange slices dry is slow and steady. DO NOT cook them on a higher temperature, because you will burn them. Burnt orange aroma, is not very appealing. Also, make sure to set a timer to flip them, so they dry evenly.

Check out the video about drying orange slices and using them for crafting 🙂

Ideas for using dried oranges as Christmas decorations are endless. You can make mini-wreaths for your kitchen cabinets as I did. You can fill a mason jar with orange slices and cinnamon sticks for a rustic potpourri display. Garland made from orange slices gives a rustic ambiance to a mantel. Or you could simply just hang each slice on your Christmas tree. Be creative!  I would love to hear about your dried orange slice Christmas decorations in the comments.

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