Nothing sets me to humming caroles and hanging mistletoe more than that holiday fragrance of pine, cinnamon, cloves and citrus.Mmmm!
In the process of making some holiday potpourri, my girls and I came up with the bright idea to transform dehydrated orange slices into natural ornaments. Poking a few whole cloves into the slice really upped its’ scents-ability! Be sure to do your poking before dehydrating. We also cut some oranges in half, removed the pulp and sliced them from the top of the edge down to the center to look like sunny orange flowers!
When it comes to the drying, you can’t beat a dehydrator. The screened racks allow good airflow so everything dries uniformly and the color is preserved. Alternatively, you can also dry thinly sliced orange slices in your oven at a low temperature – about 175 to 200 degrees. To avoid later spoilage, leave the slices in the oven or dehydrator until they’re crispy/dry and translucent in the pulp area.
Our sunny citrus ornaments sure look festive tied on the tree with a short length of rafia and I can’t even begin to describe the deliciously spicy and citrusy scent that wafted through the house as they dried.
These went right on the tree with our Cinnamon Spice Ornaments from last year. And yes, those continue to smell just as wonderful as they originally did!
I’ve made cinnamon ornaments with the kids 12 years ago and most are still great. The few we lost were just very thin. When packing these, place them into a airtight container to maintain the smell. If you want to boost the smell either add a drop or 3 of essential oil to several of the ornaments or add 10-15 drops to a cotton ball and place them all into an airtight container for 12 hours or longer. You can do this with potpourri as well.. This permeates the smells through all of the ornaments.
Essential oils to consider: cinnamon, clove, ginger, orange/mandarin, pine, spruce, frankincense, myrrh, rosemary, sage, black pepper. See what you can find and good luck.