How to Make Dried Citrus Christmas Ornaments
These dried orange slices with star anise make the prettiest, natural and fragrant DIY Christmas ornaments for your tree! They’re so simple to make and look like glowing, stained-glass windows!
Pieces: 25 ornaments
Cost: $15
Equipment
- sharp knife
- baking pan with grate
- thred or string
- parchment paper
- glue gun
- tooth picks
- citrus oils - see notes for what I use
Ingredients
- 5 oranges or assorted citrus - thinly sliced
- 25 star anise
Instructions
- Thinly slice citrus into quarter-inch thick slices. Place the slices on parchment paper (or Silpat), and dehydrate them in the oven at 200 F. for 2-4 hours. Smaller, thinner fruits may take only 2 hours, but larger oranges may take up to 4 hours. Be sure to check on them every hour to be sure.
- Remove them from the oven, and be sure to place them on a flat surface to cool. If they’re warm, they may bend if placed in a bowl or on top of each other. Don’t worry if they’re not entirely dry. They’ll continue to dry while hanging on your Christmas tree throughout the month.
- You can use a hot glue gun to attach star anise and smaller citrus to the centers of larger ones, but you can also use a needle and thread to thread them together.
- Use a toothpick to pierce a hole through the tops of the citrus for the hanging string. To make your ornaments smell like Christmas magic, liberally sprinkle a 100% natural orange and/or cinnamon oil onto them in equal parts.
Notes
If you want to store them for later, place them in a container, but don’t cover them with a lid. They may still have some moisture in them, and covering them with a lid can trap that moisture, and they can potentially mold. You want them to air-dry completely.
I use the cinnamon oil from this spice collection from Laguna Moon, and the orange oil from this set. They’re so elegant and naturally derived, not synthetic. I also like to add some of the ginger oil, bergamot, and clove in the spice collection to give the ornaments a bit more of a zing.