As someone who thoroughly enjoys any excuse to decorate (I blame my interior designer mother), decorating a Christmas tree has always been one of my favorite holiday traditions. We don’t have space in our small apartment to store many Christmas decorations, let alone a collection of ornaments, so this year I used DIY Christmas ornaments made from dried citrus slices.
These are super simple to make, inexpensive, all natural, and compostable! Guilt-free holiday decorating at its finest. Read on for the how-to.
Place thinly sliced citrus fruit flat on a baking sheet. I used an orange, a lemon, and a lime.
Place the baking sheet in the oven at 175 degrees. Set a timer to flip the slices over every hour – otherwise they will curl up on the sides. You will know they are done when they no longer feel sticky or wet to the touch.
The lemons and limes will dry out more quickly than the oranges, it took about 3-4 hours for all of the fruit in this batch to completely dry out.
I used a bobby pin as a needle to thread twine through the top edge of each citrus slice. I tied the twine in a knot and voila – Christmas ornaments!
We knew we would be traveling on Christmas so instead of investing in a tree (we don’t have room to store a fake tree in our apartment), we decided to decorate this vase of greenery instead. Less wasteful than buying a tree, but still festive!
And if you’re in search of low-waste and sustainable gift ideas to put under your eco-friendly Christmas tree, look no further:
- Zero Waste Gift Guide
- Recycled Gift Wrap
- 2018 Sustainable Gift Guide
- 2019 Sustainable Gift Guide
- Ways to Create an Eco-Friendly Christmas Holiday
How are imported citrus fruits, dried in the oven for 3-4 hours, sustainable? What about decorating with empty walnut shells (where you actually ate the content) or fir cones?
All good options – I live in Southern California where local citrus fruit is readily available this time of year and can be composted after we are finished! With that said, if walnuts or fir cones are readily available locally where you are (zero pinecones in my neighborhood!) then those are fantastic ideas for tree decor 🙂
These are so pretty! Do they smell good too?
They do as you dry them! But once dried they aren’t as fragrant.