Making Dried Fruit Christmas Ornaments

Family life, Holidays, Uncategorized

After dry flip over and do the other side

Back in the olden days people celebrated Christmas with greater simplicity,  gifts and ornaments were generally handmade. Making your own homemade Christmas decorations is a great  family tradition, it’s inexpensive and easy to do. You should start small and work your way up. Just try one grapefruit, orange and apple to begin with and see how you like it.

Making a popcorn string is  probably the cheapest decoration you can make. Buy popcorn kernels in a bag and pop them fashioned on the stove or over a fire. Cranberry Strings are more expensive, I paid $4 for the cranberries this year. But they’re easy to make and beautiful. Turn your classic Christmas music on and begin your tradition.

My bowl of fruit ready to be sliced

I sliced the fruit thin and threw away the ends

Only the center pieces of the apples and pears turn out perfect looking

Some people blanch the fruit before dehydrating it–I tried it, but didn’t notice it being any better than the ones I didn’t blanch

I put all sliced fruit on cookie sheets and then into the oven on 175 degrees

I put parchment paper on a few of the cookie sheets but didn’t notice any difference in outcome

7 hours later they were ready

One of my batches got over baked– you can see the brown ones–flip the fruit once while in oven

Use clear craft varnish or decoupage to lightly cover the dried fruit

After dry flip over and do the other side

They haven’t tried yet however I still poked holes through for the string

Make sure a light is behind the fruit-beautiful at night, like stained glass

The gingerbread people are made of cinnamon-these were made 8 years ago

Popcorn and cranberry strings are simple to make-you only need a needle, thread and a little of time

In years past I used these decorations for a Christmas tree in the dining room-this year for my kitchen window

Photo’s aren’t able to capture all the beauty

 

 

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