Before purchasing anything new for your holiday ornament collection, consider these eco-friendly Christmas decor ideas. Time to “Deck the Halls!”
It’s the week after American Thanksgiving, and most of us are still in a food coma, swimming in leftovers. We start to shift gears into putting up Christmas decorations while listening to our favorite holiday tunes. Though, let’s be real, some of you have been listening to Christmas music for months (you know who you are!).
Now if you’re feeling a bit more like Charlie Brown when he says, “I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel,” then I’d invite you to look for ways to make your holiday season more meaningful. Maybe it’s delving deeper into your faith tradition, spending time with family, or committing to making better environmental decisions.
Most of us probably have a box (or two or three) of Christmas decorations waiting to be put up. But, before purchasing anything new for your collection, consider some of eco friendly Christmas decor instead. It’s time to “Deck the Halls” with ornaments that will be meaningful for you and make the earth sing for joy!
Homemade Eco-Friendly Christmas Decor
Have you considered the homemade route? And I’m not just talking about those paper chains you made as a kid. There is so much you can do with fruit! Making cranberry and orange garlands is an old tradition that has been cast aside. While they are time-consuming to make, it is a fun holiday activity that yields beautiful, earth-friendly decorations. Check out some of the ideas I came up with this year using citrus fruit, cranberries, and twine.
Drying Citrus Fruit
For the projects I made this year, I dried four oranges, half a grapefruit, and a few slices of lemon. You’ll want to pre-heat your oven to 220 degrees Fahrenheit and start slicing. I found that a few of my slices were a bit too thick, so I would recommend keeping them to about 1/4 of an inch thick. However, if you make them too thin, they might turn brown or crack.
Make sure to cover all baking trays in parchment paper, so that there is no sticking. Speaking of sticking, time to stick your citrus fruit in the oven! They’ll need to bake for three hours, and you’ll want to check every thirty minutes to flip them. Some of your slices will be smaller than others, so they may need to come out of the oven sooner. Get ready to enjoy the smell of the citrus baking. It’s amazing! Once the three hours is up, let them cool a little bit. Make sure the fruit is still a little sticky, so that a needle can go through it.
A Note on Composting
I’m sure there will be ends and bits of the fruit that you don’t dry. Make sure you dispose of them well! I chose to clean my whole kitchen with the pieces of the fruit I didn’t dry. Citrus is a wonderful cleaning agent and smells great too. After that, I composted them.
Now, let’s jump into all the fun and fruity creations you can make with these dried citrus slices!
Wall Hanging
Reminiscent of a Native American dreamcatcher, this wall hanging may be my favorite eco friendly Christmas decor creation this year. My husband had a piece of wood lying around from another project he had been working on that was perfect for the top of this piece. You could just as easily pick up a nice branch from outside since that would work well too.
Step 1. Nail or tie twine for hanging the piece on the wall. I had a slightly stronger and thicker twine that I used for hanging and then kitchen twine for stringing. We chose to hammer one nail on either side of the branch to tie the twine to.
Step 2. Decide on a pattern. I found that it was easiest to line up the fruit in advance, so that I didn’t get confused when I started stringing it. You can do any pattern you want!
Step 3. String the fruit. You’ll need a needle with a larger eye (i.e. embroidery needle) to get the twine through it.
Step 4. Make sure you double knot the bottom well and leave enough string at the top to loop it over the piece of wood to tie it.
Step 5. Hang it up on the wall and enjoy!
Garland
I appreciate the simple beauty of a traditional cranberry and orange garland. However, it does take a lot of kitchen twine and some patience. I really wanted to hang a garland across our apartment window, so I measured the window and started stringing!
I went with a pattern of twelve cranberries to one dried orange on the garland with a pretty grapefruit piece for the center. In reality, you could experiment with a different pattern every year, and I’m sure each unique creation will turn out beautifully.
These fruit garlands are incredibly versatile. They can wrap around a tree, go over a mantle, and they look fantastic mixed with a pine garland. Unfortunately, pine makes me pretty sneezy, so I’ll admire it at a distance!
The Leftovers
After the garland and the wall hanging, I had quite a few leftover dried orange slices and almost an entire bag of cranberries. I was pretty tired of stabbing my fingers with the needle, so I chose to go an easier route with the remaining fruit.
Orange slices really spruce up the look of a Christmas tree, so I whipped up a couple of ornaments by tying a piece of decorative twine through each orange slice. I finished by pouring the rest of the cranberries into a decorative candle holder.
All in all, the living room feels warm and festive. I guess the battle wounds on my fingers are worth it after all!
If You Must Buy…
Last year, I was in two shows simultaneously during the holiday season, and I was too busy playing an elf to get crafty with my Christmas decorations. All this to say, I understand if you are looking for a simpler answer then stringing fruit for hours. We live in a time when consumerism is exploited and even encouraged, but there are many businesses that deserve our support. Here are a couple of earth-friendly principles I stick to if I need to buy decorations from a store:
- Buy from a small or local business
- Check out decorations from a Fair-trade company like Ten Thousand Villages
- Avoid plastic decorations and go for sustainable alternatives like glass or wood
- And I’ll say it again: Repurpose what is already out there! Secondhand shopping is much better for the environment.
Secondhand Solutions for Eco-Friendly Christmas Decor
Christmas is an over-the-top season. It seems like every Christmas comedy features two houses at war over who can have more outlandish Christmas displays. Of course, most of us don’t live that way, but I want to emphasize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a reasonable number of Christmas decorations. Not everything needs to be new, however, especially when there are perfectly good hand-me-down and pre-owned options.
Why create more waste when the world is already drowning in cast-off plastic Rudolphs? If you’re young or don’t have a collection yet, here are a few things I would encourage:
- Search your local thrift stores for decorations (trust me, they will have them!)
- Look at online thrifting options like Facebook Marketplace.
- Check to see if relatives or older friends have decorations they no longer use
Happy Decorating!
I always look forward to drinking hot cocoa, watching my first Christmas movie, and decorating our apartment every year. I hope these eco-friendly Christmas decor ideas give you some festive inspiration. Being completely real, my childlike spirit gets so excited to decorate for the season, but I always dread the clean-up after the holidays.
Eco-Friendly Christmas Decor Clean-Up
Though I’m going to put off thinking about that for a bit, I want to pass along a little tip for those of you who do decide to go the fruity decoration route. Make sure you dispose of them properly after the holidays. The dried citrus can easily last more than one holiday season, so you could save some for next year. The cranberries, on the other hand, must go. Feed them to the birds or add them to your compost!
For all you Charlie Browns out there, remember that he saw potential in the smallest of trees! If you, like me, live in a tiny space with few dollars in your pocket, your home can still be both beautiful and eco-friendly. So, let’s fill out hearts and our homes with good things this holiday season.
Be Well. With Love.
Rae helman says
Hi Maggie, what a great site. I’m trying this. Are their other fruits that can be dried?
Maggie says
Hi Rae! Thank you so much. I’m glad you are enjoying it! Although I only dried grapefruit, oranges, and lemons for this, I’ve seen similar decorations that use dried apples and pears. I assume they would work just as well!
~ Maggie 🙂
merridee benham says
Maggie, I don’t know how you do it; that creativity gene passed me by; love what you have done to bring the spirit of the season into your home.
Maggie says
Your house is always lovely, and you certainly play piano with great creativity! Much love to you.
~ Maggie 🙂