Christmas according to nature

Garland with natural elements

In ancient times, dried fruits, berries and candy ornaments were used to decorate the house and the Christmas tree included: with a view to re-reading of the tradition in key green, here are some ideas to make simple decorations DIY using what nature gives us every day.

The wreath to hang on the door or to use as a centerpiece, perhaps enhanced by scented candles, is undoubtedly the most characteristic of the Christmas decorations.

The first thing to do is a walk in a park: most of the raw materials needed for this project are all there. Gather therefore pinecones and some dry twigs, using the method that you will find described in the next paragraph, 25 dried orange slices.

Get a cardboard which will constitute the support of your wreath and therefore must be fairly thick and resistant: for example, the one coming from packaging boxes will be fine.
Spread it on the work surface and, using the form a flat plate and a dessert, draw two concentric circles to cut in such a way as to obtain the circular template on which will be glued the decorations, according to the measures indicated in the illustration.

With the hot glue gun, glue on the cardboard dried orange slices: fix them for good, pasting them both with each other on that template, otherwise the whole decoration risks losing the round, or worse, unstuck altogether.

On the bottom of the wreath, above the skins, glue the pinecones and enrich them with raffia or star anise: on top, however, you could arrange a nice red bow or, even better, jute.



If you really can not do without the Christmas centerpiece but have little time to make it happen, with the same process used for the wreath, make a cardboard template, using the form of a flat bottom is facing the center where you will place the candle and Christmas stuck in a circle of pine cones and holly sprigs. Rest your composition on a plate in accordance with the colors of your table.

Decorate with natural elements

That's a nice idea to make cool decorations to use for the tree or create original placeholders using citrus peels and dried orange slices.

You don't know the procedure to dry them?
It is very simple: just cut the orange into slices the thickness of about 5 millimeters and leave them on a double layer of paper towels, to do so they lose some of their juice.

Place your slices on the oven, covered by a sheet of baking paper: turn it up to a temperature of about 100 degrees.
It will take about three hours to dry the oranges: the advice is to leave the oven door slightly open so that you can control the level of drying and prevent the slices from becoming too dark.

As for drying the skins of citrus fruits in general, it will be enough to put them on the radiator preheated in this way you will also have the ability to naturally scent the environment.

Once dry, the skins can be cut into the desired shape.

An original idea and dismissive to decorate the Christmas table? Get yourself some good mandarins with a regular form and proceed to decorate them taking a cue from the photo.

You may tie them up with ribbons, as if each were a little thought Christmas, with the ribbon or raffia or you could decorate them using the cloves to be fixed on the skin or in the fruit cut in half. You will surely be appreciated for your creativity.

When I can, I try to offer quick solutions, and economic effect and I think this is one of those.
Get yourself a beautiful vase in clear glass, between 25 and 30 cm high for a diameter of about 15 cm: it could be also one of those cans of food in which are preserved sugar or coffee, for instance.

Steal from your Christmas tree two or three scoops of medium size and of the same color - the colors trend for this year are white and silver that would be ideal - and arrange them on the bottom of the pot: this is the bottom of your plant.

The essence shown in the image is a branch of box but nothing prevents you to choose different plants, to our taste: holly, rosemary, myrtle or some other aromatic plant might be suitable.