DIY: Orange Garlands for Solstice or Christmas

Stars are a beautiful symbol, aren't they? There is magic in sitting out on the earth (especially with a child), staring up at the night sky. I experience an expansiveness that transcends my human-ness when I spend time with the stars. They capture the imagination of my little ones equally, and are often one of the first things my children learn to draw.

This simple project will capture your imagination too, and is equally useful for decorating at Christmas time, Winter or Summer Solstice, or anytime you need a little more starlight in your life really!

I've stumbled upon something this year. We haven't got around to "preparing" for Christmas until the day before Christmas Eve. We had some half-hearted attempts at our usual advent calendar and the Waldorf/Steiner four Sundays of Advent tradition, which were quickly scuttled by our cats (for the physical centrepieces and candles and such) and by our busyness and overwhelm. So we surrendered, and it felt so good. 

Frankly, all of the end of year events with three classes, pre-school, Scouts were enough to keep us at full capacity. And then the holidays started-- and there was space. Space to swim in the ocean. Space for picnics. Space to get the house cleaned up (yes!). Space to do some gardening. Space for spontaneous play dates and sleepovers and writing and walks in the rainforest. And it has been amazing, a week or two between the flurried rush of end-of-the-school-year and Christmas Day. (Admittedly, I did get all the Christmas shopping done before the end of term, thanks to a little online shopping here and there throughout the year- another strategy I highly recommend!)

As much as I would love to embrace so many things at this time of year- Summer Solstice,  a nature activity based advent calendar, hand making gifts for family and teachers and such... it just isn't sustainable this year. We will even stay home this year and not travel to family- which rarely happens.

And so it's Christmas Eve, and we are yet to put up a tree! And we all feel okay about that, because in surrendering the to-do list, we have found so much more time for spontaneity and connection, which feels completely aligned with these long, hot summer days.

I also have discovered that Christmas has become more exciting and enjoyable for me this year when it becomes a few days of festivities, rather than a whole month of events and drama and preparation and perfectionism. Yesterday, we made garlands, watched a special movie, ran out of time to put up the tree, and went for a Christmas light drive. Today we are cooking and wrapping presents, and probably still have plenty of time for a swim and nature play.

Making an Orange Garland

This is a fantastic family project that incorporates simplicity, the natural world and craft to create a pretty decoration that can be used for Christmas or Solstice, or just a lovely earthy boho vibe. It is low cost (I didn't need to buy anything as I had all the things around the house already) and can be done in an hour or so, or the steps strung out through the day.

It's also a great alternative to more environmentally harmful decorations such as tinsel, as it is biodegradable and is made from food waste- a double win (and yes, we did enjoy our orange juice squeezed by our five year old for breakfast!).

Equipment and Materials

• Orange peel- we used three or four oranges, and this yielded enough stars for a garland about a metre and a half long
• Chopping Board
• Knife (for cutting oranges)
• Small metal star shaped cookie cutter
• Small Mallet (for pushing the cookie cutter down onto the orange peel)
• Skewer (for making holes for threading)
• Baking paper
• Oven tray
• Embroidery Thread (I used 6 stranded purple thread, because that's what I had lying around and it gave a nice contrast-- but I reckon gold or silver would look lovely and festive too)
• Tapestry Needle
• Scissors

Steps

1. Peel your oranges, in a way that gives you as much intact peel as possible- you will get more stars this way! Get as much pith from the back of the peel off as possible, this will make drying quicker and is a lot less fiddly than removing the pith from individual stars.

2. Press the cookie cutter down on the orange peel (pith side up). Use the mallet if needed to get through the peel. 

3. Use the skewer to make a hole in one point in each star. The peel will shrink a little with drying, so make the hole a little bigger than the size of your thread.

4. Preheat your oven. Lay baking paper on your oven tray and lay out all your little stars so they have their own space and don't touch

5. Now this is when you need to use a little intuition and initiative. Place the oven tray in the oven until the little stars are dried. I put mine on at about 70 degrees Celsius for five or ten minutes at a go. I turned them once or twice. You will need to keep a close eye on yours, depending on your oven and the juiciness of the orange peel!

6. Once you are happy with their dryness, let them cool. 

7. One they are cool, cut your thread to your desired garland length plus an extra little bit to allow for loops. Tie a loop on one end and thread the needle at the other. 

8. Thread your first star.

9. Loop the thread around and go through the hole one more time- this will keep the stars in place and prevent them from slipping.

10. Continue threading stars along the garland. I used a spacing of about my pinkie finger between.

11. One you have filled your string, tie off the end with the same looped knot as you started with.

A Family Project

This is a great project that all the family can work on together.

My five year old helped cut out the stars, arranged the baking paper and stars on the tray, juiced the oranges and sewed on a few stars.

My ten year old cut the peel, cut out stars, put the stars in the oven and helped check and turn them, and sewed on stars.

...And my two year old brought us oranges from the fruit bowl, chose and handed us the next star to sew on... and threw lots of stars on the ground, tried to grab scissors, and was very enthusiastic about having cuddles at inconvenient moments!

Now go and decorate!

This is the fun part- where are you going to hang your garland? On your Christmas tree (or a pot plant that needs a little lightening up)? On the bathroom mirror? Over a door? Along a windowsill?

I'd love to see your pictures of this project! I am wondering what else could be used- lemon peels for gorgeous yellow stars? What other food waste could be turned into beautiful bunting? What's your ideas?