With the holidays approaching, it is fun to make decorations from dried orange slices. It's pretty easy to do. Most of the time is spent drying the orange slices in the oven. After that you will have fun for weeks because your house will smell like orange. How many slices you need depends on what you want to do with them. The possibilities are endless. For example, it is nice to make pendants for the Christmas tree or in a wreath or as decoration on a gift.What do you need?
- 3-4 oranges
- Needle, twine and scissors
- Baking paper

What should you do?
- Preheat the oven to 100°C and line one or two oven trays with baking paper.
- Cut the oranges into thin slices of 4-5 mm. Don't make it too thick because the thinner the easier and faster the slices can dry.
- Place the orange slices on the oven trays lined with baking paper.
- Pat them dry on both sides with some kitchen paper (carefully without damaging).
Slide the racks into the oven and set the timer for four hours. This allows them to dry slowly at a low temperature. Turn the slices every hour during the drying process, so that they dry well on both sides and retain their beautiful color. After four hours, your house will smell wonderfully of oranges and the slices will be dry enough. If that's not the case yet, let them dry a little longer. Then let the orange slices dry out of the oven overnight.

Punch a hole in the orange peel and thread a string (we use flax string) through it. Hang them on your Christmas tree or use them as decoration in an Advent wreath. For some variation in color, you can also dry other citrus fruits, such as lime or grapefruit.

Christmas garland
Want to make a garland? Before you get started, put all the dried slices next to each other, so that you know approximately how much rope you need. All you need to do now is poke a hole in each disc with a needle or cocktail stick, thread the string through and you're done. Decorate your garland even more with eucalyptus leaves, cinnamon, pine cones, star anise or pine branches. In England, dried orange slices are decorated with cloves for extra fragrance.