Keeping yourself busy and happy during Lockdown isn’t easy. However, Christmas is not long away and it’ll soon by time to put up all the decorations. Why not kill two birds with one stone and make some, or all of these easy natural Christmas decorations?
Dried Apple Christmas Wreath
This is incredibly easy natural Christmas decoration to make, but so effective. All you will need is:
- A wreath base
- Spray snow,
- Dried apple slices
- A lemon and a pinch of salt
- Some pretty ribbon
- A glue gun.
You can buy the dried red apple slices online, but they are simple to make. First of all, make a lemon and salt solution by squeezing the juice of the lemon into a container, then add the salt.
Just take five or six apples and cut horizontally into 5mm thick slices. Use a sharp knife and be careful of your fingers. You need full slices, so I discarded the top and bottom of each. Dip each slice, once cut, into the lemon and salt solution for a few minutes. This helps to stop them discolouring and going brown.
Line two baking trays with parchment. Then, place the slices on the parchment slightly apart from each other and put into a pre-heated oven at 120 degrees Celsius, gas mark 2-3. Leave them in the oven for one hour and then turn all the slices over. This is important as, first of all you want the slices to dry out evenly, but secondly, you need them to be as flat as possible.
Return the apples to the oven once turned for another hour. After that, leave them for a further four hours, checking and turning them if they start to curl up. You must make sure that the drying process is complete while the oven is still on. They will not continue to dry once it is turned off. When you think your slices are completely dry, turn off the oven, but leave the apples inside to cool.
Now, the fun part! Plug in your glue gun and turn it on. Whilst it’s heating up, take your can of spray snow and apply it liberally to your wreath. I used newspaper underneath the wreath to protect my worktop. Leave the wreath to dry.
Dab a little hot glue in the centre of one side of each apple slice and place on your snowy wreath wherever you like. Keep going till you have the desired effect. Allow to cool. Attach a festive ribbon of your choice to the bottom of your wreath using florist’s wire or garden wire. Hang upon your Yuletide door and away you go!
Christmas Terrarium
I’m slightly in love with plants inside a glass container. There’s something magical and intriguing about placing a prized plant inside a terrarium. It immediately makes it special, singles it out for all to see. It can be viewed from all angles, on display like a delicate rare species, there to be admired and gazed at with wonder!
They are so easy to make too! You don’t need a fancy glass box like mine. A vase or storm lantern would do just fine, anything that has clear glass walls. If you do want something more like mine, I bought it from Culinary Concepts London.
Choose a plant that’s Christmassy to place inside your terrarium. I chose a small white cyclamen. Remember not to buy a plant that’s too large for the receptacle. You don’t want it to look like you’ve stuffed everything in there! Why not choose a mini white rose, or a Poinsettia, Hyacinth or even Lily of The Valley.
Buy some moss from you local florist, this amount was just a few pounds. If you’re lucky, then you may have moss growing naturally in a shady part of your lawn. It doesn’t have to be in one piece like the one above. You are going to tear it up to fit around your bulbs.
Take your moss and gradually line inside the container until it’s higher than the pot you want to place inside. Then take a small plastic bag and either put the pot inside it first or just place the bag by itself in the middle of your moss wall. You can cut the bag to size so you don’t have too much showing at the top, or just push the top of the bag down below the moss. Then place the plant and pot inside if you haven’t done so already. Finally, just add more moss around the edges to hide any bag that can be seen. That’s it! Your very own Christmas Terrarium!
Scandi Christmas Hanging Garland
This is my favourite homemade Christmas decoration this year. I’m totally in love with Scandinavian simplicity at the moment. We’ve just bought a deckhouse on the harbour in Emsworth, U.K and we’re going for a very Scandi-inspired look inside.
All you need is a branch or a piece of driftwood, as I have, about 60cm long. Three larger Christmas baubles and two smaller ones. I’ve used glass ornaments from One World. Buy some green gardening string and go foraging wherever you can for some festive foliage, such as Yew, Ivy or Fir.
Cut a length of string that will give you about 40cm from the centre of the branch to your hanging hook. Tie the string securely around each end of your branch or driftwood. Then cut three lengths of string, about 35cm and tie one to each of the larger Christmas baubles. Then, tie the other end of each string to your branch, two at either end and one in the centre. Finally, do the same with the two smaller baubles, but only make them about 25cm long. Hang your garland wherever you wish and decorate the branch with yew and ivy cuttings.
Easy peasy Natural Christmas Garland
I’m going to finish with the easiest natural Christmas decoration ever! If you can’t make this then I’m afraid you are devoid of creativity on every level and I’m very sorry for your inadequacy! Only kidding – not!
First of all, go foraging for Christmassy foliage. I couldn’t find any Eucalyptus, so I bought some from my local fabulous florists Citrus Flowers Emsworth.
Then, all you need is a length of ribbon about a metre or so long. I used white ribbon. This can either be placed along your mantlepiece or on a wall. Secure each end of the ribbon onto your mantle using drawing pins. I used white ones and hid them with the ribbon overhang. Make sure you have enough so that the ribbon is not tight on the mantle, a shallow dip is good. Obviously, if you have a very wide mantlepiece then cut a longer length of ribbon.
Take your foraged cuttings and hang them upside down on your ribbon length, using the natural V shape of the inverted branches. Keep going till it’s quite full, making sure you place the different types of cuttings evenly. That’s it! An almost instant natural Scandinavian style Christmas decoration and the scent will be amazing too!
