My Favorite Holiday Decor Comes From the Grocery Store (a Diy for Anyone!)

For anyone who just read that title and thought “ha, yeah I’m not making anything,” let me tell you this: I am the laziest DIYer that ever did exist and you likely know that if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time. Specifically, I’m not much of a crafter. As someone who grew up constantly bedecked in barrettes made out of balloons and shrinky dinking everything in sight with my art teacher mother, grown Arlyn prefers to simply buy something. DIY renovation is one thing; DIY crafting…I always end up spending a ton of money and paired up with my inability to cross the finish line on anything I start, it’s just not a good combo for me.

HOWEVER, two years ago, I styled my living and dining rooms for Christmas for the first time since moving in and when I stepped back and looked at it all, it felt a little flat. I’ve long been enamored of dreamy English cottages festooned in holiday cheer, and something they all always had in common was dried oranges.

I know what you’re thinking. “But you said you don’t do DIYs because you’re a lazy bum!” Correct, friends! This is exactly why I’m sharing this really easy ornament tip, because I actually did it, found it was very easy, and then repeated it again last year. I’m impressed with myself, clearly.

All it took was some twine, a bag of navel oranges, parchment paper (or silicone mats), and an oven. While I know there is no shortage of dried orange DIYs on the internet, I figured, let me just add another one because it doesn’t actually include any of the real DIY steps but rather a link out to some…but it does have pretty photos!

This is the tutorial I used from A Beautiful Mess. They used metal ornament hangers which would have been way easier than the route I took for the orange slices I ended up hanging: Piercing the sticky flesh with a pen (and eyebrow tweezers when necessary) and stringing red and white twine through. Hot tip: watch those slices like a hawk in the last hour or so. They burn very fast. Another hot tip: spray the finished product with hair spray or something to “seal” them if you want to prevent any ants or the like being lured by the sugar of the fruit.

I hung mine on the tree—they are so beautiful and glowing when the light shines through them—and then sprinkled what was leftover on the garland draped over my dining room table. It brought everything to life and gave it an old-world vibe I really like.

Here’s the finished product (photos from my holiday reveal two years ago from Style by Emily Henderson):

Want to know the BEST part? Nope, it’s not the fact that a whole heap of these costs about $5. The satisfaction of a job well done? Uh uh, not that either. The absolute, hands-down hallelujah moment of these is that when it comes time to get rid of the tree (well…a real tree, this isn’t really a highlight for faux trees), you can just LEAVE THEM ON THE TREE. Granted, I may get a bunch of comments here like “you can’t do that if you’re recycling it” or something along those lines, but also, oranges are natural! They can’t go in a wood chipper?? Perhaps I should do more research before proclaiming this, sorry.

So, there you have it. The only holiday decorating post you’ll get out of my this year. If you have kids, this is definitely a fun little project to do, and if you don’t, it’s also a fun little project to do. When I was stringing up the dried orange slices, I slapped on a holiday movie and enjoyed the heck out of how festive I felt.

See you tomorrow, FOAS!