Natural xmas home decor, e.g. cinnamon sticks, oranges, pine cones

[CherryPlum]

I'd like to go with a more 'natural' feel to xmas home decor this year but I don't quite know how to go about it. Maybe I could include things like holly (or other foliage?), pine cones, oranges (do I dry them?), cinnamon sticks, can anyone make suggestions as to how I incorporate them into decor? I'm not so good at putting a look together. Could I put things into a glass vase? Do I need to dry things out first? I imagine some of these things would add a lovely scent too.

What I don't want, is to end up with a mouldy orange and curled up old foliage. Any suggestions welcome!

[SnuggyBuggy]

Wreaths and garlands are nice. We used to collect our own stuff for a wreath and leave it to dry on newspaper. I could imagine putting it in a glass vase would make a nice centerpiece.

[CherryPavlova]

If you use orange slices you need to dry the. slowly in a just warm oven.
I do holly sprigs with tartan ribbon for pictures.
I make several wreaths - wire moss onto a frame, bind on greenery. Glue gun or wire nuts, pine cones, cinnamon, star anise, berries, acorns, lavender sprigs, poppy heads etc. I hang acouple with tartan ribbon and others are used as table centrepieces and advent wreath with three purple and one pink candle.
I use huge vases of flowers throughout the house - twigs, greenery, red and white flowers. I have tiny red baubles and miniature white lights I use to glitz them up.
I use artificial garlands topped up with natural bits and pieces for mantles, exposed beams etc. I prefer subtle.
I have home made bunting for modern stirring room beams and kitchen.

[MsHomeSlice]

cinnamon sticks/bark/star anise...go to a chinese/indian supermarket type place, they will have them in bulk and very reasonably priced, you will bankrupt yourself buying fancy cinnamon sticks otherwise.

orange slices...buy BIG oranges, slice thickly and dry out in the oven....you can do the same with whole tangerines, whichever ones do not have the baggy skins, poke cloves in them. The slower you dry them the better the end colour will be.

Try not to set them into the bottom of the warming oven and promptly forget all about them until you have cooked dinners every night for more than a week. They will be turned to carbon. ....BUT if you spray them silver they will last indefinitely. ...I did this with some clove tangerines. :o

twiggy bits....start looking now because as the autumn winds come in branches will fall

ditto pine cones...beaches with dunes/forests or pine type woods can be good for this, and you can dry them too, or bundle them into tall vases/fishbowls with twinkly battery lights.

Bags of nuts still in their shells can be put to good use in vases too

if you get florist wire, you can twist that around the base of the cones, and then attach them to your tree like baubles

I had dried orange slices on one of my trees,.open up a paper clip and just hook one end through the slice and the other on the branch.

I have a cheapo garland thing that I put on the mantle and you only need a few bits of nice real foliage...ivy or holly, or a random buit of conifer and it makes it look much less tat and much more fabulous.

[girlywhirly]

Save yourself a lot of bother and buy cinnamon sticks, pine cones and orange slices from Hobbycraft. Bear in mind that holly will dry out and the leaves shrivel unless the stems are in water, and berries will do the same and drop off. To get around this, you can use a container with wet florists foam to push the ‘fresh’ foliage into, and use florist wire to attach to the other items and push the wire ends into the foam to secure them.

If you have pets of DC at home or visiting, holly berries are poisonous as are mistletoe, so best to get ‘fake’ sprigs of berries.

[Ricekrispie22]

We have thins on our stairs. It's fake so we just get it out every year.

[AmazingGrace16]

That's beautiful for the stairs.

I'm also planning on the more natural stuff this year. How long will orange slices last?

[MsHomeSlice]

forever if you dry them out properly....I did mine a good few years back...I think I did more last year as the previous ones were looking a bit dusty. ...but i just chuck them in a basket and our loft is dusty, if i put them away properly they'd probably be fine.

[Alanamackree]

I do a new batch of orange slices each year. I love the contrast between the new brightly colored ones and the older brown ones.
I dust one side of my slices with clove dust and cinnamon for a stronger smell and I can’t emphasize how slowly you dry them!

Jute twine (cheap brown garden string) looks very well with natural decorations. I tie bundles of cinnamon sticks together and then add an orange slice and maybe a star anise or a cluster of tiny larch cones.

I used to faff about making garlands but last year ended up throwing clippings of pine and fir on the window sills and mantle piece and it was a revelation. It does dry and curl but you can pull those bits out and put in new sprigs. (I have pine in my garden so it’s no bother to renew it which helps) I just scatter pine cones and orange slices, and cinnamon stick bundles and a some big thick pillar candles and it looks lovely.

Hessian also looks well with foliage. Look on you tube for how to cut it without fraying. I’ve made bunting with triangles and just a glue gun and some jute. My bunting came from a tesco shopping bag with a hole in it but you can buy it easily in fabric or craft shops.

In the kitchen I make a rosemary wreath using a cheap wire coat hanger bent into a circle and then wire to hold long sprigs of rosemary. You hide the last bit of wire with each new sprig until you have a whole circle. Don’t worry about getting it perfect. Part of the appeal of this sort of decor is that it’s not.

The front door wreath is my favorite. Instead of using a form I gather up long silver birch twigs (they fall into my garden from next doors tree) and twist them into a generous circle, securing with wire. I hide the wire with a strip of hessian ribbon at the end but this year I have a lovely copper wire so I might leave it showing and try to curl the ends or something (as long as it doesn’t poke into the postman’s eye). Then I poke in lots of bits of greenery - pine, rosemary, bay, whatever’s around. Each plant has different properties and it feels a bit witchy hanging these lovely things on my door protectively

One year I found little latch cones and pressed them into the base of (ikea) candles using a hair drier to soften the wax (not so much that it warps) and holding the top of the candle in a towel so it wouldn’t soften. You have to be very careful as the candle burns lower. A safer option is ordinary jam jars, cleaned and de labeled. They can be wrapped with jute string, add a sprig of holly or an orange slice and pop in a real or fake tea light.

I leave stuff spread out on trays/ paper in the garage for a little while just in case I’ve brought bugs in with them. Some people recommend drying pine cones in the oven to kill the bugs but I don’t like doing that so I just wait a bit and watch. I’ve only had issues once. But it is something to watch.

Allium heads and hydrangea heads can be dried and sprayed silver/gold/copper. There’s a lovely bush/tree that has bright red twigs that are great for arrangements but I can’t remember the name.

I’ve been meaning to make pine cone trees for years but they look lovely piled in a basket. You can get a string of battery operated lights to tuck into them.

I probably sound very competent in this post but in reality I’m absolutely cack-handed at flower arranging. Hurricane jars or big wide shallow bowls are easy to work with. A big pillar candle and a handful of small stuff at the bottom. Embracing a slightly shabby aesthetic helps too!

[AnotherShirtRuined]

It sounds lovely Alanamackree, especially your front door wreath.

[1SquealingSquirrel]

We string popcorn and cranberry’s together to use on the tree along with the oranges and cinnamon sticks others have suggested

[CherryPlum]

Oh wow lots of replies and lovely ideas, thank you.

[AlwaysPottering]

Now is about the time to gather pine cones and still into September. I put them into a bag in the hot press doused with Christmas potpourri oil. They smell fabulous then in decorations. I find using a faux plain greenery garland is a good base for stairs/mantle. Then you can wire cinnamon sticks, cones & little bunches of fresh foliage onto it.

[Polkapjs]

Place marking for beautiful ideas. I’d live to do this too as a low cost option

[Polkapjs]

Just back from holiday and feeling even more Christmas excited now. I can second the use of Indian supermarkets for star anise and cinnamon sticks

[Redgreencoverplant]

I have started to collect pine cones and will definitely give the oranges trick a go :)

[SparkyBlue]

I am loving this thread. Getting some lovely ideas