It is so much fun (and so inexpensive!) to make beautiful, meaningful holiday decorations using the earth’s gifts. Check out these fun ideas for holiday decorations using apples, pomegranates, citrus fruits, cranberries, spices, along with a simple dough recipe for ornaments, and one using sweet-smelling cinnamon and applesauce!

You can make your own handmade ornaments using this Simple Dough Ornament recipe

Or try this Sweet-Smelling Ornament idea:

Pour a container of ground cinnamon in a bowl and add just enough applesauce to make a stiff dough. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters, make a hole at the top for stringing, and place on a baking sheet to dry. When dry, put a ribbon through the hole and place on the tree. The sweet scent will last for years.

Cranberries may be used for:

1. Garlands with dried bay leaves, small lady apples, dried figs, cinnamon sticks and more; just thread a needle and start stringing!

2. Candle-holders: place a beeswax candle in the bottom of a hurricane lamp or other glass container and pour a bag of fresh cranberries around the bottom of it to hold it in place.

Oranges and other citrus fruits

1. Can be made into pretty (and delicious-smelling) pomanders:

Using a darning needle, poke holes in lemons or small oranges, tangerines, or apples and insert a clove in each hole. Place the clove-studded fruits in a shallow baking dish filled with a mixture of ground cinnamon and cloves, turning occasionally, until the fruits have dried and hardened. (It speeds things along if you place them on top of a radiator or refrigerator. Plus it will make your home smell heavenly!) When they are “cured,” dust them off, tie a pretty ribbon around them if you like, and give as gifts, hang on the branches of your tree, or place them in a bowl at pulse points in your home.

2. Slice the citrus fruits thinly, and dry them in a warm place. Then they can be strung into garlands or placed on the tree as individual ornaments.

Pomegranates may be placed on top of a fridge or radiator to dry, then placed in a pretty bowl, or hung in the holiday tree.

Apples may be lined up on a mantle among boughs of fresh greenery, or placed in a bowl with nuts in the shell and a few sprigs of holly.