Christmas Potpourri with Dried Oranges and Cinnamon Sticks

Fill a pretty bowl with this homemade Christmas potpourri or make it to give as gifts. Made with a mixture of dried oranges and apples, cinnamon sticks, star anise and scented with clove, sweet orange, balsam fir, bay and cassia essential oils, it smells like Christmas morning.

To get myself in the mood for holiday decorating. I whipped up a batch of this delicious-smelling Christmas potpourri made with dried fruit, cinnamon sticks and a fragrant blend of essential oils.

With its blend of citrus, balsam, bay, clove and cinnamon scents, it is evocative of fall days and Christmas morning, So, it’s the perfect scent to carry you from Thanksgiving through the holiday season.

The pretty potpourri is a nice accompaniment for the orange peel candles I made recently and these homemade Christmas reed diffusers.

I wish I could describe to you just how delicious this smells, or better yet, give you a whiff through the computer screen. But you’ll just have to trust me.

This Christmas potpourri is a wonderful craft to make with friends at the holidays. Set out some bowls of dried fruit, clove buds, cinnamon sticks, along with some seasonal essential oils and let everyone mix their own.

I like the idea of packaging this dried orange potpourri in pretty gift bags or mason jars to give as holiday gifts to neighbors. It would also make a wonderful hostess gift for all those holiday parties.

To make this homemade Christmas potpourri, you will need a selection of dried fruit. You can buy dried orange slices for bowl fillers or potpourri, but they’re a bit pricey. It’s much cheaper to dry orange slices using your oven, and it’s very easy to do. A chilly weekend or a cold evening is the perfect time to make dried fruit. Just pick a time when you’ll be home for a while and won’t mind running the oven for several hours.

How to Dry Orange Slices in the Oven

Begin by thinly slicing citrus fruit. You can use any kind of citrus fruit you like, including oranges, grapefruits, lemons and blood oranges. A variety of different colors and types of oranges will look pretty in the Christmas potpourri.

Place the fruit slices in a single layer on a wire rack or parchment paper on a baking sheet. Dry the fruit slices in the oven at 200 degrees for 4 to 6 hours. Be sure to check the orange slices frequently and flip them so they dry evenly, especially if you’re using parchment instead of a wire rack on your pan.

The amount of time it takes to the orange slices to dry in the oven will depend on your oven temperature, as well as the thickness of the slices.

How to Dry Apples in the Oven

You can also dry apple slices using this same method.

Use a knife or a mandolin to thinly slice the apples.

To help prevent the apples from browning, combine 4 cups of water with 1/2 cup of apple juice. Soak the apple slices for 30 minutes before placing them on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees for two to four hours, depending on desired crispness. Be sure to flip the apple slices midway through the cooking process.

How to Make Christmas Potpourri

Once the fruit slices are dried and cooled, gather them along with other supplies to make the Christmas potpourri. For this batch, I used:

dried orange slices
dried blood orange slices
dried apples
whole star anise
cinnamon sticks
dried putka pods
whole clove
essential oils

You can also use mini pinecones, dried florals, wood curls, acorns and any other natural items you like in your homemade holiday potpourri.

I mixed up a special essential oil blend, using items from my Simply Earth Essential Oil recipe boxes, to scent my Christmas potpourri.

Here’s the recipe for my blend:

8 drops of clove oil
10 drops of sweet orange oil
3 drops of balsam fir oil
3 drops of cassia oil
2 drops of bay oil

Mix together in an empty amber bottle and swirl to combine.

Add 8 drops of the blend for every 1 cup of dried plant material and toss to coat. I like to make my potpourri in a plastic zip-top bag to make blending the scent easier.

The potpourri smells so good, and it’s so pretty that you’ll want to set it out in bowls throughout your house. I love how it adds a natural, festive touch to our family room.