A Very Citrus Christmas: How to Dry Orange Slices for Decorating

Oranges were once considered a luxury item and rare delicacy enjoyed mostly by the wealthy. They were considered a status symbol and represented good fortune. Receiving an orange was like receiving a precious gift. Today oranges can easily be found at your local grocery stores.

There is something therapeutic about making handcrafted decor for your home. The slow process of drying out orange slices gave me a new appreciation for the slower pace of things and time spent at home. It also felt really good to create something beautiful and useful.

Disclaimer: This process is very slow and takes patience but if you have more determination than patience you will find this project very rewarding.

If you rather skip the drying process, you can order dried orange slices on Amazon. I ordered these as a supplement and loved that they came with a few extras, like cinnamon sticks, to add to my decor.

How To Dry Orange Slices:

Step 1: For best drying results cut your orange slices 1/4inches thick. The amount of oranges you cut depends on how you want to use them. For example, I cut 2 oranges and got a total of 24 slices.

Step 2: Pat dry your slices with paper towels. My orange slices took longer to dry because I skipped this step.

Step 3: Line a pan with parchment paper. Place you slices on the baking sheet.

Step 4: Bake low and slow at 250-275 degrees for about 2-4 hours. Flip them every 30-40 minutes. Orange slices can take anywhere between 2-6 hours total to dehydrate. This all depends on the number of slices you bake at a time and the thickness you cut your slices. If you have an air fryer it often cuts the time in half.

Tip: If you’d like an assortment of colors in your dried slices use the “holiday citrus trio” (navel oranges, grapefruit and red navel oranges).

Looking for inspiration and ways to decorate with your dried orange slices, read my blog “5 Ways to Decorate with Homemade Dried Orange Slices.”