Food is often the center of many holidays. Whether it’s cooking a feast or baking sweets, why would decorating be any different? Using food as decorations has so many benefits. Not only is it affordable, but it’s environmentally friendly, too. Food as decorations is especially great for those who like new decorations each year. This is a fantastic way to change up your decor in a cost effective and eco-friendly way. Here’s a list of 10 creative hacks to make holiday food decor out of ingredients you probably have in your pantry.
Popcorn Garland
It wouldn’t be the holidays without at least one popcorn garland. They are the perfect way to add a pop of color and fun into your decorations and are so easy to make. All you need is some fishing wire, a sewing needle, a bowl of popped popcorn, cranberries, and a steady hand. If you want your popcorn garland to last and don’t want your tree to smell like butter, I recommend using unflavored or natural popcorn. This can either be purchased at the grocery store or popped fresh from kernels. While popcorn is often crunchy, its center is just soft enough to lead a sewing needle and some fishing wire through. Add a cranberry every now and again and you have a beautiful, vintage inspired garland. The fun part about making popcorn garlands is that you can play around with the pattern to create something that fits perfectly with your style!
Dried Orange Garland
On the topic of garlands, an alternative and equally easy garland is made from dried oranges! All you need is some fresh oranges and a couple hours of oven time. You’ll want to first wash your oranges and then cut them into thin rounds. This can either be done by hand or with a mandolin. Once cut, you want to spread them out onto a baking sheet and pop them in the oven. This is the crucial part — cook them low and slow. Keep the oven around 125 degrees Fahrenheit (or the lowest temperature your oven allows) and let the oranges dry out for a couple hours. Check them every so often and maybe even give them a turn or two. The thinner your slices, the quicker they will dry. Once dried, poke a hole through and string them up as a beautiful, fruity garland perfect for a kitchen or above a mantle. Try different citruses like grapefruit, blood orange, or even tangerine for a colorful garland!
Gingerbread
Gingerbread is often overlooked due to its famous reputation as a house, but gingerbreads unique hardness can be used to a DIY decorators advantage. Using different cookie cutters or even paper templates printed online, you can create a variety of different gingerbread-based decor. From gingerbread houses as table centerpieces to gingerbread men as a baker’s dream garland, they are perfect for all sorts of kitchen based projects. Dress it up with some powdered sugar and gumdrops and it’s an adorable touch for that holiday in a cottage feel.
Rosemary Wreaths
Rosemary is fragrant, lush, and perfect for decorations. It is the kind of herb that can be used for just about any kind of embellishment. Rosemary is a great fridge-based material to make wreaths out of. Whether they are large wreaths for a front door or small wreaths to decorate candlestick bases or even chandeliers. Need a pretty tablescape for a holiday dinner? Rosemary is a wonderful resource to jazz up your table. Add a sprig to the name plates or around the napkin holders or even tied to a champagne glass.
Candy Canes
Candy canes don’t always have to be in cane form. Sometimes they are candles or vases! Due to candy cane’s sugar contents, they can easily be melted down and reshaped into various new decorations. To make candy cane candles all you need to do is slightly warm them up on the baking sheet on their own until they are malleable. Once heated, you can combine them and shape them into new decorations like candlesticks. They can also be melted down and, with the use of silicone holders, be turned into peppermint-flavored mugs or display bowls. If you want to cut out the labor of the oven, forget reshaping candy canes and instead make candy cane bouquets for a holiday-themed tablescape.
Pomegranates Centerpiece
Pomegranates are a fantastic and versatile fruit when it comes to the holidays. Their gorgeous ruby, red color is a great way to add a pop of red to your tablescape, but adding them into a large display bowl or platter along with greenery like pine needles or rosemary. If you have an empty plant pot laying around, the pomegranates can be stacked and then green stuff within the holes to create a tall centerpiece that can make even the most boring table attractive. Pomegranates are also perfect additions to wreaths and add a lot of symbolic value to the holidays.
Sugar Cookie Ornaments
Every tree needs some ornaments. Why not make them out of cookies? Sugar cookies are a great base for making ornaments due to their flat, hard surface and light color. They can be cut into fun shapes, both 2D and 3D, and then decorated with both edible and inedible objects. Want a snow globe effect? Take two cookies with hollowed out centers and pour hot, melted sugar into the middle. Once hardened, it will dry clear. The two cookies can be attached together with either glue or frosting. But don’t forget the most important step: the snow. Add sprinkles between the two cookies before sealing. Hang the cookie on the tree and you have an edible, snowglobe inspired ornament.
Edible Pine Cones
Pine cones are a great way to add the holiday, winter flair to decorations. Don’t have any pine cones nearby? Make them out of brownies! Once your brownies are finished cooking, smush them into pine cone-shaped balls. Then, add almond slices or chocolate corn flakes to the outside of the brownie ball, making sure to overlap. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and you have a tray of yummy, edible pinecones that will look beautiful and decorative on a cake stand on your kitchen counter.
Meringue Snowmen
Meringue isn’t only a delicious sweet treat, but a sturdy source of material for holiday decorations. Meringue is only made out of a couple different ingredients, one being egg whites. The hardest part about making meringue is whipping it long enough. Once it’s whipped into stiff peaks, then the possibilities are endless. It has a strong shelf life and, once hardened, is a great resource for reusable decorations. To make a snowman, pipe your meringue into three round balls and bake in the oven at 325 until hardened. These will be the bodies of your snowmen. Once they are baked, you can glue them on top of one another and add your decorations. This is the fun part! You get to dress up your snowman however you like. Use a baby carrot for its nose, some berries for its eyes, and whatever other scraps you have laying around.
Tin Ornaments
Maybe you don’t want your ornaments to be edible. Then, make your ornaments out of the food containers. Using tin cans or metal tubes is a great way to reduce waste this holiday season while also making decorations for years to come. Tin can lids can be used and cut into different shapes like stars or Christmas trees and then can be strung up as a garland or as individual ornaments. Others have used tomato paste and tinned fish lids to also make such ornaments. These metal tubes are cleaned out and then cut and spread open until they are flat. Using blunt ends of tools like chopsticks, spoons, or any other kitchen utensil, you can etch drawings into the ornaments and cut around them. A fun activity and great gift for either your own decorations or others.