Festive Pomanders

Fill your home with a tropical scent this holiday season (or any time of the year) with these multipurpose orange pomanders.

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They can decorate your mantel, hang from a tree, refresh a drawer, or add oomph to a decorative bowl filled with ornaments. They also make a pretty aromatic gift.

Materials

Navel or thin-skinned oranges
Narrow ribbon, in yard strips
Straight pins
Scissors
Leather punch or jumbo paper clips
Cloves

Optional

Metal or wood gift box filled with excelsior or tissue

Instructions

step 1Set an orange on the middle of a strip of ribbon one yard long.

step 2Pull up the ends, vertically crossing them at the top, and then back down so as to make quadrants. You can help secure the ribbon with straight pins as needed, but don't push them completely in.

step 3Tie a knot and then tie a bow with loops to desired size.

step 4Trim excess ribbon with a diagonal cut.

step 5With leather punch (or paper clip—better for children), poke holes about 1/8 inch apart at the ribbon's sides. (This is to help avoid breaking the clove flower when pushing the clove into the orange.)

step 6Insert the cloves into one line of freshly poked holes immediately because the holes will quickly start to close up.

step 7Carefully holding the orange (so as not to break off the clove flowers), repeat steps 5 and 6 along the subsequent remaining ribbon edges.

step 8Now remove the ribbon support pins.

Variation

If you want to hang this festive pomander from a tree or mantel, take a large paper clip and open the smaller loop from the larger loop and flatten. Then hook the smaller hoop under and around the bow knot and hang with the large loop as desired.

Alternative:

If you wish to design your pomander without ribbon, first think out your design (draw it on a piece of paper) and then follow the principal steps 5, 6, and 7.

Optional
To give as a gift, set the pomander in a decorated wooden or metal box with colored tissue or excelsior (wooden hairlike shavings sold at garden or art supplies stores).

Note:

Do not worry about the respective sizes of your dried cloves. They will all start to absorb juice from the orange and not only grow at least twice their size, but will begin to emit the most wonderful aroma.

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recent comments

12/22/2009 ,

Dorothy L.

I made one many years ago, and there is still some fragrance the last time I saw it, at my family's house.

11/12/2009 ,

Terry C.

Mel - I've still got orange pomanders which I made YEARS ago and they still smell nice. The oranges will eventually dry out and shrink considerably. I usually cover about 75% of the orange with the cloves and when the orange shrinks, it will look like a solid ball of cloves. The clove scent lasts a long time. The orange won't be as strong when it really dries out. Keep in mind that if you tie the ribbon around the orange, eventually (as it dries out) the ribbon will loosen and you may have to re-tie it. Merry Christmas! Enjoy!

11/7/2009 ,

Trisa S.

Instead of the ribbon - use rubber bands to wrap around the oranges to get straight lines. Easy to put on and remove.

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