by Karen Swan

School holidays have begun for most, and with them, comes the pitter patter of little feet, usually racing around the school playground, suddenly racing around your lounge room instead!

It pays to have some cheap, quick and simple crafts at the ready to help when the inevitable, “Muuuuum!  I’m BORED!” starts being chanted.

Of course, for some of us, sitting around and creating little seasonal crafts is a simple,  heartwarming activity to be enjoyed with the whole family, and these wee oranges are just the ticket, even for the littlest people in the house.

It has to be said that these do look a little like some kind of glowing, radioactive fruit, but once the sun goes down, and the fragrance of the cloves and orange is released, these little orbs of golden light are a complete delight.

What You Need:

Lovely, firm, brightly orange, oranges

Fresh whole cloves

A pen

A sharp knife or a Stanley Knife

A dessert spoon

Biscuit shapes – star, tree, moon – whatever you fancy!

Tea light candles.

How To:

1.  Rest your orange on the top of a tea light candle and locate as carefully as you can the centre.

2. To draw a line around the circumference of the orange, I just sort of spun it as I drew….highly accurate!

3. Use a sharp knife or stanley knife to follow the line and cut peel deep around the whole orange. (don’t just slice it in half!)

4.  Using the spoon, push it up the sliced peel and over the orange flesh and gently work your way around to loosen the flesh.  The top of the orange peel will come off, retaining it’s round shape.

5.  Do the same for the bottom half.

6.  Carefully press the star or other shape into the peel and trim to neaten up any rough edges.

7.  Decorate with the cloves.

8.  Pop a tea light candle in the bottom half, and replace the ‘lid’ making sure that the flame is centre and not sitting under any orange peel (so it doesn’t burn!)

We burned ours for about 3 nights before it started looking a little dried up and sorry! As with anything on display, 3 of these together look just lovely.  If you could somehow incorporate a cinnamon stick in there, the smell would be glorious!

If you make some, be sure and share photos on our facebook page!