If you have the craving to make a homemade dried fruit garland for the holidays and to hang in your home for the winter season, cranberry and popcorn garlands are some of the easiest to make! Potentially time-consuming, yes, but something you can do meditatively, while watching a movie or listening to a podcast, or while fellowshipping and hanging out with friends and family.
If you have store-bought dried cranberries, making one of these garlands becomes even easier!
Here is how I made mine for the first time this winter, with fresh cranberries that I dried at home in the oven. If you only want your garland hanging for a couple of days during holiday festivities, you can skip these steps altogether and simply string up fresh cranberries!
However, if you want to enjoy your garland all season long, I recommend drying the little cranberries out thoroughly. Even though they will lose their beautiful shininess and orb shape, the dark red dried cranberries against the white of the popped popcorn still looks absolutely lovely and cozy! And oh so nostalgic.
How to Make a Dried Cranberry and Popcorn Holiday Garland:
For the popcorn (I recommend making your popcorn first so that it can sit out for several hours, or even a couple days, to get stale– this helps the stringing process):
Materials:
- 12 qt pot
- 3 Tbsp (roughly) coconut oil
- 1 cup plain popcorn kernels
Melt oil in pot on medium heat (beware of smoking). Then, pour in kernels and turn up heat to medium-high, and cover.
Swish/shake pot regularly as kernels begin to pop. Once the pot starts filling rapidly, grab pot and shake vigorously to distribute kernels, alternating between having the pot on the heat and picking it up and shaking it.
Once popping slows significantly, turn off stove and remove the pot from the heat, keeping the pot covered to allow more kernels to slowly pop.
Let the popcorn sit out for a day or so to get stale (this is optional).
For homemade dried cranberries:
Materials:
- About 12 oz of fresh cranberries (about the size of a bag you would buy at the grocery store)
Method:
Preheat oven to 170 or 200F.
Pour a bag of fresh cranberries (about 12 oz) into a large, heat-safe bowl and pour boiling water over the berries (I used about 1.7 L, the amount my electric kettle holds). Let the skins pop from the hot water, about 5 minutes, but no longer than 10. This allows the inside of the cranberries to dry out thoroughly in the oven. If not all of the skins pop, proceed to the next step and use a potato masher or fork to gently pop the skins manually.
Drain cranberries and spread them out, with spaces in between, on a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet (then pop the skins manually if you need to).
Place baking sheet with cranberries in the oven and allow them to dry out over several hours, supervising their progress and flipping them over every so often. If you live in a sunny climate, you can also alternate between drying them under the sun and in the oven to save energy. In any case, as with drying orange slices, I recommend giving yourself at least a full day of time to dry these out– you never know if you will have to use the oven for other purposes, and will have to take breaks from drying the berries!
Once the cranberries are dry enough to not mold, let them cool and get ready to string them!
To string the garland:
Materials
- Sturdy string or thread (the sturdier, the easier to work with and prevent tangling)
- A thicker needle, such as an embroidery needle
- Scissors
Method:
Find a comfortable seat, because this process takes time! Arrange bowls of cranberries and popcorn, and perhaps work over a baking sheet to catch fallen berries and popcorn.
Cut string to equal length segments. I recommend working with smaller segments than you would initially think, perhaps about 2 feet long each– they can get tangled easily later on when it’s time to string them together and hang them! I also highly recommend equally measured lengths of string, to simplify the process of figuring out how many feet you need to hang along the wall and hanging them up.
Using your needle and string or thread, thread the needle and pierce through the fleshiest part of a popcorn kernel. On the end of the string, tie several knots, or make a loop, or even use tape to block of the end so that the popcorn can’t slide off. Add as many popcorn as you would like before stringing a cranberry– I found a pattern of 3 or 4 popcorn to every cranberry was perfect.
Once finished with your segment, tie off the string the same way you started it to keep the popcorn and cranberries from falling off.
When you have your desired lengths of garland, the possibilities are endless! String them in your Christmas tree, around Christmas wreaths, along windows and walls, and enjoy all season long!
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