I like my Christmas to smell.
Yes, I want to see bright lights and colors, as well as snow on the ground. I want the taste of peppermint and the feel of flannel PJs but mostly I love the smells I associate with the winter holidays.
You probably know the smells I mean. Evergreen boughs. Cookies baking. A wood fire. Caramel and chocolate and mint.
And the best smell of all, to my way of thinking—oranges studded with cloves.
Every year at this time, my husband gets a big bag of oranges and a big jar of whole cloves and makes pomanders while he watches football on TV.
He has done this for many years and, because the cloves dry and preserve the oranges, we probably have pomanders around here that are older than some of you!
Pomanders make a wonderful addition to holiday decorating. They are natural and rustic and nostalgic but can also look quite modern, with the geometric design and bright contrast of colors.
And they are very easy to make. And pretty inexpensive. And they last, it seems, forever. You can even put them out in the fall and leave them out all winter because they don’t scream “Christmas.”
But, really, we make them mostly for that heavenly, spicy, zippy smell of bright citrus mixed with exotic clove.
Are you ready to start?
You’ll need:
Oranges—get small to medium ones. They don’t have to be perfect and expensive. Save your money for the zester (see below).
Whole cloves—don’t buy these in the little tins in the baking aisle, unless you only want to make one or two pomanders—they’re expensive that way! Try a restaurant supply store or a place like Sam’s Club, or order online, where you can find a whole pound for about $15-20. That big jar in the photos holds 11 ounces and has lasted a long time.
You won’t need but you’ll want:
A good zester—you can make pomanders by sticking holes in the orange with a skewer and putting cloves in the holes. But my husband’s method is so quick and sensible that, if you’re serious about this, you should consider it. He uses a heavy-duty zester—the brand is Rosle. This zester sells for about $25, which, I admit, is a crazy price for such a tool but it makes this job so easy! And I’m sure you occasionally want zest for a cocktail or something, right? Or is that just me?
To make your pomanders, use the larger hole on the side of the zester, called a channel, to carve a design in the orange. It’s very sharp so you can easily do stripes or swirls or spirals or a happy face. You can probably do monograms if you choose! Be sure to carve enough lines for a lot of cloves—remember you’re trying to preserve the oranges.
Once you have the design carved, stick the pointy ends of the cloves as far as they’ll go into the white pith of the orange. The cloves should go in close to each other, almost touching. Don’t be stingy—remember you’re trying to preserve the oranges!
How easy is that?
So easy that, while you’re doing all this, you’ll have plenty of time to breathe deeply. Smell that wonderful smell. Finish one pomander and make another. And another. Tuck them into baskets and bowls and tie ribbons around them and hang them from a wreath or a tree.
You may find it quite addicting! And next year, you’ll make new ones to nestle up against the ones from this year. The old ones will be dried out and a little pale and not as fragrant but, hey, that happens to all of us eventually!
Pretty soon you’ll have generations of pomanders and a new family tradition. Start now!
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One more thing—don’t throw the little scraps of orange rind and broken cloves away!
Put them in a sauce pan on your stove with some water and maybe a cinnamon stick and let it all simmer. Pay attention and add more water when needed and fill your home with the smell of Christmas!
The weather outside, in upstate New York, is truly frightful. The temperature, right now, is 15 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s minus 9 Celsius) and that’s the warmest we will see for days. On Friday, the high is expected to be 0 F or minus 18 C. I can’t even bring myself to think about what the wind chills will be!
But I found a way to combat the cold! No, not hot toddies and buttered rum—it’s not noon yet and even I can’t hit the hard stuff this early!
So, I’ve been having a lovely little beachy interlude. The steam’s rising off the iron, Jimmy is singing about Margaritaville, and these linens, with their fresh colors and stripes, help me believe that it’s possible to be warm in spirit, even as Mother Nature pitches us into the deep freeze. And to believe that the weather will warm up, eventually.
Love Those "Hands at Home" 