This is our very first winter season inside Edelman Fossil Park & Museum, and we wanted our holiday trees to reflect who we are from the start—creative, community-driven, and committed to sustainability. Instead of buying all new décor, our staff and volunteers came together to craft ornaments from simple, reusable, and nature-inspired materials. It was a wonderful way to kick off our first winter here, and a reminder that small choices—what we repurpose, what we gather, what we make by hand—are all part of how we Act Now for a brighter future.

Here are some of the handmade ornaments that our wonderful staff and volunteers made over the past few weeks, and some tips on how you can make them yourself. Each of these crafts came from simple materials, teamwork, and a lot of laughter. Nothing fancy, nothing wasteful—just small, meaningful projects that make our winter trees feel personal and alive.

Orange Star Ornaments

These bright, citrus-scented ornaments quickly became one of the best-smelling projects we’ve ever hosted in the museum. Made by volunteers, they require only four simple materials: dried oranges, star anise, hot glue, and twine.

You can dehydrate your own oranges, or—like us—opt for food-grade dried oranges if you plan to make a large batch. Once the materials are gathered, assembly is relaxing and wonderfully social. This is the kind of craft you can enjoy while talking around the table with loved ones, filling the room with that warm winter aroma. Here’s directions from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on how to make these ornaments and other citrus crafts.

Pinecones

Collecting pinecones for our trees became a small adventure of its own. We searched both on-site and off, and once staff and volunteers joined in, we were quickly supplied with an abundance of perfectly shaped cones.

To prepare them for indoor display, we soaked each pinecone in warm water with ½ cup of vinegar—an easy, natural way to ensure no tiny hitchhikers traveled into the museum. After air-drying, volunteers wrapped floral wire beneath the cone scales and up to the tip to create hanging loops. Larger pinecones didn’t need loops at all; we left enough wire to anchor them onto branches so they appeared to grow naturally from the tree.

Upcycled Baubles

Not every ornament began with natural materials, but we stayed committed to reusing what we had. For our 12-foot lobby tree, we needed larger decorative pieces—so we turned to donated ornaments that didn’t match our color palette.

Volunteers took the old baubles home and wrapped them in simple twine using Elmer’s glue. Once dry, our VEX team hot-glued three wrapped ornaments together to create generous, sculptural clusters. Pipe cleaners were the perfect tool for attaching them securely and making sure they faced just the right direction on the tree. Looking to create your own? Here’s a website that teaches you.

Five-Point Stars

We occasionally receive donated field guides and dinosaur books that contain outdated information. While we can’t use them for reference, their illustrations are too beautiful to discard. Instead, we transform them.

This season, our VEX staff folded and assembled five-point stars from book pages—turning once-retired materials into eye-catching ornaments full of character. It’s a craft that gives old resources new life and keeps them out of the recycling bin. If you want to make your own stars the Brandywine Museum of Art has a wonderful tutorial to teach you.

Paper Chain

Our downstairs lobby tree will gradually fill with ornaments created by visitors over the next two months. Until then, we wanted something subtle that wouldn’t compete with their artwork. Volunteers from Glassboro High LIFE stepped in, crafting a lovely paper chain using more outdated field guides.

The result is a simple, elegant garland that adds warmth without overwhelming the decorations yet to come.

We hope these ornaments spark ideas for your own home this season. None of them require special tools or complicated steps—just a willingness to experiment, reuse what you have, and enjoy the process. Whether you’re drying oranges in the oven, upcycling old decorations, or repurposing pages from a well-loved book, these small choices add up. They bring a little more meaning to the holidays and a little less waste, which is something we can all feel good about. If you try any of these at home, we’d love to see what you create the next time you visit.