It’s almost here, the season of Yule and good cheer. Children are already making their Christmas lists and stores are filling their shelves with Santa sweets and decorations.
Now is the time to help children search through craft books and plan out their gift giving season. The gifts should be fairly simple, from potato print cards to decoupage boxes. The main focus when choosing a craft project should be on the child’s abilities and what the child enjoys making. Pomanders just happen to be extremely easy to make (for ages 8 and up) and the finished product makes a lovely Yule gift.
Pomander comes from the French pomme d’ambre and means amber apple. These amber apples were originally made to be worn around the neck. It was believed that the spices would protect the wearer from disease and sickness. Pomanders are now made to scent drawers, closets, and are even hung from walls as spicy-smelling decorations.
To make pomander balls, you will need: wax paper, applesauce or apple pulp, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg. Some people add ground orris root to the pomander mixture to help preserve the scent. However, I’m allergic to orris root and have never used it in my pomander mixtures.
You begin making the pomander balls by putting one to four cups of applesauce in a bowl. From here, you add spoons full of the spices listed above. I tend to use a lot of ground cinnamon in my pomander mixture. Other people prefer the cloves or nutmeg to be the dominant scent. The choice is yours.
Continue to add spices and mix the spiced applesauce until you have a thick, cookie-like dough.
Form the pomander dough into balls, no larger than the size of a walnut. Set the pomander balls on the wax paper and allow them to dry for at least one week. They will shrink a little as the water evaporates from them.
To prepare the pomander balls for gift giving, cut squares from organdy and wrap each square around a pomander ball. Tie closed with a ribbon.
