How to Make Candy Cane Reindeer for Christmas

When I was growing up, every year my mother and I used to make candy cane reindeer. Instead of just decorating the tree with plain candy canes we would plan a night and she and I would decorate boxes and boxes of them and after we ran out of room to put the candy canes on the tree we would give them out to family and friends. They are incredibly easy to make and create great memories of doing crafts with your children.

What you need:

Candy canes - Leave wrappers on!
Small googly eyes
Brown pipe cleaners
Red or green colored ribbon
Small red pom-poms
Glue gun or a bottle of glue
Tweezers

Start out with the brown pipe cleaners. Wrap one around the curve of the candy cane and twist two times around the base so that the ends are sticking straight in the air (just like you are tying a twist tie around a bag). Take another brown pipe cleaner and place it directly behind the first one and twist it the exact same way. Take your glue and make a small dot of glue on the bend of the candy cane and slide both of the pipe cleaners into place directly on top of the spot of glue. Now twist the part of the pipe cleaners that is sticking up into the shape of antlers.

Next comes the googly eyes. Place a small dot of glue about an inch below the pipe cleaners on the short part of the candy cane. Take your tweezers and very carefully place two googly eyes on that small spot of glue. For them to dry properly, hold the candy cane horizontally until you are sure the eyes will stick on and not slide off.

Once that step is complete, take a red pom-pom and glue it on the bottom of the short part of the candy cane, about an inch below the googly eyes. Make sure the pom-pom is completely dry before moving onto the next step so it does not slide off.

For the final step, take a small piece of ribbon and tie a bow about two inches BEHIND the pipe cleaner antlers. To keep them stable so the little pieces don't fall off, it is best to carefully put them back in the box that they come in until they are ready to be used.

Any flavor of candy canes will work. Just to change things up a bit, we used to use raspberry or pina colada or any other flavor besides peppermint. Most of these flavors can be found in any basic drug store in the candy aisle.

You now have candy cane reindeer! Enjoy!