Old Fashioned Christmas Candy Wreath

You will not believe how beautiful and Christmas-sparkly this Old Fashioned Christmas-Candy Wreath craft is; jam-packed with colorful hand-tied, individually-wrapped candies. You may also not believe what a long, drawn-out, craft project this can become, so turn it into a fun wintertime, endeavor with your kids.

Wreath Form

Either purchase a wreath form, from your local craft supply store, or make one by bending a wire coat-hanger, and covering it with cardboard. I like making coat hanger wreath forms, because they have sturdy, built-in frames, with a hook for hanging. To make your coat-hanger wreath form you will need a wire coat-hanger, and a fairly large cardboard box (to cut apart).

Bend the closed part of the coat-hanger to resemble a circle (it doesn't need to be perfect). Then trace and cut around a large serving platter, directly on the cardboard. Then create a center doughnut hole by tracing and cutting around a saucer. You will need two cardboard doughnut-shaped wreath-form pieces, to cover the bent part of the wire coat-hanger (on both sides).

Staple the cardboard pieces together around the inner and outer ring edges (sandwiched over the bent portion of wire) leaving the hook exposed, for a built-in hanger. It doesn't have to look good; it only needs to be solid enough to hold the candy you're going to be adding. You can spray paint your wreath form gold, silver, red, or green, but this is an optional decorating step, which would hide stained or discolored cardboard.

Christmas Candies

You will need to purchase 1 to 5 pounds of loose, individually-wrapped mixed Christmas candies (depending on wreath size) which can contain butterscotch, peppermint striped, strawberry, and other flavor-assorted hard candies. If you have spray-painted your wreath form, you may only need 1 pound, but if you're going au natural you could need 2 - 5 pounds of assorted Christmas candies.

Twine or String

Decide whether or not you want your wreath to look rustic or fancy, and choose either string or twine accordingly (to tie candies onto wreath form). Next you will want to measure one piece of string, by looping through the wreath center, pulling up to the other side (leaving an extra inch on each side) and then cut it.

Attaching Candies

Cut at least 30-50 pieces of string the same size, and begin to tie hard candies (by one end of the outer wrapper) onto your wreath, one piece at a time. This is a fun task for your children to do, because what child doesn't want to help with candy around Christmastime? This step will take you and your kids a very long time, so try to make it fun, while tying on piece-after-piece of candy, one at a time.

You will need to tie on enough candy, so that you cannot see the cardboard wreath form underneath, and it will become full-to-the-touch, like any other holiday wreath! Your Old Fashioned Christmas-Candy Wreath is now ready to hang on door or wall, to pick candies from, all season long!