We’re decorating our house for Christmas with these fun candy gumdrop cones. They’re a perfect festive craft for the Holidays. You just need a few candy gumdrops, toothpicks, and a styrofoam cone or ball. But try not to eat too many candies as you craft, save some for the tree!
Supplies for Gumdrop Trees:
- styrofoam cone or ball
- gumdrop candies, 2-3 bags
- toothpicks
First, you’ll want to separate your gumdrops into their own colors. Unless you buy a package that comes in a solid color, or Christmas colors, you’ll have to pick each one out. You can see we used mostly Christmas colors to craft with and are eating the purple and orange ones as we go.
For the toothpicks, you don’t need the whole piece. You can easily break them in half with your fingers. Then place the broken end into the gumdrop. You’ll want the pointy end facing out, ready to be pressed into the styrofoam.
Depending on what you’re going to make, pick out your colors and get the toothpicks on. Then press your gumdrops into the cone or ball. You can make this a pattern or be very random about your placement, it’s up to you. And it will take a lot of gumdrops to make a tree. There are a few bare branches with my son’s gumdrop tree.
As you can see with my daughter’s below, her ball is very random. In fact, she says it’s a turkey. So we’ll have to save it for next Thanksgiving.
Have fun decorating with candy gumdrops this Christmas!
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Hey, Me Too! http://debrahawkins.blogspot.com/2009/12/candy-christmas-ornaments.html
:)
oh man… that turkey ball cracks me up. I love how creative kids get. So funny! We’re totally doing this for family night tonight! Thanks!!
These gumdrop trees are absolutely great. If I have time I may try to tackle them for the holidays.
Happy holidays to you!
Christine
I’ve made something similar with holiday Hershey kisses hot glued to the styrofoam. It’s not as kid friendly with the hot glue, but still very cute. I like this variation of that idea!
Debra – Thanks for sharing your link. GO to her link if you want to see gumdrop balls with a ribbon to hang them on a tree. Super cute!
I love when kids decide how to do a craft. Half my brain is like “it doesn’t look perfect” and the other half is “just let her creative juices flow”
:)
These are adorable! We will be making them when the kids are off school next week for sure!
Thanks for sharing!
Kacey
Okay, I just gotta share my own holiday food tree experience. I wanted to do something more festive for Christmas than just a plain ol’ boring relish tray. So I found an idea where broccoli makes the tree, and “ornaments” were made from carrot coins, clumps of cauliflower, olives and the like. These were assembled just like your tastier version of gumdrops – with toothpicks inserted into a styrofoam cone. My then 4-year old nephew tried the broccoli from the tree. His reaction? “Maybe tastes better with water.” He was clearly telling his aunt to cook that broccoli next time.
I LOVE gumdrop trees! My best friend had one in her house growing up and we ate all the gumdrops on the back side of the tree, thinking no one would ever know. We were slow.
Such a great idea. Hoping to do these with my kids and niece/nephew later this week.
What a fun project! Thanks for sharing this great step-by-step photo tutorial. I think I may pick up some gumdrops and a styrofoam cone next time that I’m out-and-about so that I can “surprise” my 3-year-old with this activity next week. She’ll love it!
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