Decorate for Christmas with candy! No doubt, several favorites come to mind, including Dum-Dums®, M&M’S®, Pez®, Skittles®, Life Savers®, Starburst® and Hot Tamales®. And what about Milky Way®, Tootsie Roll® Pop, Twix®, Snickers® and gummy bears? Featured in ornaments and Department 56 villages, these candies also make festive DIY topiaries.
Decorate Your Christmas Tree with Candy Ornaments
Although the common candy associated with Christmas is the candy cane, there’s room for all our favorites this Christmas! Options seem endless, whether you’re stuffing Christmas stockings with the real thing or decorating with candy-themed ornaments or Department 56 village pieces.
If I had to pick a favorite candy, it would have to be the Tootsie Roll® Pop. After all, the two of us go way, way back, all the way to my childhood several decades ago! Hand-rolled Tootsie Rolls® were invented in 1896 by Leo Hirschfield, named after his daughter, and cost only one penny. Then in 1931, the Tootsie Roll® Pop was invented – my favorite!. How many licks does it take you to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll® Pop?
Decorate for Christmas with Candy-themed DIY Topiaries
I first became a fan of topiaries several years ago when a nursery in our area sported live, giant green ones. Clearly I’m going a different direction with edible DIY topiaries in this post, but the same creative element is present.
Dum-Dum® Suckers Topiary
To begin with, you will need these supplies:
- 4-inch clay pot
- yellow acrylic paint
- green acrylic paint
- 1-inch paint brush
- glue gun & sticks
- about 1 yard of ribbon the width of the lip of the clay pot
- 3/4-inch diameter wooden dowel, cut to desired length
- washed gravel to fill and weight pot
- 4-inch white foam ball
- 1 1/2 lb. Dum-Dums® suckers
- handful of artificial blanket snow
- small screwdriver with shaft about the size of the sucker sticks
Next assemble your topiary:
- To begin, paint the clay pot and wooden dowel and let them dry. (I needed a second coat of yellow paint on the clay pot.)
- Meanwhile, work the dowel about 3/4 inches into the foam ball and secure with hot glue.
- Now use the screwdriver to make holes, one at a time, for inserting the suckers to cover the foam ball. (No doubt, it will get a little challenging after about half of the suckers are in place. At this point, the interior of the foam ball is now a crisscross maze of sucker sticks. You will have to work angles to get the rest of the sucker sticks inserted.)
- About half-way through sucker insertion, glue one end of the dowel to the inside bottom of the clay pot and fill with gravel. (Because there is a hole in the bottom of the pot, it will be a little tricky to secure the dowel. Hence, be generous with the hot glue and hold the dowel in place while it sets and you add gravel.) It will be easier to insert the rest of the suckers with the dowel secure in the pot.
- Next, cut and glue ribbon to the lip of the pot.
- Finally, tie a simple ribbon bow where the dowel and topiary head meet and secure it with a little glue.
- Last of all, glue artificial snow atop the gravel in the pot.
Now display your Dum-Dums® sucker topiary with the new Department 56 North Pole Village pieces! They include the Dum-Dums® Flavor Makers building, Taste Buds accessory, and A Tasteful Fence accessory. To be sure, these new pieces are available in-store or by contacting customer service at 800.361.6736 or customerservice@bronners.com.
M&M’s Tree Topiary
To begin with, you will need these supplies:
- 8-inch clay pot
- red acrylic paint
- green acrylic paint
- 1-inch paint brush
- glue gun & sticks
- about 4 feet of ribbon the width of the lip of the clay pot
- 3/4-inch diameter wooden dowel, cut to desired length
- washed gravel to fill and weight pot
- 12-inch white foam tree
- 19.4 ounce and 10.53 ounce bag of fun-size M&M’s® (The 19.4-ounce bag was not quite enough.)
- handful of artificial blanket snow
- 4 small bows coordinating with your ribbon
Next, assemble your topiary:
- To begin, paint the clay pot and wooden dowel and let them dry.
- Meanwhile, work the dowel about 3/4 inches into the foam tree and secure with hot glue.
- Now start at the bottom and glue one edge of the M&M’s packs in rows around the foam tree. Be sure to altar the pack colors and overlap them.
- Then cut two 14-16-inch lengths of ribbon and glue them crisscross on the top of the tree. You can curl them if you wish. For example, I wrapped the ribbons around fat markers and rubber-banded them overnight.
- At this point, finish the tree by gluing four small bows around the top of the tree. You can use purchased bows or make your own. So I used ready-made bows I had available.
- Lastly, cut and glue ribbon to the lip of the pot and glue artificial snow atop the gravel.
Now display your M&M’s Christmas tree topiary with the new Department 56 North Pole Village pieces! They include Red’s M&M Cottage, Building an M&M’S Tree accessory, and Follow the M&M Road accessory. With this in mind, these new pieces are available in-store or by contacting customer service at 800.361.6736 or customerservice@bronners.com. And if you are looking for the right tree to decorate with these ornaments, we help you selecting an artifical Christmas tree.
Looking for more ideas for displaying Department 56 village pieces? We can help!