How Cute Are These?

And they are so easy to make!

Aren't these amazing? They look tricky, but they are really so easy to create.

I saw these flowers made from Jolly Ranchers on You Tube. Here is the video I watched. 

So, while I was at the market picking up the last few ingredients I need for our Christmas Eve celebration, I picked up a bag of Jolly Ranchers and a package of candy apple sticks.

The You Tube video said you can use any kind of hard candy.

These are candy (or caramel) apple sticks.

That night, I gave it a try. I plopped a few Jolly Ranchers into a pot of hot water and let them soften.

I found that the water seeped in under the wrappers and started to dissolve the candies, so I decided to slip some new candies into a zipper bag, remove the air, and place the bag into the water. 

The water is turning green from a dissolving green Jolly Rancher!

A spoon on top of the bag helped keep the candies under the waterline. 

When I was a Girl Scout leader, I had my girls make roses out of Sculpy clay and these roses look like they were made in much the same way. The way I taught my Girl Scouts was to make little "pancakes" out of the clay. After spiraling the first pancake, you just add pancakes all around the spiral. 

I removed one candy from the hot water, unwrapped it, and spiraled it around the stick. 

Then, I unwrapped another one, created a pancake, and added it to the spiral. 

You can add one or two "pancakes" to the spiral. 

Then, add a green leaf by flattening a green candy, shaping it into a leaf, and press it onto the flower.

I started out puncturing an empty mango salsa container to hole the sticks, but I quickly ran out of room, so I got a piece of styrofoam to hole my newest creations....

I made roses, lilies, and "I don't know what these are, but they are pretty" flowers.  

I got tired of making flowers, so I started to make Magic Wands with twisted ropes of stretched out Jolly Ranchers. This was just too much fun. 

And I even made a butterfly when one of the flowers just didn't look like a flower!

Flowers & Wands galore!

This wand is called "The Grinch!"

When they were all done, I wrapped them up with cellophane bags and colorful ribbons.

If the sticks get sticky (I think there's a joke in there somewhere) just wipe them down with a damp towel.

These will make great package decorations and I can add them to gift baskets too. 

I might even set up a fun craft station for the kids who will be joining us for Christmas Eve so they can create their own flowers, magic wands, or whatever they can come up with. Santa always makes a stop at my house and hand-delivers presents and this will be the perfect activity to have the kids do while they are waiting for Santa to arrive! 

That's my favorite family Christmas tradition that my family has done since my mother was a little girl back in the 1930s. What is YOUR favorite family holiday tradition?