Candy Cane Holiday Wreath

This simple hanging candy cane wreath will leave that holiday cheer impression for all family, friends, and visitors to admire all season long. My children and I have made this craft our yearly Holiday tradition. The best part being it is simple enough for all age groups, everybody can enjoy making. Holiday fun for all!

To begin, the following items will be needed. 22 large candy canes for each wreath. I suggest buying at least 2 extra boxes. For this demonstration I purchased 4 boxes with 12 candy canes in each box. BRACHS The Original Candy Canes seemed fitting for this wreath. If traditional Holiday colors just dont seem fitting, try multi-colored candy canes as there are many different choices in colors available. A hot glue gun works best, but tacky glue can also be used. I choose to use the hot glue gun, with silver sparkle glue sticks. 3/8 ribbon any color of choice, I will be using Red and White. To put a few festive finale touches, I found light weight small Christmas foam stickers , and mini bows. All these items can be found at The Dollar Tree, besides the hot glue gun. An option would be to ask a friend or neighbor for the hot glue gun if one is not accessible, or use good strong tacky glue. Less than $10 to make each wreath.

Begin by plugging in and turning on your hot glue gun. Let it warm up for about five-ten minutes. While the glue warms up move onto removing your candy canes and making sure there are no broken pieces. Discard any broken candy canes, having at least one extra box per wreath is a good idea. Arrange the candy canes in a circle pattern by arranging the candy canes into heart shaped pattern leaving the wrappers on. I notice after arranging my candy canes the bottoms of my candy have a lot of extra space in the wrapper. This should not effect any part of the wreath. If it does simply just cut off the extra. I choose to leave it as its, because I will eventually be covering it up with a decoration in the middle.

By now the glue in the glue gun should be heated up and ready to start gluing together the candy canes. I like to start by placing some sort of covering down on your work space just to avoid getting the glue all over. Parchment paper, old magazines, cardboard, or even newspaper will work, but I suggest something that will not stick to the glue after it dries. I used old sheets from a calendar that had a waxy feel as a coating. It worked well. Start by grabbing pairs and putting glue on the elongated side of one candy cane and then attaching to another elongated side of another candy cane. Place a strip of glue down the center ensuring they will stay attached. Set aside for about five minutes to let the glue adhere the candy canes together.

After the glue has dried on the candy cane pairs go ahead and form the round, wreath shape. This is the time to do touch up and another thin line of glue on the elongated ends that have been glued together previously. Make sure they have a nice amount of glue to secure that the candy canes will be able to hold together through out the whole Holiday season! After that this is the time to ensure and form the wreath shape, glueing the top/ hook part of the candy cane to one another when finished with the top, move to the bottom end of the candy cane which should have formed a circle at the center of your wreath, apply glue here as well. Let dry. Flip over and repeat gluing the top/hooks and the bottom of time candy canes that for the center of the wreath. Using a good amount of the glue from the hot glue gun. Let the glue dry and adhere five to ten minutes this time.

Can you see your creation coming together? Ensure your glue is dry before heading into the next step. Gently pick up your wreath. Do you see all those stringy left over glue hanging off? Slowly with your fingers just remove and toss. Slowly and carefully lay your wreath back down onto your work surface.

Finally enough of the dainty work, let’s move onto the fun part! No matter what decorations purchased to add onto the wreath, they always turn out beautiful! Just so happened to come across some beautiful ight weight little add ons. Was able to find some Inexpensive miniature red and green bows with a little bell on them, a small “JOY” sign, and some great foam glitter Holiday stickers all found at the Dollar Tree. Just arrange where desired and add enough glue to ensure it stay on the wreath.

And now for the very last step before hanging your creation to show off your Holiday Cheer, Time to cut your ribbon. This step is pretty much measured by preference, wether you want it to hang low or hang higher up. Always cut a little extra just to make sure the ribbon is not too short. Pictured is about ten inches of ribbon but at the end I did end up cutting extra off that I did not need. Once your ribbon is cut to your preference go ahead and put a small dot of glue onto the spot of your choice and an wrap one end of your ribbon around a pair of candy canes along with placing small dots of glue to ensure your ribbon will hold and will not unwrap. Evenly move across to the opposite side and repeat placing small dots of glue while wrapping your ribbon creating a ribbon hook. Lift wreath up by the ribbon and pull off any excess strands of glue lingering around.

Finally your Candy Cane Wreath is finished. All that is left is finding the perfect spot to hang. I removed a couple wall art pieces and placed my wreath against a flat fall hanging from a nail that was already previously in the wall.

This quick and simple candy cane wreath is sure to add Holiday cheer where ever placed. The wreath also makes for a made from the soul, low-cost Holiday present great for any family, friend, teachers, postal workers, whomever you have on your Holiday list. Just remember do not eat any of the candy canes used in this craft! Happy Holidays from my family to yours!