Christmas Candy Ornaments
These Christmas Candy Ornaments are a surprisingly easy diy craft idea. Perfect for hanging on your Christmas tree or giving as gifts!
For an easy holiday project that’s fun for young and old alike, make these beautiful ornaments from cut rock candy. The festive designs inside the slices of these classic hard candies create beautiful, edible art.
Metal cookie cutters, tart pans, and mini cake pans are used to melt the candies. Children will love arranging (and re-arranging) the candies into perfect colour combinations, but an adult will need to remove the hot pans from the oven. Holes can be made in the ornaments while the candy is still warm, or rings of candy can be hung with a ribbon.
As the size of your moulds will vary, so will the number of candies required for each ornament. Plan on an average of 12 candies per ornament, but buy a little extra; some of the cut rock candies in the bag may be broken or unsuitable (too thin or too thick) and you will not want to run out!
With time the ornaments may get a little sticky. To avoid this, many cake supply stores carry “Confectioner’s Glaze”, edible shellac that’s used commercially on many different types of candy. Brush it on, allow it to dry, and you may be able to carefully save your masterpieces – enclosed in plastic and stored in a cool, dry location – for next year!
Christmas Candy Ornaments
Materials:
Hard rock cut candy (or the Bulk Barn)
Cookie cutters or mini pans
Parchment
Baking sheets
Toothpicks
Ribbon or Ornament hangers
Instructions:
Sort through your candy and remove pieces that are too thin or thick. Try to keep the thickness of the pieces roughly equal.
Heat oven to 300 F.
Lightly grease the inside of each cookie cutter or mini pan. These will be your moulds.
Place moulds on parchment covered baking sheets.
Place the candies (flat side down) inside the moulds. For rings or wreaths, only place the candies around the outer edge. For solid ornaments, fill the pans. Leave as little empty space as possible.
Place 1 baking sheet in the oven at a time. Begin checking after 5 minutes. Remove from oven when the candies are melted together and smooth on the top.
Set the sheet on a cooling rack and allow the ornaments to cool for 2 minutes. Carefully slide the parchment with the warm ornaments onto the rack. If you plan to put holes in the candy ornaments, poke a toothpick in each one, wherever you want the hole. Push the toothpick through the parchment a little and rotate gently to enlarge the hole. If the candy is still too warm the hole will fill back up; wait for a minute and try again.
Once the hole remains open, remove the toothpick and let the ornaments cool completely before handling.
Once cool, add ribbon or an ornament hanger.
Tutorial created for Frugal Mom Eh by Lorinda M.
Oh wow! That is too cool.. I would never have thought this was possible! Thanks for sharing
How pretty are these! Now I need to make another trip to the Bulk Store to pick up some Rock Candy!!
How colorful & a much better use of the candy
Such a great idea, and awesome results. Definitely want to try this!
These are amazing!! Love it!
Somebody is being super creative here, love them
This would be so much fun to do with my grandchildren. We decorate a new set of ornaments each year. I’ll have to remember these for next year.
These are amazing
These look really great!
Those are beautiful and so unique!
Wow,I love them
Great idea! Looks so pretty & delicious.
These are so pretty, I love this idea. They look like stained glass!
I would love to try this but I dont think they could be this beautiful
These are too cute. Must make next year with the kids.
These are so pretty! What a creative idea!
I just found this pattern, but I can’t find the candy. Is there a website that I can buy it from?? I just love it, and it is so different from anything I have seen. LOVE IT!!!
You could order it off of Amazon awhile ago, not sure if its still available. Just search for rock candy!
A great craft to make with my boys, this will be awesome for us to do together!
This is going to be one of my Christmas crafts this year! I absolutely love this! Easy yet so impressive!
How long will these last? if I wanted to keep them for much longer should I spray it with something?
I was wondering the same thing– I think I will try some spray shellac this year and see how it works (I don’t care to keep them edible– just want to keep them from getting sticky and attracting pet hair and tree needles…).
It literally says in the post to spray it with shellac if you want to keep and re-use them. 😉
Is there a way to store these from year to year? Do they get sticky in humididty?
This is such a great idea. I am going to do some to hang on my tree and also to gift to my friend for hers. Thanks for sharing…brilliant.!
These are beautiful. It didn’t work well when we tried it, though. Do you have any tips for keeping the candy from running out from under the edge of the cookie cutter and, more importantly, getting the ornament OUT of the cookie cutter once it is melted?
I didn’t have a problem with mine running out under the edge, but I used new cutters so they were level with the bottom of the pan. The trick to getting the ornament out, aside from using parchment paper and greasing the cutters well is to carefully stretch out the cutters once the candy has cooled completely. They should then pop out.
I just tried making these – they turned out so pretty! I used a mason jar ring as the mould and sprayed it well with oil. The ornament didn’t get stuck at all. Thanks for posting this idea!
Oh I love the idea of using mason jar rings!
That is really interesting and creative. I’ve never seen anything like it, Almost like little stained glass ornaments
I tried this cute idea, but they didn’t turn vibrant colors. instead they just melted together and had a whiteish color to them. also used a round cookie cutter to make the wreath but it just melted and covered up the center as well. any ideas what I did wrong?
The wreath was actually made using the mini cake pan you can see in the photos of the prep work. Not sure about the colour. Could be the quality of the candy you chose?
thanks. bought dollor store candy. also the one I did make is awfully sticky and sticks to the hands when handled. might be the same story of using an off brand candy.
Yeah they can be a bit sticky but not that much, if you redo with better quality candy you can brush them over with confectioners glaze to seal them and that will eliminate any stickyness.
Are these edible? I think it would be fun to add them to a cookie plate and give as gifts.
Yes.
My friend, her daughters and I made these today for an upcoming craft sale. We too had issues popping the shapes out of the cookie cutters even though we greased the cutters. We did manage to get about 20 gorgeous ornaments out of our hard work though!
We found the candy at Bulk Barn but were unable to find confectioner’s glaze there or at Michael’s.
Thank you for this idea. They look beautiful, but I have had many difficulties with the project. Can you provide assistance?
When I tried making them with a mini-pan sprayed with oil, I still could not get the ornament out. I turned the pan upside down and tapped on the back. The ornament broke.
I then tried the cookie cutter on parchment, but the candy seeps out since the cookie cutters are not perfectly flat. I also could not get the ornament out of the cutter. What kind of oil do you use?
The hole-cutting process also did not work well. The candy sticks to the toothpick and creates strands that stick to the ornament. How do you avoid this?
Thank you!
Make sure you grease the insides of your cutter or pan really well and that when you fill them you are getting a pretty solid single layer of candy in so that when they melt it creates a thick enough layer that it can take being removed.
The candy will melt out a bit from the cookie cutters a bit but those pieces should be easy to break off without ruining the ornament.
When cutting the hole try dipping your toothpick in oil, that should prevent the candy sticking.
Wonder if one could use some sort of ceramic or urethane sealer to keep for years without getting sticky. I love these that much!!!
We made ornaments like these when I was a kid, in school or scouts—maybe grade 4 or 5? Mine lasted right up until this year (so about 33 years) and probably would’ve lasted even longer if my basement hadn’t had two occasions of extreme dampness in the last year. I recall using an iron (and wax paper barriers) and melting the candies together, instead of using the oven and cookie cutters.
These are so beautiful and look so easy! Question: If I shellac them after will they last more than one year?
Yes!
Thank you So Very Awesome Idea. They are Beautiful and now I Also I Also have to make a trip to the Bulk Barn to get my candies too. Can’t wait. THANKS again for your ideas.
Hi,
I am using a non stick, six cavity, mini like bundt pans for the wreaths. How long do I let it cool before flipping over to remove?
Thank you!