I saw a recipe for making Life Savers candy canes a few years ago and I vowed that one day I would make them. Since the kids have been SOOOO into making ornaments lately, I decided that this would be the year!!!
First, we read the book J Is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told by Crystal Bowman, which is about a candy maker who makes candy canes. He explains how the candy cane is a symbol of the birth of Christ and His gift of salvation. If you haven’t read this book, I would highly suggest that you check it out! We love it!!!
After reading the book, we got out our Life Savers. Each of the kids had to tell me something about how the candy cane before they began to create their very own. Of course, we ate a few in the process!!!
Supplies Needed:
- 4 pineapple lifesavers and 4 cherry lifesavers (I bought a big bag of them)
- cookie sheet covered in tin foil
- 1½” cut from a plastic drinking straw
- ribbon or string
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 325°F.
2) Arrange the eight lifesavers into the shape of a candy cane.
3) Bake for 3 to 6 minutes, until candies are melted.
4) Remove from oven.
5) Quickly use the straw to poke a hole in the top of the candy cane. Leave the straw there until the candy has cooled.
6) After the candy is completely cool, gently remove the straw. (I did this with some of ours and was unable to get the straw out without breaking the candy cane. So, for the remaining candy canes, we made sure to remove them from the oven before the top hole already in the Life Saver melted. We used that hole to do step 7.)
7) Tie the ribbon or string through the hole to hang the ornament on your Christmas tree.
I am linking this up with Kid Friendly Friday (which is currently hosted with the Round Robin), Handmade Holidays and Making Christmas Meaningful!
What if after the lifesavers cooled, you cut the straw flush with the candy and leave the straw in.
Great idea!!!
What a clever idea – very nice! 🙂
This is excellent – thanks.
Oh this looks like a wonderful craft! I reopened up the blog hop and added it. Thanks for posting this!
thank you so much for this blog, i have been looking for crafts to make with my kids next week when they go on vacation for 3 weeks. i have always waanted to learn about the candy cane also, so i will definetly go to the library first, thank you again,
Hmmm… you think it would work with an embossing gun? I’m chaperoning the girls at ballet for Nutcracker… could be a fun activity. I might have to do a test run 🙂
Thanks so much for linking up today.. I loved this idea..