DIY Peppermint Hard Candy Ornaments

Easy craft that anyone can make!

I’m a Pinterest fanatic, and lately I’ve been looking for ideas on DIY Christmas crafts that my daughter and I can make together. I had my eye on a cute idea to make ornaments out of candy, but they were missing some vital steps in the process! So I combined some tips from a few different ideas to create a fail-proof formula to make the perfect candy ornaments! And trust me, if I can make them perfect every time, then so can you!

I love the way these turned out, and I have a feeling we made a new family tradition!

All you need is:

Peppermint candies

Aluminum foil

Cookie cutters

Non-stick cooking spray

1 lollipop or cake pop stick

ribbon, yarn or twine

This is so easy and fun, your kids will love it! And it’s much less messy than man other projects. Ready?

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Get a large pan or cookie sheet and cover it with a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Choose cookie cutters that you want to use as shapes for your ornaments and arrange them on the pan.

DON’T skip this part-it won’t work without it. Grab your non-stick spray and spray all of the cookie cutters as they are laying on the pan. Make sure you coat them well!

Now carefully arrange the candies inside the cookie cutters so that they fill the space up as much as possible (don’t leave any big holes) and try to make it so that the mints are touching. Tip: You can also use butterscotch or other hard candies!

Once the candies are filled in, pop the pan in the oven for about 6 minutes!

After you pull them out, they should be melty looking and liquid-y. They will start to harden very quickly as they cool. This was the point where I freaked out and didn’t think they worked because some of the candies leaked out of the cookie cutters. So I grabbed my cake pop stick and used it to trace our the outside of the cookie cutters and remove the excess stuff that seeped through – that way it would ensure a perfect shape as it hardened!

After about 2 minutes it really solidifies, so you will need to poke a hole in the ornaments during this time so that the holes harden. Use the cake pop stick to poke a clean, perfect circle each ornament. It’s super easy! Afterward, wait until the ornaments are fully cooled.

I moved on to another project and came back to them in about 30 minutes. Since they were fully cooled, I carefully picked each one up and gently popped them out of their cookie cutters – they turned out Pinterest perfect! I laid them all on a paper towel and then gently wiped off all of the excess non-stick spray.

All that’s left to do is add some string or ribbon, knot the ends, and hang them on the tree! I love how simple and pretty these turned out, and how easy they are to make with few ingredients! Mainly because my daughter had a blast “cooking” these herself – she was so proud of herself! Too cute!

Have you made these DIY ornaments or something similar before? Share your tips and tricks below!