How to make a cute wreath out of candy and other junk you have lying around the house.

Here’s a spin on a beloved family tradition from ye olde country  Every Christmas when I was a kid, we would make “chocolate wreaths” for neighbours and friends. I have fond memories (who wouldn’t?) of being surrounded by chocolate, wire coat hangers and plastic bags as we would talk late into the night putting them together. When I first had kids, and was too lazy intimidated by my domestic goddess friends to make goody plates for Christmas, I too turned to the chocolate wreath. This year I thought I’d put a Halloween spin on it, and I think it turned out pretty cute.
This is an attractive and effective way of keeping the candy safe until trick or treating  time it’s also a fun decoration (if you have great self control and don’t guzzle it the day after you make it Halloween, I don’t see why you couldn’t get a couple of years use out of it-the chocolate would certainly not be a temptation next year). It also makes a cute gift.
Naturally the concept works perfectly for any occasion, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentines Day when theme coloured chocolate is in abundance. If you wanted to stock up on post-holiday candy in neutral colours and joozh (how do you spell joozh? Juzz? Jhoosh)  it up with coloured ribbons tied between the candy, you could do that too. (I stuck some moderately cute cupcake picks in to add a bit more colour and fun) .  It’s totally open to interpretation!
All that said, it’s a bit time consuming,  but it’s pretty fun if you like busy work involving chocolate, and any idiot can do it. So without further ado, this idiot will show you how.
You’ll need.

• A wire coat hanger .
• Some cheap sandwich bags (not the nice thick ziplock, get the fold overs, the cheaper the better-in the past, we have also recycled dry cleaning bags which we cut into strips)
• A pair of scissors
• An abundance of candy in appropriate coloured wrappers. Actually this wreath took quite a bit less than anticipated, but it would really depend on the size of your wreath and how full you wanted it to look.
• Something mindless to watch on TV. (I was watching the Real Housewives of New York hash it out at their reunion. They make me feel so sane.)

First, bend your coat hanger into more or less of a circular shape. It doesn’t have to be super precise because you will fill in with candy to balance any wonkiness.

Then, stick a piece of candy into a plastic bag, split it down the middle almost to the base. Now you will have two ends with which to tie the candy onto the wire coathanger. You can also cut the bag down the middle into two separate pockets. This saves on plastic but it is a bit more fiddly to keep the candy from falling out of it’s pocket.
  or
Tie the candy as close to the hanger and as tightly as possible If you let it hang limply off the hanger you aren’t going to get a cute effect. 
Ignore the fact that it looks really awful and tragic, it always does at first, it’s not just you…just keep going.

Keep tying until it looks as full as you want it to.
Cut off all the edges of the plastic so none is showing.This part is critical. Be ruthless with your trimming or it will not look nice. It will look like pieces of candy tied onto a wire coat hanger with bits of bargain sandwich bags. Trim, trim, trim my friends! (This is when tying it really nice and securely pays off).Cover any exposed pieces of plastic with yet more candy. In other words, minimize the appearance of plastic and wire coathanger. Ok? Add any other cutesy stuff you want to. Or don’t. Hey man, I’m not the boss of you.

Get some appropriate ribbon and cover the hook of the hanger. Start at the top and tuck the edges in at the bottom where they can be covered with candy. Tie another bow around the hook if you so desire.


Et voila, an edible wreath with which to taunt your children and your dog. Leave it on your front door at your own risk.

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