Quick and easy chocolate Christmas candy making for kids

Kids can easily make chocolate Christmas candy with a few basic items.

Chocolate candy is the best, easy present ever for kids to make and give at Christmas time. It's fun too. I've done this with my grand-kids many times. They end up with gifts everyone will love that they can make on a budget. If your kids are too young to use the stove, melt the chocolate for them and allow them to do the rest. Here's a few recipes we use here at Grandma's house to get you started.

Almond bark

Oil a cookie sheet lightly and set to one side. Melt 2 bags of semi-sweet, milk, or white chocolate over low heat. Stir in 2 cups of almond slivers or whole almonds. Spread mixture evenly on the greased cookie sheet. Let cool and break into random pieces. Package and freeze.

Rocky road drops

Oil a cookie sheet lightly and set to one side. Melt 2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate over low heat. Add 2 cups chopped peanuts and 1 cup mini marshmallows. Stir in quickly so the marshmallows don't melt. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the greased cookie sheet. Let cool before packaging and freezing.

White chocolate pretzels

Oil a cookie sheet lightly and set to one side. Melt 2 bags of white chocolate chips over low heat. Dip small pretzels in the chocolate one by one and lay on the cookie sheet to harden. (Dip pretzels using a fork so as not to get sticky fingers.) This candy is pretty with multicolored sprinkles too. Let cool before packaging and freezing.

Chocolate coconut wreaths

Oil a cookie sheet lightly and set to one side. Melt 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 bag butterscotch chips over low heat. Add one bag of coconut and stir in. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Use a spoon or clean fingers to make a center hole in each candy and shape into wreath. “decorate” the wreath with candy bits of your choice. Let these easy Christmas candy treats cool, then freeze for Christmas.

The make ahead factor saves holiday stress.

The best part about all these easy chocolate candy Christmas treats is that they can be made a month ahead to save last minute stress. They can be used as gifts or served at a Christmas party. Make a couple assorted bags of chocolate Christmas candy for unexpected guests and just leave them in the freezer.

Note: Kids learn what they live. Consider buying fair trade chocolate and other cruelty free ingredients for this Christmas project so that kids learn the importance of using their buying power for peaceful, positive change.

Stringing popcorn and cranberries as Christmas garland

Stringing popcorn and cranberries is one of our very favorite Christmas activities, here at Grandma's place. It's old fashioned and simple, just like me. All you need is a bag of frozen cranberries, a kettle of plain popped popcorn and a needle and thread. Stringing popcorn and cranberries as Christmas garland is fun for kids and grownups too.

The look

Strings of popcorn and cranberries bring an old time, yet timeless look to the home. Our family traditions also include stringing this edible garland for wildlife. Just hang them outside. They make a wonderful Christmas treat for birds and squirrels.

A frozen tip

Cranberries used for stringing garland should be frozen. Using thawed cranberries for this task is messy, juicy and sticky. The frozen ones can be sticky too, but they're not quite as bad. The needle should be large but quite sharp. Supervise kids well, so they don't stick their fingers.

Thread type

Button thread works best for stringing edible garland. It holds up better and is stronger than regular thread. If you don't have button thread, don't worry. Regular sewing thread, doubled will work too.

Length of thread

When threading the needle for stringing popcorn and cranberries, leave the thread uncut. That is to say, the part of the thread that is not passed through the needle should remain attached to the spool. This is because you don't know how long the garland will be until all the popcorn and cranberries are on it.

Alternate berries and popcorn

To cut down on stickiness, alternate the cranberries and popcorn. The popcorn will absorb some of the cranberry juice. Try three popcorn kernels and then a cranberry. This is a perfect pattern for the whole garland. As you work, slide the cranberries and popcorn down the string toward the thread spool.

Tying off the strand

When you run out of popcorn and cranberries to string, it's time to tie off your garland. We like to make ours into circles by tying the ends of string together. Just snip the thread at the spool, leaving a few inches for tying. Double knot the thread and your Christmas garland is done.

Time consuming, but homey

Stringing popcorn and cranberries may take some time. I like to play holiday music while stringing the garland. Sing along or just enjoy family conversation. Those who don't enjoy this activity can do another Christmas craft if they wish.

Feed the birds other treats too

Edible garland isn't the only way to feed the birds this Christmas. Our family likes to fill pine cones with peanut butter and roll them in birdseed. We also hang orange slices in the trees for the birds.

Day 5 and still alive!

A facsimile of my late night companion.

It's day 5 of having everyone back in the house and I'm still alive! Barely. LOL It's been a long week of chauffeuring people here and there, picking up after people (yes, they help too) and just generally being a good (I like to think) Grandma.

We've had missed communications, late night rides, sobbing, heart wrenching tears, driving lessons, loud, happy video game sessions and heart to heart talks. And of course, that's not all. Having a house full of kids is very humbling. You really find out what kind of stuff you're made of (or capable of withstanding.)

I must add that you also find out that it's not so bad and that the house is much happier for it.

But, I digress....

Managed to get “run to the bathroom sick” last night from eating too much junk food. At least I think that's what happened. Not really sure. But I am chronically ill. I keep forgetting. And junk food and I just aren't a good match any more, whether the junk be vegan or not.

Anyway.... I got up this morning after a grand total of an hour and a half of sleep, to start all over again, beginning with running my daughter to work at 5 am while still nauseous and dizzy.

Today our new appliances will be delivered in a 4 hour window, with my Tia Wia needing a ride to work right smack in the middle of it. Thank goodness that Nayna is 18 now, so she can wait for the delivery guys if necessary.

Thank goodness for the grand-kids altogether, actually. Whatever would I do without them?

Well, I might get some sleep and some quiet for sure. But sleep and peace and quiet are highly overrated when compared to the absolute joy of late night giggling to cheer you up as you worship that porcelain god.

Man, I love these kids!

Grandma's house plus HOW many?

Yup, that's about the size of it alright.

Looks like it's going to be Grandma and Gary's house plus 7 for a while. And if you count all our respective furry friends, well let's not even go there. The last thing we need is animal control paying us an unnecessary visit. Suffice it to say that our house is going to be chock full of love for the next few months as we make room for a few transitioning family members and their companions.

I'm OK with it. It's not going to be the easiest thing to deal with, for sure. But Gary and I love the crap out of all these people so here we are. And here they are again. Here we all are together. You get the idea. Plus, they'll all be moving out soon and of course, I'll be thanking goodness while not so secretly mourning their absence. Ain't life grand and ironic?

Today, I did some rearranging. We're going to need an extra fridge with all these people here. Luckily, we needed a new one anyway so our familial house guests can use the old one. Made room for all the extra non-perishables by adding a spare portable cupboard to the kitchen.

Stuck our old back-up portable dishwasher in the garage as someone recently let us know that our Christmas gift is going to be a new dishwasher. Best Christmas gift ever, thank-you, Hugh and Patty. That old portable one was mostly serving as a counter-top since the connections didn't fit our sink. Gary never was able to find the right size adapters.

As for the old built in, I'll be glad to wish it a not so fond farewell. It was good while it lasted but since it stopped working, it tends to fill up with stagnant water from sink drainage. Which is far from pleasant and necessitates running yucky, chemically bleach through it a couple times a week.

And as you can imagine, with 8 people and heaven knows how many pets in the house, we need that dishwasher, plus whatever other help we can get. So grateful for the gift!

Aja spent the morning doing home-school and cleaning her room on breaks. What a great kid! She's kind of sad to give up her room. Amber and Tia are older, though and need their privacy more. Amber's an adult now, when did that happen? IDK I'm mystified!

So, 3 adults, 2 kids and numerous furry friends in the half finished basement. 3 adults, one older teen, a dog and a cat upstairs. Oh, and did I mention that there's only one bathroom? The other one is still in the process of being remodeled. Oh and did I mention that someone is pregnant. No! Not me! Silly! My daughter is carrying baby # 5. I'm sure that in her condition, she's absolutely thrilled about the whole one bathroom thing.

Ah, well, life is never perfect. But if you're lucky, you get to spend a large portion of it with loved ones. A really large portion in a really small 60's brick house, in our case. Bwa ha ha ha Oh well. They're welcome and we love them. And that's really all that matters, isn't it?