Jolly Rancher Ornament That Looks Like Stained Glass

This Jolly Rancher ornament is a fun craft to make with the kids and a great way to use up these candies from your Halloween stash.

It’s also the perfect way to get in the Christmas spirit. The finished product looks like a stained glass Christmas tree — it’s shiny, semi-translucent and colorful.

As I was foraging through my kids’ leftover Halloween candy for chocolate, I realized they had a lot of Jolly Ranchers floating around in their candy bags. Apparently, they either received a lot of these or they just didn’t like them as much as the other candy.

Either way, since Halloween is over, I decided it was time to start coming up with ways to use up all the leftover candy, so, I gathered up a bunch of the Jolly Ranchers and turned them into a Christmas ornament. If you want to make a cute Christmas dessert with candy, try these Hershey kiss mice.

Materials Needed

You only need a few things to make these ornaments, and you might already have all of them at home.

• Cookie sheet: You’ll melt the candy in the cookie cutter on a cookie sheet in the oven.
• Parchment paper: Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper to keep the ornaments from sticking.
• Cooking spray: This will prevent the melted candy from sticking to the cookie cutter.
• Jolly Rancher candies: The amount of candies needed varies based on the size of your cookie cutter — you’ll need as many candies as you can fit in a single layer in the cookie cutter.
• Juice box straws: You’ll use these to create the hole at the top of the ornament so you can put a ribbon through it to hang the ornament.
• Ribbon or twine: You’ll add this to the top of the ornament for hanging the ornament on the tree.

How to Make a Jolly Rancher Ornament

Before I tell you how I made my Jolly Rancher ornament, I have to warn you, even though I somehow managed to pull this off with my almost non-existent craft ability, this was NOT an easy project.

If you want the mosaic look with less effort, I recommend these melted crayon christmas ornaments instead. And if you like the idea of baked ornaments, try these Homemade cinnamon spice ornaments.

I will share all of my mistakes and lessons learned so that if you want to recreate it, your process will be more streamlined, but even with tips and tricks you will need a little finesse and a pinch of patience to pull it off.

The steps to make this ornament are deceptively simple:

Step 1: Prepare Baking Sheet

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and coat a cookie cutter with butter, cooking spray or oil.

Step 2: Place Ornaments and Candies

Unwrap Jolly Rancher candies and place as many as you can fit in a single layer within the cookie cutter.

Step 3: Melt

Bake at 250° for about 5 minutes until the candies have softened and melted slightly but haven’t become completely liquid.

Step 4: Prepare Hole for Ribbon

Remove from oven and insert a juice box straw near the top of each ornament to create a hole for the string. Leave the straw in place until candy has cooled (otherwise it might melt more and close up the hole).

Step 5: Remove from Cookie Cutters

Before candy cools completely and hardens (about 1-2 minutes after removing from oven), gently press on edges of ornament to release it from the cookie cutter. Use a butter knife to separate the candy from the cookie cutter if necessary.

Step 6: Finish

Push straw all the way through the hole and then tie a piece of ribbon or string through to form the ornament hanger.

See? It doesn’t SOUND hard.

Tips for Making a Jolly Rancher Ornament

Here are some important notes to make the process as simple as possible:

• Don’t skip the parchment paper and greasing the cookie cutter with non stick spray. Jolly Ranchers cool and harden quickly and they adhere to whatever they touch.
• If you ignored the first important note, you can still salvage your cookie sheet and cookie cutter by returning them to the oven and heating until the candy melts again. Then, wipe off quickly before the candy cools.
• After you’ve baked the ornament, do NOT wait for it to cool completely to remove it from the cookie cutter or you risk the ornament cracking or breaking. Ideally, the candy will be semi-solid and malleable while you work to release it from the cookie cutter.
• I used my toaster oven. You can use a full-sized cookie sheet in a full-sized oven so you can make multiple ornaments at once, but make sure you have a small army to help you quickly make the hanger holes and to help you extract the ornaments from the cookie cutters before they cool.
• If you do break the ornament trying to free it from the cookie cutter, simply put the broken pieces back inside the cookie cutter and melt them again. I had to do this twice with the ornament pictured above.

If you have leftover Jolly Ranchers, you can also make these Jolly Rancher Christmas Wreath Suckers.

More DIY Ornaments

If this project hasn’t frightened you away from making your own ornaments, you might want to tackle these other projects from a couple of my friends and myself.

• Monogrammed ornaments add a personal touch and are easy to make. You can find the instructions for these easy DIY ornaments at Organized 31.
• And how about an ornament that does double duty? A bird feeder ornament is both decorative and serves as a holiday treat for your feathered friends — find out how to make your own bird feed ornament at Homemade for Elle.
• If you’re really in the mood to craft, check out my post on a SUPER easy DIY fabric mason jar lid ornaments. They are easy enough for kids (and me) to make and better yet, it’s a craft where you can repurpose your supplies.

Additional Christmas Fun

Keep the Christmas fun going strong for your family with some of these other fun gift ideas, printables, activities and treats.

• Christmas Chapstick Gift Tags – These Christmas Chapstick Gift Tags are a fun way to make fun gifts easily right at home. Free holiday gift tag printable.
• Mistletoe Kisses Treat Bags – Mistletoe Kisses Treat Bags comes with printable treat bag toppers and are such a quick gift to make. Fill the treat bags with Hershey kisses and give away.
• Christmas Tic Tac Toe – The kids will have a blast challenging you with this Christmas Tic Tac Toe game! Who will be the winner? You’ll have to play to find out!
• Christmas Spot the Difference – The kids will have a blast with this Christmas Spot the Difference game! Will they be able to find all the differences in the pictures?
• Celery Reindeer Snacks Festive Treat – These Celery Reindeer Snacks are so cute and really easy to make. They’re the perfect snack for kids during the holiday season.
• Salty and Sweet Grinch Snacks – These treats are perfect to eat while watching the show.