SO, use it up in a super fun way that was a highlight every year when I was growing up.
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| This one's made of fabric. |
Instructions:
- Find some kids that you love; count them.
- Gather the following supplies ready per kid:
- 25 pieces of candy for their countdown stash (you can select or they can choose)
- A roll of plastic wrap, or wrapping paper, or if you're ambitious, your odd yards of Christmas fabric
- Ribbon, string, anything about 8 to 10 inches long that ties, some clothes pins, or some sturdy twist ties—any securing device :)
- Line up the pieces of candy and then measure that same length in plastic wrap or wrapping paper. (For fabric, you may need 7-inch-wide strips of whatever you've got, short ends sewn together, then long ends sewn into one long tube, to meet the length required. Payout for this more complicated method is that you get to reuse the countdown next year, but if you're like me, sewing is like running and you do it only when you don't see any other means of escaping your dilemma, so you know, do what you're up for.)
- Secure your wrapping material between each piece of candy with your ties. (For fabric, tie off one end of your tube and call it the bottom; drop first piece of candy down to that bottom then tie off above it, then drop candy, then tie, etc.)
- Hang from something high (or coil up like a snake in a box with the first piece of candy hanging out, or do whatever you want, because you're creative like that).
There really are so many combinations of these steps and materials to make this fun for the whole family! When you use clothes pins, you can write the countdown numbers on them in colorful marker. You can use colored plastic wrap. You can zig-zag your filled tube to look like a single-line Christmas tree with a name-tag star on top. There's no limit to the fun, so go have some!
