Things have been a little hectic around here.  My husband had to return home to Australia unexpectedly so I’ve been wrangling 3 kiddos on my own since the end of November.  I have a whole new respect for single moms who do it day in and day out.  It has been eye opening in many different ways including how much more multitasking it requires! Speaking of which, the 2 in school are finished for Christmas break next week and I realized that I needed to get their class gifts done.

I am completely in love with reindeers right now so I immediately thought of doing an updated version of the candy cane reindeer that screams kid+Christmas.

I found extra large candy canes for $0.50/piece and knew that they’d be perfect for what I had in mind but the key was to figure out how to make them look how I pictured them in my head.  After some trial and error this is what they kids will take to school on Friday. I love, love, love them!

Other than the time it takes to cut out the reindeer heads, this is a super simple project.

Here’s what you need:

• White cardstock
• Templates (provided below)
• Black stick-on jewels
• Red stick-on jewels
• Ribbon or Coloured paper (if desired)
• Jute twine
• Glue Gun
• Hole Punch

My candy canes had ugly stickers on them and when I tried to pull them off they left horrible white sticky bits all over them. I used green & white burlap-style ribbon to cover that icky stuff (which required the glue gun) and then tied on the gift tag using the jute twine.

For the heads, fold them slightly along the centre and cut two slits, one near the base of the ears and the other above the nose.  The cuts are a little hard to see in the picture.

There needs to be enough room to insert the candy cane.  Don’t worry if the cut isn’t perfectly straight.  It won’t show when you’re done.

Add two black jewels for the eyes and a red jewel for the nose, and you’re done.  You may find the adhesive on the jewels isn’t quite sticky enough.  A dab of hot glue will do the trick.  I was worried about the heads moving in transport to school so I also added a smidgen of hot glue behind the top of the head to secure it.

Wouldn’t these be adorable attached as the gift tag on your presents?  I may be doing a few extra for exactly that.

Happy Holidays!

Downloadable templates:

• Large reindeer heads (2/page)
• Small reindeer heads (4/page)
• Gift Tags (12/page)