Christmas Candy Carolers

Assemble candy: Each caroler will have a striped peppermint body, a gumdrop face, uncoated gumdrop hat, and a sour gummy worm as a scarf.

Use a plastic knife to cut the uncoated red gumdrop in half horizontally. Discard (or eat) the bottom half; the top will serve as the hat. Slice off the top and bottom of the white gumdrop or poke tiny holes in it to expose the sticky interior -- the bond will be more secure when you join the other candy pieces. Repeat for the chewy striped peppermint candy. Cut the worm in half across the middle.

Apply the sticky parts of the candy together to form the caroler and wrap the worm around his "neck" to look like a scarf.

Use a toothpick to poke tiny holes in the face before adding black nonpareil eyes and red nonpareils for the mouth. (The toothpick's tip will turn sticky -- helpful when transporting the nonpareil.) Use a clean toothpick to remove the nonpareil from the sticky toothpick.

If desired, help kids attach wires for hanging. Insert wire (we used 24-gauge) through ornament, from top to bottom, until end pokes out. Using your fingers, or needle-nosed pliers, bend the bottom at a right angle and clip off the extra with a nail clipper. Bend the top end into a hook. If ornament is heavy, let it set for three days before hanging; it will harden, tightening around the wires.