Holiday topiaries are made out of two of the most popular elements that define the holidays, food and decorations. No matter if you are celebrating Christmas, Easter or the 4th of July, chances are that you can think of a gathering where a certain type of food is served in a specific kind of environment. Why not have a little bit more fun with how you welcome these important holidays by doing something different and making a holiday candy topiary.
Making the base for the topiary involves the same steps regardless of what holiday you are making the topiary for. You will need to start by finding a base of some kind. A terracotta pot painted in the color of your choice is an affordable option, but you can use a bowl, a vase, whatever you can sturdy a stick into. You will also need at least 1 and a half Styrofoam balls, more depending on the number of layers that you want, and a wooden dowel. The half ball goes into the pot (or bowl) with the rounded part facing up. The dowel goes through the half ball and additional balls are placed on top of it. You decide how much space you like between the base and the ball on top of it. Now that you have your skeleton for this craft, you can begin to personalize it for your holiday.
If you stick to the red and green color scheme it is hard to go wrong when you are choosing candy for your Christmas topiary. To add a more elegant twist, you can use more gourmet candies or even cheeses and attach them to the topiary base with colored toothpicks, this way you still incorporate the colors of Christmas without being forced to choose treats that are either green or red.
Easter Candy Topiary
As with any topiary, the base of the topiary can be made to accent the candy. In the case of an Easter topiary, you can use plastic grass (the kind usually used to fill Easter baskets) instead of a moss (like you would most likely use to finish off other candy topiary crafts). You could also attach the plastic Easter eggs filled with treats to the topiary instead of attaching each treat individually.
Halloween Candy Topiary
Halloween topiaries can break a lot of the traditional rules for what a standard topiary is supposed to look like. You can cover your topiary with candy teeth, candy corns, or candied critters. You can paint the base black and use cotton balls or cotton candy to give it the look of being covered in spider’s webs. This type of topiary is also very forgiving as any un-straight, damaged, or off colored pieces on either the base or the candy pieces, actually add to the spooky like of the topiary. You can use a bowl as your topiary base and place your trick or treating candy inside of it.
Summer Time Topiaries
Whether you want to bring some fun to the neighborhood block party or you are hosting the Memorial Day or 4th of July get together, there are some candy topiary ideas that work particularly well for the summer months. Using bright colors like yellow lemon heads or assorted colors of tootsie rolls make for fun topiaries. Naturally, if you are throwing a more patriotic party you may want to visit the bulk candy section of your grocery store and choose treats based on their color. Red, white and blue wrapped suckers make topiary making easy as all you will need to attach your candy to the base are the sticks that the suckers are already attached to.