Rudolph Treat Jars

I recently got to spend a magical week with three of our grandchildren. While I was there, our thoughts naturally turned toward Christmas. One of Delys' goals was to come up with an idea for a fun gift for their friends and neighbors that the children could help prepare. Glancing through a craft catalog, she saw a kit for creating reindeer treat jars. The kits weren't cheap, but we realized that we could purchase our own supplies and make them ourselves much less expensively. (These would make great teacher gifts.)

Here is what you need:

glass jars with lids (we chose pint size, but you can go bigger or smaller )
brown felt
brown pipe cleaners
large red pom poms
large googly eyes
ribbon
hot glue gun and glue

Use the top of the lid as a pattern and trace a circle:

Fold the circle in half and cut two small slits near the center:

Fold a pipe cleaner in half and thread it through the slits to create the antlers:

Bend the pipe cleaner into a fun antler shape, glue the felt circle to the lid, and replace the metal rim. Ben and Katie, ages 4 and 6, were great at threading and bending the antlers:

We were worried about using hot glue with the children, so we chose over-sized eyes and pom poms so that their small fingers would stay far away from the heat. We placed the glue dots, and they simply put the eyes and nose over them:

Of course, the best part of the process was filling the jars with candy. We chose Tootsie Roll minis, small sleeves of Whoppers, and Smarties. But Kisses or Dove or any wrapped candy would be perfect. A whole lot of sampling went on . . . .

We trimmed the rim with ribbon--you could also add a bell--and Rudolph was ready for Christmas delivery: