Christmas Candy Countdown

You have too much leftover Halloween candy, don't you. I don't even have kids, we didn't even have trick or treaters, and still we bought a bunch of candy...because Halloween. 

So, use up your extras in a super fun way that was a highlight every year when I was growing up. The Christmas Candy Countdown.

This one's made of fabric.

Instructions:

• Find some kids that you love; count them. 
• Gather the following supplies per counted kid:

• 25 pieces of candy for their countdown stash (You can select or they can choose. My mom says one year I chose all Tootsie Rolls so I could eat the best stuff right away. I don't remember this, but it sure sounds like something I would do.)
• 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.)
• Pinch your wrapping material between each piece of candy with your securing devices. Cut your ribbon or string into 8-inch pieces. (For fabric tubes, 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 on top of that, then tie, drop, tie, etc.)
• Hang countdown 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 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 zigzag your filled tube to look like a single-line Christmas tree with a name-tag star on top.

Like this. Kinda.

Got ideas for other ways to variatize (made-up word) the craft? Leave a comment and we'll all benefit. There's no limit to the fun, so go have some!