If you've waited until the last minute and are out of gift ideas - how about giving the gift of food? More importantly... sweets!!
That's the best kind, right?? If this is an idea that might work for you, keep reading! I'm going to tell you How to Make an Easy Christmas Candy Tray!
PS - this is also an easy way to make some money around Christmas if you like to do this sort of thing! The cookies & candies I'm going to list here are mostly easy and affordable and sell like crazy!!
You'll just have to go shopping and invest some time and love 🙂
Here's the first tray that I made....
I waited until sort of last minute to work on the tray so I had to come up with some goodies I could make in a hurry! I settled on White-Chocolate Dipped Oreos, Peppermint Bark, Chocolate Peanut Clusters, Pecan Pralines and Decorated Sugar Cookies (they actually do not come together in a hurry but I had extras from another order the same day).
Then I made this tray the another day:
...doesn't that look yummy? Same things without the cookies! Anywho... I made a batch of each of these and dipped the Oreos all in around 2 hours. I also made some dipped Nutter Butters for another event.
If you make large batches, you could put several trays together for gift-giving!
And one more...
This one had Peppermint Bark, Chocolate Peanut Clusters, Pecan Pralines, Graham Cracker Nut Roll and Frosted Sugar Cookies .
Here's what I used to make my trays:
- 9x13 Aluminum Pans with Lids. You can get these for a dollar or two in any dollar store, Walmart, or even grocery stores. You could also use the candy tins or plastic bowls they sell this time of year - they're quite festive and inexpensive. I opted for the larger pan so I could get more goodies into them!
- Wax Paper or Parchment Paper to line the pan - it just makes it look nicer.
- A pretty bow or ribbon to put on top!
- And then the candy... I choose to do a variety of 4 or 5 cookies & candies for each tray I've done. You could do more or less depending on how much time you have, how much you want to spend (recipes with pecans cost more, for example), or what your customers or recipients like!
SO, I've rounded up some recipes here on my blog that are not difficult, mostly inexpensive (except for the pecans) and YUMMY (most important!!), plus a couple of other ideas that are a little more work but still fantastic!
With the exception of the marshmallow dips, they would all work beautifully in a candy tray and actually, you could do the marshmallows without the stick and they'd work too!
Here you go:
Chocolate Peanut Clusters - these don't have to be "dark" - use milk chocolate or semi-sweet!
Fresh Baked Cookies - Sugar Cookies or White Chocolate Pecan Snowball Cookies or the Easy Chocolate Crackle Cookies or the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies or these Oatmeal Pecan Cookies.... the sky is the limit - any cookie you like to bake that is no-fuss!
White Chocolate Dipped Oreos and/or Nutter Butters (with Christmas sprinkles)
Okay - now for a few other ideas - not as convenient to pack into a tray, but easy nonetheless and you could make them work!
Easy Peppermint Marshmallow Dips
Christmas Crunch - this one might not be so easy to put into a tray, but you could put it into small sandwich bags to give as classroom gifts, teacher gifts, or sell them by the dozen!
Giant Dipped Pretzel Sticks - these were dipped for Valentines, but use Christmas Sprinkles instead and you can have them ready in no-time and they're festive and yummy!
Do you have any questions? Other ideas? I'd love to hear them! You can truly make a candy & cookie tray as simple or as fancy as you like but I can guarantee you... whoever you give it to will love it!!
You can pin this image to save the idea for later...
Tiffany
This is a wonderful idea! I always make candy trays for our family at Christmas, but I have never thought of selling them. I do sell chocolate covered strawberries for Valentines Day, so this would be a great plan for extra Christmas money! How do you price your trays? I also like the idea for bags of Christmas Crunch!
Rose
Hi Tiffany - yes, it's a great way to earn extra money at Christmas. I priced them at $35-$45 each.
Randi
This is a yummy post!
Thanks for linking up with the Home Matter Link Party!
Have a lovely weekend,
Randi
#HomeMattersParty
Patty niten
Wow I can't believe you can even remember your name trying to Home school 6 children. Do you ever get anytime for yourself. I have 4 grown children now and I always had jobs for them to do around the house to help me out.they were vacuuming the carpets at 5 and 6. Years old. Folding laundry and washing dishes.good luck with homeschooling and raising your babies.
Rose
Haha... thank you Patty. Merry Christmas!
Misty Oakley
Your trays are very pretty. Do you have any tips or pointers on what to put in the tray, for example could you put peanut brittle in with the cookies or fudge? I always struggle with this because I like to make lots of different things not just cookies.
MaryAnn Coy
I'm trying to pin the link for this post, but it's impossible!
the link is under banner ads at the bottom. Can't close the
ads to access the link. Just thought you should know.
Angela Rice
I have been making candy for family members instead of Christmas presents for years, but this year I want to sell some in my neighborhood but always have a hard time pricing....i usually make peanut clusters, pralines, chocolate covered pretzels and peppermint almond bark. Last year I added Turtles (I make my own caramel), as I wanted to add a new candy each year.....Can you help with the pricing....please and thank you!