DENVER -- These ornaments will look just as pretty hung in a sunny window, or from an overhead light fixture as they will on your Christmas tree. If you have pets or small children, the first two places would probably be the best.

These ornaments, while they could be made of translucent colored glass, are actually made of hard candy. They are complex enough that you will surely draw rave reviews from all who see (or taste!) them, but they couldn't be simpler to make. And there's no law that you have to tell everyone that, either!

Don't worry -- we aren't going to have to get out candy thermometers and learn all about how to tell the "hard crack" stage from the "soft crack"stage -- that's candy making lingo. Instead, we'll make the ornaments, and leave the candy making to the professionals. The concept behind this design is to arrange pieces of store bought hard candy in pleasing patterns, and then bake in the oven for just a few minutes until the pieces melt and attach to each other.

What You Need

Bag of small hard candies (the mix I used is Brach's Arabian Nights Mix)
Others that are good to use are the cross cut Christmas hard candies that are flat discs with an image (wreath, tree, etc.,) in the center, Starlite peppermints and spearmints, etc.
Piece of aluminum foil
Cookie sheet
Clear fishing line or colored ribbon for hangers

What To Do

1. Lay aluminum foil on cookie sheet. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whatever candies you are using, make a few test strips before beginning to make your ornaments. Lay a few pieces of the candies on the foil, edges just touching. Bake for 5 minutes at 350 degrees. After five minutes, the candies should be what I call "half melted:" that is, they are flatter, but still retain their basic shape. If you placed the candies properly on the foil, the edges of the pieces of candy will now be touching, will have melted into each other and when cooled, will be firmly attached. Be sure to make test strips using all of the different kinds of candy you will use in whatever combinations you will use. If your candies are larger than the ones I used, which are about the size of small jellybeans, your ornaments will take longer to bake.

2. To make a snowflake ornament: place a Starlite mint or crosscut candy on the foil covered cookie sheet. Arrange five small red candies evenly around the edge of the center candy, like the petals of a daisy. In between each of the five red candies, place a small green candy. At the end of the green candies, place small mints or crosscut candies.

3. Lift sheet carefully and place in the preheated oven. Check again to make sure all candies are in proper position as described above. Bake as directed. Let cool. Carefully lift off foil, string fishing line or ribbon around one of the end pieces to form hanger. Hang on Christmas tree or in sunny window.

Note: Vary colors of candies used in pattern described in step 2. to create an endless variety of ornaments. Small spaces between candies may occur in the finished ornaments, which is fine. This adds to the visual interest and also provides a place to attach the hangers.