Assembly Only

• Candied Apples
  
  This is for when you have to produce a large quantity of crafts or when you want to get the kids involved. Try candy can reindeer, a candy airplane ornament made from rolls of Lifesavers or a candy race cars, such as are found at kaboose.com. Make an animal parade by sandwiching canned frosting between two vanilla wafers, adding a dab of frosting on top and pressing animal crackers into the frosting.
  
  

For the Baker

• For those cold or rainy days when you want to huddle up in the kitchen, make candied apples such as are found at allrecipes.com. Stick them with wooden skewers, dip them in melted caramel or cinnamon candies, let cool a moment and decorate with coconut, chocolate chips or nuts.
  
  Using the same wooden skewers, make lollipop cookies with a basic sugar cookie dough and let the kids go wild decorating the faces with candies of all kinds.
  
  

A Holiday Masterpiece

• For the ultimate challenge, create a gingerbread or graham cracker house or better yet, a castle as shown at familyfun.com. Bake the gingerbread a day ahead so it has time to dry out. The day of your project assemble bowls of gumdrop, sprinkles, hard candies, red-hot hearts, and licorice ropes, squares and rounds. Whip up a batch of royal frosting to glue it all together and let your imagination fly.