Orange Snowman!

Matthew 6:33

King James Version (KJV)

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

This is a fun and really easy craft I recently made with my son. I saw it in a magazine a few years back, ripped it out and the page has been living in the bin of Christmas decorations (for years!). Every year when pulling out decorations I would find the page, look at it and say to myself, “Maybe next year.” Well, my son is four years old this year and perfectly capable of helping (and enjoying!) this simple but delightful craft. We had a lot of fun making this and it only took a few minutes to make!

Since we made this on a whim with no preparations, we did not have all of the exact items that the magazine photo used, but that is part of the beauty of this craft – you can easily improvise! For example, I didn’t have any peppermint sticks for the arms, but when my son saw the photo he asked if they were drinking straws. What a perfect substitution! We also substituted a chocolate covered peppermint for the vanilla wafer cookie part of the hat, and so forth. You can personalize it to your tastes – my son asked that we skip the nose in favor of a smile! You can’t beat a happy snowman!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 White paper or foam plate (looks like snow!)

3 clementines (or any other round fruit!)

Toothpicks

Whole cloves

1 Cookie or chocolate covered peppermint

2 red/white striped peppermint candies

1 length of red licorice string or ribbon for scarf

Royal icing (if you’re afraid someone might eat part of the snowman!) or Super Glue (if you absolutely know no one will try to eat the snowman)

Choose fruits that stack well. “Glue” bottom fruit to the plate with either royal icing or super glue. (I used peanut butter here, but it didn’t harden like I thought it would! Luckily, my snowman was pretty stable on his own.)

Stick 2-3 toothpicks halfway in the top of the first fruit. Stack the second fruit on top, pushing the toothpicks into the bottom of that fruit to attach it. Add more toothpicks to the top of the second fruit, and attach the third onto it the same way.

“Glue” the cookie or Chocolate covered peppermint onto the top fruit with either royal icing or superglue. Attach the two peppermints on top of it the same way. This makes his top hat!

Push whole cloves gently into the fruits to make eyes, mouth, and even buttons on his tummy if you desire.

Gently push toothpicks into either side of the center fruit to for arms. Cut a drinking straw to length (2 pieces about 2-3” long) and slide them onto the toothpicks. You could also use the peppermint sticks here as shown in the magazine photo.

Tie either licorice string or some ribbon around his neck for a scarf!

(Original Magazine Snowman for comparison)

There you have it – a super cute fruity and minty snowman for the holidays. I love using the Clementine oranges because they remind me of the olden days when everyone got an orange in their Christmas stocking!

I’ll have another Christmas craft next week!