Cellophane Snake Candy Lei Party Favor

(Last Updated On: March 25, 2015)

I racked my brain trying to come up with an easy party favor for my son’s reptile party We all know what the kids really want is candy. What the parents really want is less plastic junk that ends up in the garage. I’m not sure why all the broken and discarded party favors go there to die. They just do.

“If only I could do a candy lei, ” I thought.  Then…. LIGHT BULB!

Plastic easter eggs are out in plenty in stores right now. What if I used a filled egg for the head, added some googly eyes and just didn’t bother with closing the loop?

Viola! Cellophane Snakes were born.

These are really easy to do, once you nail the technique. It took me a little trial and error but in the end, plain old scotch tape was the hero and made this go super fast. If you are making these for a big party (I had to do 35 snakes!) get some help and rent a good movie.

Here’s how we did it:

First assemble your materials. We used

• two large 5 lb bags of candy
• assorted colors of cellophane that we had laying around.
• red vines
• scissors
• tape
• 2-3 colors of curling ribbon
• peel and stick googly eyes
• tiny rubber bands ala rainbow loom (optional)

I ordered the 100 ft roll of green cellophane pictured on Amazon. It was affordable and I have a ton left over that I’ll probably use up in gift bags and baskets.

I like to roll out a length of about 50 inches (no need to be precise) and then slice it in half lengthwise – that’s two snakes.  Cut a red vine in half – that’s the tongue. I might use shoestring licorice in the future and the red vines were tricky to secure.

I like to lay out my candy beforehand so I know what I am using and the order, but I push it aside when I am ready to wrap.

Starting at the head, with your filled egg and your red vine, wrap the cello around the egg. I used a tiny rubber band to secure the licorice at the end. All the other sections just had tape to secure. Hold the wrapped egg and twist it around a couple of times. Tape the twisted cello. Now add candy to the next section, making sure it is completely covered by cellophane, twist and tape. Keep going till the end!

After the snake is assembled it’s time to decorate! Add googly eyes. There are two easy ways to do ribbon – you can cut short lengths and tie around each section and curl (this makes the snakes more girly and frilly) OR you can cut 2-3 pieces around 2.5 times the length of the snake and starting at the head simply wrap and tie at each section. Don’t worry too much about how you tie and wrap – the tape is holding the snake together, the ribbon is just window dressing. I found it went fastest when I tied at the top and then held one half of the ribbon straight and looped the other half around to tie at each section.

Curl the ends and place in a bucket. Or hang the snakes from the chandeliers!