Make a Fun Christmas Reindeer

When a reindeer poops candies, you know this holiday season is going to be epic sweet!

Check out the video below!

Oh well, I may never get nominated for “Most Elegant and Classy Blogs” ever again…

but if this brings joy and giggles to you and your loved ones, it will be so worth it! =)

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This Cjristmas Reindeer craft is surprisingly easy, the first half of the tutorial is fool-proof: we will make a lovely reindeer for Christmas decorations from a Pringles Potato Crisps can or any paper tubes.

In the second half we will turn it into a magical reindeer candy dispenser,  with simple materials such as rubber bands and pop-sickle sticks!

Yes, you can do it!

Materials and tools to make reindeer only:

  • a  Pringles Potato Crisps can or a paper tube, and  sturdy card stock like these ones with which I made the 3D 2019 calendar below !
  • a craft saw  makes it really easy to cut paper tubes and popsickle sticks!
  • a big red pom pom of course! I used this one!
  • standard size craft sticks or pop-sickle sticks
  • hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

Make a 2016 printable calendar in 3D! Download free template for a unique dodecahedron desk calendar. Makes a great gift or Christmas tree ornament too!

Additional materials to make candy-pooping mechanism: 

  • rubber bands
  • some small rocks to stabilize the piece
  • M&Ms of course: my childhood favorite! =)

To make the simple Reindeer, first cut the Pringles can into 2 parts, 4″ long for the head, and 6″ long for the body using a craft saw or box cutter.

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Step 2: cut some small openings for the neck and legs made of pop-sickle sticks. The size of these openings should be just big enough for the sticks to slide through.

One opening each on the head and body for the neck, four openings on the body for the leg. The neck is made of 2 pieces of craft sticks to extend the length, and also to stop the head from sliding down. The piece on the head will be glued behind the piece coming from the body.

Step 3: Test the Reindeer fitted together with pop-sickle sticks, mark where to trim off, and cut the pop-sickle sticks with a craft saw.

(Note: the additional opening you see in photo #6 is where you will deposit candies. )

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Step 4:  Glue the legs onto the body, the neck onto the head. Print out the antlers, eyes, etc, glue them onto the head and body like below. ( If you want to make the candy -pooping version, do this step at the end!)

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That’s it! A happy little Reindeer in no time, right?

Now are you ready to take on the next challenge? It’s going to be so fun I promise! =)

We will save Step 4 till the end. Print out the candy-pooping mechanism, cut, score and glue the pieces as shown. ( All the letters correspond to the numbers in pdf. )

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Here’s how it works: we put candies (sized for M&Ms ) through the cut slot into the candy funnel (A) which holds about 30 M&Ms. The push stick (C) is glued to the neck (and head) and slide inside the candy chute (B) so when we press on the Reindeer’s nose, it pushes 2-3 pieces of candies out. When we release the nose, the head bounces back (rubber band magic) and  2-3 pieces of candies comes down again from the funnel to the chute. The base (D) is to raise everything to the correct level.

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Test and make sure the pieces fit and works before gluing everything permanently.

We are almost done! Just need to make the head bounce back by adding rubber bands, attach them to a piece of craft stick glued to the front legs, and weave them behind the neck piece like shown below. make-candy-pooping-reindeer-apieceofrainbowblog (33b) make-candy-pooping-reindeer-apieceofrainbowblog (33) make-candy-pooping-reindeer-apieceofrainbowblog (32)

To stabilize it, glue some pebbles to the interior, and cover with the finishing pieces (printable at the end) to keep the clean look and the mystery within!

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Piece #4 fits inside the lid that the can came with. Cut an opening to match where the candies come out, and we are done! Just add M&Ms! The funnel will hold about 20 to 30 pieces so there will be lots of giggles before needing to refill!

Here are the downloads! Antlers, eyes, tail etc are here. And the candy dispenser parts are here.  (If you have trouble, please send post link to friends so they can download and email to you!! )  Here are the downloads! Antlers, eyes, tail etc are here. And the candy dispenser parts are here.  (If you have trouble, please send post link to friends so they can download and email to you!! )  make-candy-pooping-reindeer-apieceofrainbowblog (1)

Here are the downloads! Antlers, eyes, tail etc are here. And the candy dispenser parts are here.  (If you have trouble, please send post link to friends so they can download and email to you!! ) 

Turn a Pringles can into a magical CANDY-POOPING Reindeer or a fun Christmas decoration! Free template included. This holiday is going to be epic sweet! - apieceofrainbow.com

More holiday fun for you: Make beautiful wreaths super fast without wreath forms – A Dollar Store Hack!

30+ super creative, gorgeous, up-cycled DIY Christmas wreaths with great tutorials! Acorns, tin cans, old books, egg cartons can all become great wreaths!

18 amazing DIY Christmas trees that are NOT trees!

Amazing DIY Alternative Christmas Trees | A Piece Of Rainbow

And something MAGICAL: 12 living structures you can make, or dream about! 

Amazing Living Structures | A Piece of Rainbow

Happy creating! xo

13 Comments

  1. You are simply fantastic! I am loving your newsletter. It makes me smile and and I thank you for it. Best of lucks with all your projects and, please, keep up with this wonderful post. Congrats on your 100! Nice number 🙂

  2. Well, I always skip right to my “rainbow” posts, but today, well what can I say . . . Poop=Zoom, right there! Took me five minutes to stop laughing long enough to read it, though. FANTASTIC project . . . although I may pretty up my tube a little more . . . holiday-ish and all that. Just to let ya know, I’ll be SHARING this ALL OVER THE PLACE — with proper credit for you of course! Keep em’ coming, and oh yah, congrats on your 100th post!

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