Halloween Candy Countdown Calendar

Celebrate the coming of Halloween by making an easy Candy Countdown Calendar for your kids. This countdown calendar has Hershey kiss candy marking each day to "Have a Sweet Trick or Treat Halloween".  It's not as hard as it looks and is a sweet way to use candy to countdown the days to the sweetest holiday all year.

I know that Halloween is only 12 days away now.

I know that you are probably past decorating for the sweetest holiday all year and have moved on to worrying about costumes.

But I just had to share this fun Halloween candy countdown calendar that I made this weekend.

It was one of those projects that I've wanted to make for years. (I want one for every holiday after seeing these kiss candy countdown calendars.)  But I always felt like it would be hard to make and out of my crafting league.

But this weekend, I found a board that my sisters had cut for me years ago to make this, and I decided "no more excuses" and so I made this candy countdown calendar.

Since it wasn't as hard to make as I thought, I decided to share it with you to give you the courage to go make a project that you've been thinking about for a while, or to even join me in counting down the days to Halloween with candy kisses.

Start with a piece of MDF board (or these Chipboard Sheets* could work great too!) that is cut in a twelve inch square.  My sisters were kind enough to route the edges for me, so that made it extra stylish, but you can just use a regular square piece of leftover board.

Spray paint the board black.

While the board is drying, save and print the kiss labels and Frankenstein monster from the printable at the bottom of the page.

Place the Frankenstein on the board in the position you desire.

Use a pencil and ruler to mark out the spots for the Hershey Kiss candies.  I marked my spots every inch (since the drill bit is 5/8 of an inch it worked perfect.)

Use a 5/8-Inch Spade Drill Bit * (I found mine in the tool department at Walmart) to  drill the holds into your MDF board for your candy countdown.

It was pretty easy to place the tip of the bit on the lines I had created to make even holes.

If you want all 31 days, then make 31 holes in the desired formation. I used 5 holes with a space between 4 and 5 (HAVE A), 5 holes (SWEET), 5 holes (TRICK), 2 holes (OR), 5 holes (TREAT), 5 holes (HALLO), and 4 holes (WEEN).

If you only want 12 days, then you can just use 5 holes (TRICK), 2 holes (OR), and 5 holes (TREAT).

When you are done drilling your holes, use some homemade Modge Podge to paint the back of your Frankenstein graphic to secure him to your countdown board.  You can also paint the front so it will be sealed and safe from "kid elements" and dirty fingers.

While your Modge Podge is drying, use a 0.75 Circle Punch* to cut out the kiss letters.  Then glue the letters onto the bottom of each Hershey kiss. 

I found I needed to put a small glue dot on the inside edge of each hole to keep the kisses stable and not flying out every time the calendar was bumped.

Add your kisses to your countdown calendar.  

Now each day through Halloween, you can enjoy one Hershey kiss as you use the candy to countdown your way to the sweetest holiday of the year!

If you make this, would you mind sharing it with me on our Facebook page? I would love to see how it turns out for you!

Here are the items I used to make the Halloween Candy Countdown Calendar: