I have a weird relationship with chocolate coins.
They are the only kind of chocolate I do not eat. I mean, I’ll eat them if I have to. Don’t get me wrong –I would eat tire tread if it came drizzled in Hersey’s syrup – but chocolate coins, no thank you. Money is not for eating. And not because the chocolate is not good, but because I like the look of them better than I like the taste. I just like to know that I have them. I can run my fingers through them and waller in the knowledge that they are mine.
MINE.
Okay. This probably means I have Scrooge McDuck issues, and maybe I do, but it also means that I always have chocolate on hand at all times, which is more than I can say for most people. Ahem. And then, even on the rare occasions I allow myself to eat some, the coin wrappers must be saved. They must.
That’s not weird at all.
It took me years to figure out what to do with the wrappers, and then it hit me like Hanukkah turkey –garland. Let’s string the coins into garland. Except the garland won’t be very long and will actually just look like big Cher earrings, but whatever. It’s festive! 
Three reasons why this craft is rad.
- It’s an excuse to eat chocolate. Like you needed one.
- It’s cheap-to-free. You are using candy wrappers, staples, and some wire hooks. You may need to buy some chocolate coins (fyi, imo, Trader Joe’s carries better quality at the best price), but the rest is already in your junk drawer.
- This works for either Hanukah and Christmas without mixing the two (ie. distasteful blue and silver Santa suits, etc.). Everybody loves chocolate coins. We can all agree on this one. How/where you want to use these puppies is up to you.
Gelt is the Yiddish word for money, and is what most people around here call chocolate coins (read more here). It comes in little baggies next to the cash register at the drug store, and some people keep it for years and years, never eating it, only bringing it out for Hannuah and poker night. Mine stay on the coffee table in a little bowl above the coaster napkins. It looks nice and people think I am being polite and offering them some candy to eat. Little do they know how irrationally angry it makes me when people take my coins. Again, yes, I have issues.
Okay, where were we? Ah yes. How to make these little dangler dos. Let’s get going…
Directions
- You are going to need to eat some chocolate. You could sit down to do this in one sitting, but perhaps it would be wiser to collect over the season (save for next year). Or invite a bunch of kids over to play poker. Your call.
- Use the side of a pencil to flatten the edges of the wrapper, forming a small lip around the edges.
- Lay two coin wrappers across the bed of a stapler and press down. Attched!
- Repeat. I like rows of four or five, but you could do one long string, too. Add a wire hook to the end and that’s it.
- Repeat as necessary (or as chocolate allows).
Oh, look. They work on Christmas trees. The also look nice hanging plant, not coincidentally called, a Wandering Jew.
Nothing says Happy Hanukkah like a spangled houseplant.
So cool Peaches! It blows my mind that you simply stapled them together. These are adorable and delicious and I just love them on the WJ.
Yoouu quack me up! I think they are the worst chocolate. Almost as bad as the cheap chocolate in the drugstore at Easter and Christmas that begins with an E, Does Lindt make gelt? I would move the rice bowl of gelt to the bookshelves. When I was little, back in the Atomic Age, everyone had a candy dish in their living room. Filled with candy. All the time. Even ladies that “went to business” had a candy dish on their desks. Ah, the self control. That was back in the day when people didn’t eat between meals. It was a source of pride to them.
Generally I agree with you on the gelt chocolate being poor quality (not hard to resist), but honestly, Trader Joes gelt is crazy good. I even picked up some swiss chocolate coins in the Geneva airport this fall — they came in a distant, distant second to Trader Joe’s. And you have a connection!
I’m the same with the candy dishes. Only recently I gave it up at work, but I still keep candy and nuts out at home. Trick is to keep things that I don’t want to eat. You couldn’t pay me to eat 90% of hard candy, thank goodness.
Very nice idea and gorgeous pictures!
My goodness- did I only just NOW realize you have hexie wallpaper? SWOOON!!!! I love the coin wrappers too.
It’s just my fridge that’s wallpapered. It’s removable, too.
You are absolutely right that that Trader Joe chocolate gelt is a great deal — taste and price-wise. Long Grove Confectionery also makes a kosher and delicious gelt.
I (and just about everyone i know) also buy the traditional Elite bags and attach them to packages and gift tags…..especially when the local supermarkets price them out at 5/$1.00.
Lynne
YOU ARE RIGHT. I had the Longrove gelt at someone’s home a few years ago — it was excellent! I’m not as crazy about the Elite, but I like the wrappers, and, I keep on trying to think of a new way to use the little yellow mesh baggies. I know someone who uses them to enclose a bar of soap — says the mesh makes a good scrubber. I have yet to try though…
Love the repurposing – can you think of something to do with my Purex Crystals lids – you know, the half-bubble looking thingies that are purple or blue? I can’t throw those away and have amassed a small empire.
Gosh! I have never bought purex but I know the caps you speak of. Hmmm… I’ll have think about it, but I’ll let you know if I do!
This is awesome. I agree about the chocolate coins. The chocolate tastes like wax. I love your wandering jew. How do you keep it so lush? I can’t keep them alive. They get aphids and then I have to put them out on the deck and they never recover from fresh air.
Honestly, this is the first house plant I have ever been able to keep alive for long. The guy at the store told me we would make a great pair because it will tell me when it needs water (by looking limp)…then I add 2 cups water, it perks back up for another 10 days, then the cycle begins again. Fingers crossed it stays that way!
Dear Aunt Peaches, I also save candy foils. And not even coin wrappers. I always think I will make mannequin dolls a la Lokakina but so far they just sit in my drawer. LOVE the gelt garlands, so shiny and festive!
You genius. Thanks for writing this all down; I will now be able to direct people do it if they look judgementally at me whilst I am eating my 200th chocolate coin, mumbling that “it’s for crafting”.