How to Organise a Candy Cane Hunt

What can be more exciting than fun Christmas games this Christmas and one that will surely make everyone feel festive this season? A Candy Cane Hunt!

Now the fun part, of course, is taking part in the Candy Cane Hunt, whether it is for little ones or adults. There is nothing more special and memorable than watching those you love, enjoy themselves hunting for candy canes around your house this holiday season. 

What is a candy cane?

A candy cane is a sugary treat in the shape of a cane, it is traditionally red and white with the flavouring of peppermint. Though now they come in a variety of different flavours. Read more about the tradition of candy canes here.

How to Organise a Candy Cane Scavenger Hunt

1. Choose a time of day for the hunt

The fun of a scavenger hunt can keep the little ones (or adults) entertained after a fun-filled day of celebrations and family time. Whether you do the hunt before your meal or after the meal this will have everyone’s spirits high and happy on that festive day.

You could even do the hunt first thing in the morning, leading the kiddies to the Christmas tree where Santa has left presents for them, and make them go around the house or living room seeing all that has happened before opening their presents.

Though it completely depends on your Christmas Day traditions and rituals. 

You can nowadays make a scavenger hunt for any occasion, so why not one for Christmas? 

2. Use the whole house

A fun idea is to write out your scavenger hunt as though Santa is leading the players to the Candy Canes which could also lead to some hidden presents around your house.

There are so many decorations and festive items around the house during Christmas that the opportunities for hiding places and clues are endless.

Your scavenger hunt could be however long you want – granted you want to make sure you have enough Candy Canes to go around.

3. Leading clues

For the older children you could even start them off with one clue and they have to figure out for themselves where the next candy cane is and in that hiding place is their next clue, without it, they can’t continue on to find the next Candy Cane.

Candy Cane Hunt Clues

Candy Cane hunt clues completely depend on where you are holding your scavenger hunt.

You could do it in just one room, maybe your living room?

Or you could step it up a notch and for the older kids or adults spread the hunt to throughout the entire house making the game last and the clues a lot more tricky and entertaining to get everyone thinking.

Clues on the Christmas Tree

However, some clues that you could use could involve your Christmas tree.

Perhaps you could cover the tree in candy canes, although, some of the candy canes have clues on them or you have to find a specific candy cane next to a specific ornament – something for the older kids and adults to do.

Simple clues for little ones

Whereas for the little ones, you could give them clues like, “Where do we leave Santa his mince pie and Rudolf his carrot?” and they would go to the area in which you leave the treats for Santa and Rudolf.

One clue leads to another

If you are thinking of holding the Candy Cane Scavenger Hunt throughout your whole house, perhaps do this with older children, the younger ones may get tired or a little upset if they are unable to find all the candy canes and follow all the clues.

In order to keep them interested in the hunt, you could incorporate toys into the hunt so that if they were to find a candy cane they would possibly find a small toy to go with it.  

Stocking Presents with the Canes

If you also choose to do the hunt first thing in the morning, you could do it so that with every candy cane they find, they also get their stocking present with it or it leads to their stockings.

The clues could be similar to “what does Santa wear on his feet?” the answer being boots and next to where you keep your shoes are their stocking with their names on them.

Christmas Games for Kids

There are so many different games that you could play with your kids this Christmas to keep them entertained and have family fun. Some of which include:

1. Pin the Nose on the Snowman / Rudolf / Santa 
2. Pictionary
3. Christmas Movie Bingo

If you want to see more games check out Fun Christmas Games, where we give you examples of games that are suitable for children and adults.

More Christmas games could include, Christmas Musical Chairs, play Christmas music to get the little ones moving around and the adults singing along enjoying themselves and as the game goes on let the song play out longer or shorter to get the children laughing and smiling. 

You could also play:

• Charades
• Santa Says; a rendition of Simon Says
• Musical Statues; similar to Musical Chairs but having the kids dancing and gets the adults dancing too)

Candy Cane Facts

1. Candy Canes have their own holiday, December 26th is National Candy Cane Day as well as Boxing Day.
2. Candy Canes originated from Germany, just like our Christmas trees and our love of decorating them. 
3. They also weren’t always red and white striped, they originally were just snow-white and it wasn’t until after the 19th Century that we saw evidence that candy canes had a red stripe on them, before that they were only white canes. 
4. Due to the shape and curve of the candy cane, you’ll find that sometimes the candy cane doesn’t fit on the tree and that is because of not only the trees’ branch but the fact that if you were to widen the arch of the candy cane it would be too heavy for the tree to hold as the rest of the candy cane would have to be a lot bigger. 
5. More than a billion candy canes are made, distributed and bought each year and around 90% of those are bought between Thanksgiving (end of November) and Christmas in the USA.

Other Candy Cane Games

Not only can you do a Candy Cane Scavenger hunt, but you could also try:

• Candy Cane Fishing; where kids have to use a candy cane to hook another candy cane from one tin to another. They can be timed or race against each other.
• Candy Cane Toss; kids can throw the candy canes into a bucket or Santa hat and each time they get a candy cane in the bucket or hat, they step further back, making each go or ‘level’ harder for them.
• Guess the Candy Cane Flavour; nowadays there are multiple flavours of candy canes, if you buy a multipack of different flavours and blindfold the children they can each have a guess as to the what flavour the candy cane is – there are multiple of each flavour don’t worry. 

Enjoy your candy cane games.

You might also like:

• Ultimate Festive Bucket List: Things To Do This Christmas
• 11 Fun Christmas Games
• Best Winter Walks in the UK
• How To Make Christmas Morning Special