It's Always Autumn

creative tutorials for everyday life

  • Holidays
  • Holidays
    • back to school
    • birthdays
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Halloween
    • July 4th
    • Mother’s Day/Father’s Day
    • teacher appreciation
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s
  • Crafts
  • Crafts
    • crafts + DIY
    • handmade gifts
    • photo crafts
    • kid crafts + activities
  • Recipes
  • Recipes
    • bread
    • dessert
    • main dish
    • side dish
  • Sewing
  • Sewing
    • free sewing patterns
    • sewing for women
    • sewing for kids
    • how to sew
    • gifts
  • Photography
  • Photography
    • beginning photography tips
    • posing tips
    • photo editing tips
  • Tips
  • Tips
    • parenting tips
    • travel tips
    • books I love
  • FAQ

Christmas holidays
November 23, 2020

How to make a Christmas Candy Train

In today’s post: Learn how to make an adorable Christmas candy train out of graham crackers (much easier than gingerbread!).

My kids love making gingerbread houses at Christmas time. It’s a fun tradition, but let me tell you, making a gingerbread house from homemade gingerbread is a labor of love. You gotta mix the gingerbread, and bake the gingerbread, and cut the gingerbread, and let it cool, then make the royal icing and assemble the houses and let them set up and THEN start decorating. It’s a great Christmas tradition IF you have plenty of time and kids that are old enough to actually help (10+).

If, on the other hand, you are looking for a gingerbread-house type project that works for younger kids (and won’t take hours of prep), I HIGHLY recommend going the graham cracker route. You can either make a simple graham cracker house like this one we made for Easter OR you can make a graham cracker Christmas Candy Train:

Candy train made from Graham crackers in front of a Christmas tree

This graham cracker train is super cute and offers lots of decorating possibilities, but it’s quite a bit simpler to put together than a house. The train cars are especially easy, making them perfect for younger kids. The engine takes a bit more constructing, but I’ll tell you exactly how to do it!

Candy train made from Graham crackers in front of a Christmas tree

PRO TIP: The hardest part about any of these gingerbread or graham cracker creations is waiting a few minutes to let the main structure set up BEFORE decorating. If you have lots of kids to help or are working with very young kids, you should consider building the basic train boxes in advance and letting them set up completely. It can be super frustrating to little kids to try to build a candy train and have it collapse because they can’t wait the 5-10 minutes required for the structure to set up. You can avoid this by building it for them in advance, and then letting your child go straight to decorating, which is what the littlest kids will be most interested in doing anyway.

Also, each child should plan to make one train car or engine. Trying to build an engine plus two cars (as you see in my photos) will take most kids longer than their interest will last.

Christmas Train Supplies

This picture shows everything I used to make my Christmas candy train:

Supplies: Graham crackers, Oreos, white chocolate chips, Reeses, cookie, peppermint stick

There are 3 basic supplies you need to build a graham cracker Christmas train car or engine:

  • Graham crackers for walls
  • Oreos for wheels
  • White chocolate chips or candy melts for “glue”

To decorate the train cars, I also used:

  • Mini M&M’s
  • Christmas sprinkles

Graham cracker train car filled with peppermint sticks

And to finish off the train engine, I used:

  • miniature Reese’s cups to make a smokestack
  • a small circular iced cookie and
  • a peppermint stick

Graham cracker train engine

What should I use to “glue” pieces together?

It’s traditional to use royal icing to construct gingerbread or graham crackers houses, but I have switched to using melted white chocolate chips (or candy melts) instead. Here’s why:

  • Melting white chocolate chips is a lot easier than mixing up royal icing
  • The chocolate sets up much faster than royal icing does

You can place white chocolate chips in a small ziplock bag and microwave it for 30-40 seconds until it’s melted. Snip off a very small corner of the bag, and you are ready to pipe white chocolate “glue”. Once you glue the train box together, it will set up at room temp in under 10 minutes. To set it even faster, you can construct the train box on a paper plate or cutting board and pop it in the freezer – in about 2-3 minutes you’ll be ready to move to the next step.

How to Make a Christmas Candy Train

Candy train made from Graham crackers in front of a Christmas tree
Print Pin
5 from 1 vote

Christmas Candy Train

Learn how to make an adorable Christmas candy train using graham crackers.
Prep Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

For Each Train Car

  • Graham Cracker Sheets (4 per train car, 8 per engine)
  • 4 Oreo Cookies (per car or engine)
  • White Chocolate chips or white candy melts
  • Mini M&Ms
  • Sprinkles
  • 2 Miniature Reeses Cups (for the engine chimney)
  • 1 Peppermint Stick (to decorate the engine)
  • 1 Wreath Shaped Cookie (to decorate the engine)

Instructions

To Make a Train Car

  • Place white chocolate chips in a small sandwich bag and microwave for about 40 seconds until melted. Snip a small portion of one corner of the bag off so that you can "pipe" the white chocolate and use it to "glue" the graham crackers together.
    Melted white chocolate in a ziptop bag, snip off corner
  • Break one graham cracker sheet in half. Optional: Use a sharp knife to trim the halves into squares. (Place one half on top of the other, and rotate it 90 degrees. Trim the portion of each cracker that overhangs the other.)
    Two graham cracker halves, cut square
  • Place one full graham cracker down in the middle of your work surface, horizontally. Place another full cracker just above it, and a third just below it. Place each of the graham cracker squares to the right and left of the original cracker. Pipe white chocolate onto each of the graham crackers except the center one as you see in the photo (along three sides, leaving the side furthest from the center graham cracker empty).
    Graham crackers with melted white chocolate for "glue"
  • Lift the outer edge of each of the four outside graham crackers to form a box. It's easiest to fold up the two longer crackers first and hold them both with one hand, then fold up each of the square crackers. Press along the bottom edges of the graham crackers to make sure they are snug against the center cracker, which now acts as the base of the box.
    Graham cracker box for train car
  • Wait 5-10 minutes until the chocolate has firmed up before proceeding. If you constructed your box on a paper plate, you can put it in the fridge or freezer to speed this up.
  • If you don't care whether the wheels hold the train car up off the ground, simply use more melted chocolate to glue on Oreos for wheels. (This is easier and what I would recommend for young children.) If you DO want the wheels to hold the train car up, break an extra graham cracker into 4 pieces. Stack the pieces 2 high and set the train car on top of it so it is raised off the table. Then pipe chocolate onto the top half of four Oreos, and press the Oreos to the side of the train car.
    melted white chocolate on Oreos to be glued onto train car
  • Do not move the car until the chocolate holding on the wheels has set (5-10 minutes). However, as long as you don't move the car you can continue to decorate it.
    Graham cracker train car with Oreo wheels
  • Decorate train car as desired. We piped chocolate on the seams where the crackers meet and added mini M&Ms. We piped more chocolate along the top edges of the car and decorated with sprinkles. When everything is completely set, fill the train car with candy.
    Graham cracker train car decorated with M&Ms and sprinkles

To Make a Train Engine

  • Begin by repeating steps 1-4 above to create a basic "box" for a train car. Glue a fifth graham cracker on top so you have a closed box.
    Box made of graham crackers
  • Use three more graham crackers to create a smaller "box" that will form the top of the engine. This time use 3 half crackers and 2 crackers that have been trimmed into squares. Lay them out and add chocolate the same way you did for the train car.
    Graham crackers with melted white chocolate for "glue"
  • Lift up the outer crackers to form a smaller box the same way you did for the train car.
    Small box made of graham crackers
  • Wait 5-10 minutes for the small box to set up, then pipe chocolate along the top edges. Pick it up and place it chocolate side down on the larger box.
    Train engine made from graham crackers
  • Add wheels the same way you did for the train car.
  • Decorate the engine as desired. We used chocolate to glue a wreath shaped cookie and peppermint stick on the front of the engine. We also used two miniature Reese's cups to make a chimney. Finally, we added mini M&Ms and sprinkles.
    Decorated Christmas candy train made from graham crackers

Notes

You do not *have to* trim the graham crackers square in step 2. Doing so gives you room to add mini M&Ms up the seam where the crackers meet if you want to make yours look the same as the photos. If you don't care about that, go ahead and skip trimming.

Candy train made from Graham crackers in front of a Christmas tree

Christmas train made from graham crackers

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Print

Home » holidays » How to make a Christmas Candy Train


1 Comment

free email series

NO FAIL CRAFTS + RECIPES

Get my favorite EASY craft and recipe ideas straight to your inbox!

« The Black Friday DreamBox SALE
DIY Christmas Centerpiece {make it for about $25} »

Comments

  1. MJ says

    December 16, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    5 stars
    This is a great activity for our grandkids, 5, 3 and 1 year olds. They loved it and was easy to prep with the instructions. Thanks!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Hey, glad you’re here!

I'm Autumn, a mom of five who loves ice cream, Masterpiece Theatre, and clothes that hide the fact that I eat so much ice cream. When I was 18 I got a job at a craft store and told everyone (regularly) how much I hated crafts. Well, things change! Read More…

Find me here

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

free email series

NO FAIL CRAFTS + RECIPES

Get my favorite craft + recipe ideas straight to your inbox!

Popular Posts

101 Fun + Easy Activities kids can do AT HOME

50 easy crafts and activities kids can do indoors! Perfect for cold or rainy days.

50 best indoor activities for kids: easy crafts + games

Gorgeous art projects for kids! Easy art that turns out amazing.

20 easy art projects for kids that turn out AMAZING!

How to make GORGEOUS paper flowers

How to make mini donuts! {baked cake mix donuts recipe}

Blog policy

All posts and pictures are copyrighted by Autumn Baldwin and blog content may not be reposted elsewhere. However, linking back to my content is just fine. You may use one photo as long as you link directly back to the specific post. Thank you!

Please view our Privacy Policy here.

Also, please note that this blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Copyright © 2021 · Divine theme by Restored 316192.168.1.1 router login

Copyright © 2021 · Divine Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

free email series

NO-FAIL CRAFTS + RECIPES

Get my favorite EASY craft + recipe ideas straight to your inbox!

x