(I've made this Christmas decoration for the last 22 years. There's always someone willing to dismantle it)

10 to 15" styrofoam cone
Core of a roll of toilet paper
Round toothpicks, broken in half
Green spearmint leaf candy (in most grocery and drug stores)
Small colored gumdrops
1 lg. yellow gumdrop ring
Red/white peppermint sticks, cut to fit

Cut all leaves in half with a large knife with a conventional straight-edge, making 2 leaves. Secure a candy leaf to the bottom of the cone, using half a toothpick as a "nail". Use a dinner knife to push the nail through the leaf and into the cone, let the leaf hang over the edge a bit. Place another leaf beside it and secure it to the cone; continue this all around the bottom edge until the row is completed. Build the second row the same way, overlapping the first row a bit, until the whole cone is covered.

With your finger, mash a small gumdrop firmly, then cut 5 short slits with a dinner knife and press again, to form a flower. Cut 1 small gumdrop into 8 and use a piece of this for center of flower. Secure the flower to the back of a half toothpick and push with the dinner knife into the tree. Decorate the tree with a dozen or more flowers. Place the yellow gumdrop ring (or something similar) on the top.

With a small sharp knife, cut a circle slit directly in the center bottom of cone for the cardboard core to fit into. Make this circle slit 1-1 1/2" deep. When core is firmly in place, mark with a pencil how high to glue the peppermint sticks. Cut the peppermint sticks the desired length, then glue the core (not too heavily) and secure peppermint sticks to cardboard core. Use a couple rubber bands to hold them in place overnight while glue dries, standing it on waxed paper; remove rubber bands and place it in the circular slit in the bottom. Candy tree can be eaten.