Growing up, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was one of my favorite movies (in addition to the Little Mermaid and Mary Poppins!). What chocolate-loving child wouldn’t want a candy room like the one Willy Wonka had? So this year I made several of these gift boxes for friends and my kids’ teachers filled with chocolate goodies that reference different parts of the movie.

Some of the links below are affiliate links. That means if you click on them and buy the item, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps offset the cost of running this blog. 

MATERIALS:

• Tab tuck boxes from Uline: Again, I love these boxes. So many ways to use them for gifts that I always like having a few around in case I need to build some gift boxes. The size I used has interior dimensions of 11 1/8 x 8 3/4 x 3″. The 3″ height is critical because the Izze Soda wouldn’t fit in the shorter boxes.
• Kraft crinkle paper for filler.
• Izze Soda (Fizzy Lifting Drink) : One of the most iconic scenes in the movie (and a bit scary for a little kid). Izze soda cans are perfect for the box because they’re smaller than a regular can of soda and taste great! I covered each can with a label that said “Fizzy Lifting Drink”.
• Organic Drinking Chocolate : I bought this Nib Mor drinking chocolate since it was vegan so that there was at least one thing that was dairy-free in the box. I also wanted something more “high end” than the supermarket hot chocolate so thankfully this was available on Amazon! I made a label and called it “Dehydrated Chocolate River” as a nod to Willy Wonka’s river.
• Birthday cake gum : A fist bump to Violet Beauregard, I included a pack of gum in the birthday boxes that I gave out.
• Golden Eggs : A Veruca Salt reference. When gifted to our teachers, inside each egg I put a slip of paper that said “You are a GOOD EGG”–cuz all of our teachers were good! When I used them for a birthday party game, I put either a slip that said “GOOD EGG” or “BAD EGG”. During the game the “bad egg” people got minus 3 points.
• “Scrumdiddlyumptious Bar”: I used the Trader Joe’s Butterscotch Bits bar (SO GOOD!) and covered it with a label. If you haven’t tried this chocolate bar I highly recommend it!
• “Wonka Bar”: This was a Trader Joe’s Crispy Rice Milk Chocolate bar with a label. The crispy bars come in a set of 3 and are smaller than Hershey’s bars so the gold wrappers listed below fit perfectly. Or, you can get the larger Trader Joe’s milk chocolate bar if you are feeling extra generous. Optional: Put golden tickets inside these bars for your recipient! I did this when I used these bars for a birthday party game.
• Gold foil candy bar wrappers : A must have to wrap the Trader Joe’s Krispy Milk Chocolate bars before putting on the label. Makes it look more authentic.
• Soap in the shape of a candy : I made these myself with melt and pour soap and these molds. I wanted something in the box that wasn’t edible, just to make it more interesting.
• Wonka Secret Recipes notebook : I made these from plain white paper, brown cardboard, and a printed label. It’s not really a secret recipe book, though I suppose the receiver could use it for recipes!