The Cheap and Easy Aldi Centerpiece Trick That Every Host Should Know

Aldi is known for many things, including its legendary budget-friendly wine (and wine advent calendars!), its easy-to-shop selection of charcuterie, its take-and-bake pizzas, and, perhaps most importantly, its chocolate selection. So why not head to Aldi to stock up on essentials (yes, chocolate is considered an essential) and deck out your holiday table?

We were walking around Aldi the other day when it hit us: The white or gold wrappers to Aldi’s famous Moser Roth chocolates usually just get thrown away (as all candy wrappers tend to do), but they can also totally be used to create an easy (and inexpensive!) centerpiece that works any time of year (especially Thanksgiving).

Start by saving the cleanest wrappers until you have enough to cover several small- to medium-sized glass votive candleholders.

Open the wrapper up to its full width and length, and cut the wrapper if necessary. (You don’t want the paper to be taller than the glass votive. Because, safety first!) If you want to get extra fancy, use a hole punch to create any sort of decorative design/pattern you want. We kept our holes simple and around the top of the votives, but do whatever your heart desires — the more holes you punch, the more light from the candle that shines through. (We also didn’t punch holes in every wrapper. The mismatched look is in!)

Once you’re satisfied with the pattern on your wrappers, use a piece of baker’s twine to tie the paper around the votive. If you’re having trouble getting the twine to hold taught, a small piece of double stick tape can keep the wrapper in place and lets the twine be purely decorative. The simple red-and-white twine would look pretty, but it comes in so many colors now, so don’t be afraid to customize.

Scatter your votives down the center of your table (or cluster them together in the middle) and you have a nice decorative touch that still leaves room for the food. And you can totally take the wrappers off the votives if you get sick of them or want to experiment with different hole punch patterns. It just means you’ll have to eat more chocolate, but there are worse things in the world.