Every Christmas morning, my brother, sister, and I would wake up SUPER early. We’d rush into our parents’ room and tell them to get up, and they’d make us sit at the top of the stairs while they did two things in the kitchen…
- Mom had to make a pot of coffee for the adults
- Dad had to make homemade hot chocolate for us kids
Waiting those 15 minutes was EXCRUCIATING for us kiddos, but we always knew it was worth it. And I’m pretty sure it was the only time all year we got hot chocolate made with Heshey’s cocoa, instead of a packet of powdered Swiss Miss. It’s funny how these are the moments you remember, and want to recreate with your own children though, right?! And since the stud and I don’t drink coffee, hot chocolate is our whole family’s drink of choice on Christmas morning!
And I think it’s great to offer it for any holiday gathering/party, for there are always people who love a hot beverage, but who may not drink alcohol, and who don’t want caffeine, and hot chocolate fits the bill perfectly!
If you’re wanting to make it extra fun, you can make a hot chocolate bar, and the key is to keep it simple, and to use things you probably already have on hand, especially this time of year! I like to grab a tray, and a few dishes/cups of varying heights, and that’s what I use for my goodies! I found this cute little sign at Home Goods and that’s about all you need! I did find some other signs elsewhere that I’ll link at the bottom since I can’t find anymore of this one!
You can keep your hot chocolate on the stove to stay warm, and just ladle it into cups one by one, but if you’re doing this at a party, use a crock pot to keep it warm on low, or urn if you have one!
Here are some options to go on your hot chocolate bar:
- candy canes
- Andes mints
- marshmallows
- Jingle Jangle
- Reeces Cups
- Cinnamon
- Meringues
- Biscotti
- Shortbread
- Mini Donuts
- Cookies
- Anything you can think of that tastes delicious dipped in hot chocolate!
And you know what else would be awesome on your hot chocolate bar?! Hot Chocolate Bombs! Yes, these things are all the rage right now, but who has silicone sphere molds lying around??! And I see they’re impossible to get right now too due to this phenomenon! So I created bombs using stuff you probably already have in your kitchen! See the full blog post HERE!
I also see chocolate-dipped spoons everywhere, but CANNOT justify the price, and they are so easy to make at home if you have a mini muffin/cupcake pan! You can use any kind of spoon, and the wooden ones are so cute, but I used plastic, red ones!
Simply melt bakers chocolate (the kind that comes in the round container is my favorite), and use the spoon to scoop a heaping amount out, and then put it into the tin. Push the back of the spoon into the chocolate and stand it upright. Add crushed up pieces of candy of your choosing to it at this point and then refrigerate as long as you can, at least 1 hour! Using a metal spoon along the back edge of the lip, pop them out of the tin! You can see how I did it on my IG highlight bubble HERE!
As you can see on my tray, I just randomly place things where I think they look good, varying heights and textures along the way, some goodies inside of containers, some on the tray itself. There are no rules to this…just do what you think looks good! And yall see me use this tray over and over again in so many things! I got it at At Home, but you can find a similar on on Amazon HERE that’s even better because it’s acrylic and you can sanitize it easily!
At the end of the day, if people are gathered together, drinking something delicious, having a good time, and celebrating the season, then it’s a win in my book no matter what!
You can see me chat about this idea on Charlotte Today here, and I misspoke. I meant to say “WIlliams Sonoma,” instead of Crate and Barrel for the M marshmallow.
I hope you’ve had the best day with your crew!
