Cooler temperatures and winter days go hand-in-hand with hot chocolate, and there is no better way to enjoy this frigid time of year with your little ones than with a fun hot chocolate bar that is just for them!
All kids love being in charge, so allowing them to select their own mix-ins or toppings for their hot chocolate is a real treat. A hot chocolate bar can be set up as a one-time event for a party, or left up all season long as a regular afternoon treat. Who wouldn’t love coming home from school to a yummy hot chocolate?
Setting the scene for a hot chocolate bar
Setting up a hot chocolate bar is super simple. Start with some festive decor — you can probably find things around your house or in your holiday decorations that you can use — it’s a great spot to include those decorations from holidays of the past that don’t make it onto your A-list of decorations anymore!
Think out of the box and get creative for ways to display your hot chocolate bar. For example, we used a plaid scarf and craft paper as our tablecloth, Mason jar mugs left over from another party and a random assortment of crystal dishes to hold our hot chocolate toppings.
Grab your favorite mug
The great thing about hot chocolate is that you have so many options when making it! Depending on how much time you have to prep, you can make your own mix from scratch, use ready-to-mix packets, or even go the K-cup route. All that really matters is that you have the hot chocolate pre-mixed and ready to go, or that you have hot water or milk on-hand ready to mix up a batch. Cute mugs also help and anything from ceramic mugs to Mason jars to or paper cups will do!
It’s all about the toppings
After your cup is filled with hot chocolate, the fun part begins! Having an assortment of toppings makes it fun for kids (and adults!) to personalize their hot chocolate to their tastes by mixing and matching different toppings.
For this hot chocolate bar we used mini marshmallows, candy canes, mini chocolate chips, crushed graham crackers, chocolate sprinkles and rolled wafer cookies. Other fun toppings we love are canned whipped cream, cinnamon sticks, caramel candies, chocolate syrup, crushed cookies and chopped nuts.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TOPPING FOR HOT CHOCOLATE?
