I live for the season when Mint is EVERYWHERE. I loved a Dove Peppermint Bark Promise, and of course, they discontinued it. They replaced it with the Dark Chocolate Holiday Mint which I still like, but it isn’t the same. In the same flavor category, I have to admit that I used to love a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha a lot more. However, they have become too sweet for me. I miss when they also produced the Via Peppermint Mocha Latte mixes it was less sweet and lighter on the calories. But again, that product was discontinued. For a long time, I was buying expired boxes off Ebay because they were that good. Sadly, it has fallen off their production line, and I haven’t been able to find any substitute. I know the idea is to push people to the store, but I would buy this year-round! (Ahem, pretty please Starbucks?)

Of course, part of the allure of the peppermint mocha is the whip cream, so a peppermint hot cocoa with a candy cane and whip is almost as good. Another favorite hot beverage of mine for the holidays is hot chocolate with a splash of  Bailey’s Irish Cream. The Bailey’s adds a kick, of course, but it also tends to make it a little creamier.

 I really believe in the incredibly busy holiday season that a great Christmas party can really center around hot chocolate bars and Christmas cookies. I don’t do a swap with cookies, because our family’s cookie tradition is very special, but adding a cocoa bar would be a great way to get kids involved in the event, if they are not interested in baking.

There are a lot of great ideas for hot chocolate bars out there. A super easy way to do it is to buy a Keurig and Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa K-Cups and each person can make their own cup. However, everyone knows that the best hot cocoa is going to be creamier than the powder or the K-Cup variety. My students got creative and added half milk and half boiling water to the powder to make it slightly creamier for our annual Cocoa and Cookie party before break last year when we were relying on the  K-Cup.

Another method for a creamier version is the use of hot chocolate bombs, which melt chocolate in milk. You could even make the hot chocolate bombs yourself in a completely separate Christmas countdown activity if you are really crafty. The most difficult part about making the bombs is simply making sure you have the mold.

They are readily available at, no surprise, Amazon and craft stores like Michael’s. The recipe is simple; you melt the chocolate chips or discs and pour it into the molds. Fill them with whatever you want! Sprinkles? Marshmallows? Fluff? Candy Cane bits? Then melt them in hot milk and enjoy the fun of the surprise inside.

I have to say, however, if you are going to be entertaining a whole crew, perhaps ice skating or sledding, you could also mix up a large vat. The best hot chocolate I have ever tasted was the hot chocolate made by one of the ski moms when I was coaching. I asked her once what the secret was (I am pretty sure the actual base was a big container of Swiss Miss dumped in hot water). The secret? Dumping in a whole bag of mini marshmallows that would melt and sit inside the large dispenser. You know the drink dispenser, I mean if you were a kid in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s and early 2000’s. They were the big yellow ones, iconic to childhood tee-ball games. The marshmallows were too big for the spout to dispense, so they melted into the hot chocolate and made the treat extra creamy.

I have not made a batch from scratch before. However, my culinary maven of inspiration,  Brittany, at Play, Party, Plan has several recipes including Grinch Hot Chocolate and this Five-Minute Hot Chocolate recipe. I have to say, with any recipe you choose let people adorn them as they wish.

 I’ll take mine with freshly whipped cream and a candy cane. Or Bailey’s.

Although I love mint and chocolate, I’m sorry, I just don’t like gingerbread. It is right up there with egg nog and fruit cakes on the “List of Christmas Foods I Just Don’t Understand.” They are not my flavor profile. Plus, I always find that gingerbread is too crunchy. However, I do like to build with some form of gingerbread, graham cracker or sugar cookie creation each season.

 Target puts out kits each year, in fact they even started putting them out at Halloween. I buy one kit for my homeroom each year that is cookie decorating, but for my nephews “Santa” always find something a little more special. One year “Santa” did a treehouse edition of the gingerbread kit. Another year, it was Spot’s doghouse. The year my oldest nephew was able to make it up from Texas for the holidays we had Ninja Bread Men.  We actually had to cut them out, but everyone got a ninja cookie cutter to be able to make them in the future…or maybe better tasting sugar cookie ninjas!

Last year “Santa” chose a cookie dinosaur so that it could destroy the village that my sister had already started with them. That was a big hit of an idea with boys eight and under. The fun was in the creation of the tableau.

The resort I visit with my parents each year right after the holidays, Blue Fin Bay,  has a contest where they buy kits that people can take to their units and enter a decorating contest. Last year there was a Barbie Dream House Kit. I chose to make Psycho Barbie’s Dream House. I chose this theme mainly because I ran out of time on our stay…and patience. I am lucky my sister and my nephews are far more meticulous than I am when it comes to adorning the creations “Santa” brings each year.