Hot Cocoa Station for the Holdiays

Hello everyone,  I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  I spent almost the entire weekend getting all of our Christmas décor up which was utterly exhausting.  Each year I seem to accumulate more and more stuff and it takes me longer every year to get it all out!

I keep things mostly the same but this year I did add a few new things, including a hot cocoa station!

While I was browsing the Target Dollar Spot for advent calendar items I found some cute mugs, an awesome holiday placemat and some little milk jars.

Side note!  Remember when I shared my Christmas Ribbon Advent Calendars last year and said that this year I would be shopping throughout the year so that I wouldn’t have to figure out 24 little items per kid at one time?  Yep that totally didn’t happen.  Maybe next year??

Anyways–after rounding up a few more items around the house, our hot cocoa station was born!

• Tray (I painted an unfinished one like this one)
• Placemat (Target $ Spot)
• Mugs (Target $ Spot)
• Cocoa container (found in Walmart store, similar one linked here)
• Measuring spoon
• Toppings containers (Target $ Spot)
• Spice shaker
• Baker’s Thread
• Chalkboard Tags
• Striped Straws
• Mini tree (got mine in a Michaels store, similar one linked here)

I began with my cocoa powder.  You can either fill a canister like I did with a bulk can of cocoa or set the little individual packets inside a pretty basket.  Whichever works better for your family!

I also hung a measuring spoon on the canister so that we have everything we need in one spot.

A quick search on Pinterest will show you that there are soooo many different toppings to choose from!  I did marsh mellows and chocolate chips but you could also do peppermints, Hershey kisses or even crushed Andes mints!

I labeled each with a chalkboard tag and hung them with some baker’s thread. 

I did a lot of experimenting with placement and finally decided that the cocoa and toppings needed to be raised a bit for appearance purposes.  I used a couple pieces of wood to achieve this and really enjoy the warmth and texture that it adds.

I also put some hot cocoa flavored candy canes (which are super delicious!) and some red and white paper straws in a small mason jar.  I know, I know…. you typically don’t need a straw for cocoa but I like to use them to stir and they are just too festive to resist!

I also added a small bottle of cinnamon to sprinkle on top. This is the first time I’ve actually tried it and I must say, I’m impressed!

I really like that when you shake it the jingle bell rings.  It’s the small things that get me… 🙂

I added this little baby tree well…just because! 

I love that the whole thing is functional decorative at the same time.

We’ve been grabbing a nice warm cup and cuddling up for family time next to the Christmas tree after dinner each night.

Oh and if you have a super finicky toddler don’t be surprised if his first sip of cocoa is followed by him spitting it out all over your light colored carpet because “it’s too hot!” even though it’s barely lukewarm.  That may or may not have happened at our house a couple of nights ago…

Have a happy rest of the week friends, I’ll be back next week to share a couple of other fun Christmas  tutorials and eventually this year’s Christmas home tour 🙂