Our DIY hot chocolate gift set is a great homemade holiday gift for all ages. And making your own hot chocolate is also a fun activity for a holiday gathering, winter birthday party, or any get-together that takes place in a winter wonderland.
Just fill a mug with a muslin bag holding a pack of cocoa powder, and toppings including cellophane bags of mini and regular sized marshmallows. Put in some sweet extras that add flavor and can be used to stir the cocoa—we used Pocky sticks, cookie sticks, and a chocolate spoon that we slipped into cellophane bags to keep them neat. But you could also choose pre-wrapped candy canes, foil-wrapped chocolates and candies, or packs of cookies.
Then, add the most fun finishing touch to this DIY hot chocolate gift set: A snowman made out of marshmallows! (Just pierce three onto a wooden skewer and decorate with edible ink marker and add a paper hat—either cut one out of construction paper or draw one!) You can even send the marshmallows blank along with an edible ink marker and let kids color in the face, button, and hat on their own! It’s so fun to build a snowman, you can make several ahead and use them to decorate a holiday breakfast.
Tie a ribbon and around the mug, slip our printable gift tag inside (ours reads Cocoa Cozy Wishes, but we have a blank one you can fill in yourself, too). Now it’s the ideal gift to send or give this holiday season! (Of course, if you’re putting it in the mail, make sure to pack it up securely to avoid breakage, which may mean wrapping some of the items separately.)
Send one to each cousin in the family and they can sip hot chocolate during a remote movie night as they watch a holiday classic over Netflix Party. You can choose a different mug for each person or send the same mugs to everyone so the family has a set. Or, hand them out to guests at an in-person party or an afternoon playdate—making the hot snowman, then mixing the hot chocolate is a fun activity and drinking it will help kids stay cocoa-cozy on a wintry afternoon! And of course, they’ll then have a mug they can use for warm drinks, to hold pencils on their desks, or any way they like! And you can even put out fixings and create a hot chocolate party where everyone mixes their own, or top the hot chocolate with whipped cream and arrange the mugs in a line to look like a sippable snowman.
For another gift-in-a-mug, click here.
What You’ll Need
- Printable Cocoa Cozy Wishes gift tag template
- White cardstock or paper for tag
- Scissors
- Mug
- Hot cocoa powder
- Cellophane bags
- Tape
- Decorative string or ribbon
- Lollipop sticks
- Three large marshmallows (We used these rounded marshmallows, but any kind will do the trick!)
- Edible ink markers
- Paper for hat
- Toothpick
- Muslin bag
- Mini marshmallows
- Marshmallows
- Optional Extras:
We added a Chocolate Spoon, Pocky Sticks and rolled wafer cookies, but you could add candy canes, foil-wrapped chocolates for melting or any kind of candy or cookie you like
How-To
Step 1 Download our Cocoa Cozy Wishes gift tag, print, and cut out.
Step 2 Pack 2 tbsp cocoa powder in a cellophane envelope, tape shut, and tie with string or ribbon. Fill a muslin bag with toppings: we chose chocolate shavings and mini marshmallows, but you could add anything you like from peppermint candies to candied orange peel.
Step 3 Build a snowman! Push three marshmallows onto a skewer, only piercing the third one part way. Using edible ink markers, draw on a face and some buttons. Cut a top hat out of construction paper, tape it onto a toothpick, and stick it into the back of Frosty’s “head.”
Step 4 Fill the mug with the cocoa packet, muslin bag of toppings, gift tag, snowman, and a few tasty swizzle sticks; we used Pocky sticks, cookie sticks, and a chocolate spoon. Tie a ribbon on and warm up their winter!
