Give me a theme and I will plan a party! I hosted my first hot chocolate night last winter. Since it was so much of a hit, I’m continuing on with the tradition this year. How do you host the perfect hot chocolate night? There are a few key elements.
The Hot Chocolate
Think about what kind of hot chocolate you want to serve. You can make stovetop hot chocolate. Or, if you’re like me, I usually opt for crockpot hot chocolate. The recipe I use for crockpot hot chocolate is a little bit different than my stovetop recipe, it’s a little thicker. The crockpot keeps it warm, and everyone loves pouring it into their mugs.
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Ingredients
- 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- 8 cups milk
- 2 cups chocolate chips
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in your crockpot and whisk until combined.
- Turn your crockpot to low and cook for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until the chocolate chips are melted.
- Whisk one last time before serving.
- Place the crockpot setting on warm if you’re serving out of the crockpot.
The Mugs
Last year, I just pulled out some festive tea cups. You can also go for disposable coffee cups. Or, my favorite, Santa mugs. The best part is, you can send everyone home with their individual mug. Guests just love taking home goodies. I happened to find santa mugs at the dollar store. They’re also available at Target, Amazon, and other places around the web.
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Add-Ons
Consider something of a hot chocolate bar. Some people will just drink plain hot chocolate, while others want to make their hot chocolate special. Use small bowls, mason jars, decorative plates to put add-ons in. Some ideas for add-ons include:
- Shaved chocolate
- Whipped cream
- Crushed caramels
- Candy canes (for stirring)
- Chocolate syrup (or caramel or both)
- Homemade marshmallows
- Mini Gingerbread men
- Bailey’s
Snacks
The hot chocolate is the star of the show, for sure. But you need to offer up more than just hot chocolate. If you ask guests to come after 8pm, you’re off the hook for providing dinner. Light snacks is the way to go. I usually stick to savory options to offset the sweetness of the hot chocolate. One snack board should be more than enough for a group of 10 or less. This year, I kept it simple with veggies, dips and dried fruit. Since I wasn’t adding cheeses to my snack board, I decided a puff pastry baked brie would be a nice addition as well.
Set the Scene
My hot chocolate nights usually fall around the winter holidays, so I use that to set my theme for the evening. I keep a collection of all my party decorations in massive plastic bins and put them away in storage. That way, when I find cute things, on sale, I pick them up and add them to my collection.
A few years ago, I picked up some winter/Christmas themed centerpieces. Since my apartment isn’t huge, I set everything out on the kitchen island. I put down a plastic tablecloth (trust me, people will spill all over the place), and then used the centerpiece as the focal area. The crockpot stayed near the outlet, and everything else went around the centerpiece.
Don’t forget dishes and silverware for the snacks. I used snowflake paper plates, silver plasticware and snowman napkins. I don’t have matching sets for anything. I find it more fun to mix and match serveware. A round wooden snack board, mixed with golden heart patterned plates and small clear mason jars all come together to create the perfect ambiance.
Be creative, don’t be afraid to mix and match, and if your hot chocolate night is post-holidays, use your own theme to set the scene.
Activities
While it’s wonderful that everyone just sits around a sips hot chocolate, I always feel like there needs to be some sort of activity. When I hosted my first hot chocolate night, I also turned it into a cookie exchange. There are a many different ways to host a cookie exchange. For my cookie exchange, I had about 10 guests. I asked each guest to bring a dozen cookies. When everyone arrived, I put the cookies out for everyone to enjoy. I also picked up cookie tins from the dollar store and handed them out to everyone so they could fill the tins with the cookies they wanted to take home.
This year, I decided instead of a cookie exchange, we were going to decorate ugly sweater cookies and build gingerbread houses. I found the cutest little gingerbread village set at Walmart.
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