Hot Chocolate Station

[ParadiseLaundry]

Is anyone doing a hot chocolate station/bar this year?

What have you got on it? Pictures welcome!

I'm in the process of putting mine together but it feels a bit underwhelming so looking for ideas!

ParadiseLaundry it is a lovely idea. Mine ask too for anything in the snack cupboard and have to buy their own sweets etc if they want something they can assume that they can eat whenever and as much of as they want. Mine are old enough and solvent and I generally don't say no much (unless its straight before a meal) and prefer to tell them yes you can share that, but when its gone, its gone. That's the thing - they would all appreciate your hot chocolate bar so much it would be gone in an hour and replenishing it probably a bad idea!

I do think its nice for a specific film evening/ party/ special get together though!

I have a new individually relevant mug and chocolate bomb for each child for their stockings. My boys especially would have four or five hot chocolates per day if there was whipped cream and marshmallows every time. They make mundane hot milk + hot chocolate powder "ordinary" hot chocolate most evenings as it is.

@ParadiseLaundry

To answer a few questions, yes, my family do enjoy and appreciate it. My older DS's was particularly excited about it. I would have loved something like it when I was little.

The kids might have a hot chocolate a couple of times a week, me and DH once a week or so. About as often as as they would have an ice lolly in the summer. We are all slim and healthy and have a good diet.

I have the time to do it because it's a hobby and most people have time for a small hobby. I have enjoyed collecting used candle jars and making labels and bows to put on them, looking for old mismatched Xmas mugs in charity shops and making the hot chocolate mix and stirrers and baking the gingerbread biscuits. It might not be some people's idea of a good hobby, they might be into cycling or card making or bird spotting but, you know, we're all different and enjoy different things.

All it pretty much is are a few pretty decorated jars and decorations next to the existing coffee machine.

I have plenty of space for it anyway as I don't have a fruit bowl....

So lovely OP, have a really great time over Christmas 🎄 Hope your DS and friends enjoy his party too!

@Da1sycha1n thank you so much for this lovely comment!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea!

Need to be able to do it on the cheap though 🤔 my DC would be over the moon, and I keep trying to think of little ways to be festive.

@Aposterhasnoname It will change your life

Man alive, I'm a bit of a Grinch, truth be told, but this is something I can get behind 😍

Haven't posted before but love this thread! Here's ours

We do this for the Christmas holidays!
We use a milk frother to make hot chocolate and it only comes out of the cupboard at Halloween (and gets put away again at the beginning of Lent, so it is a winter treat only.)

Just normal cocoa powder until school breaks up for Christmas, then all the flavoured hot chocolates and toppings come out for 2 weeks only.
We will have mini marshmallows, crushed candy cane, crushed amaretto biscuits, crushed homemade honeycomb, squirty cream, 4 different flavours of hot chocolate, some chocolate gingerbread fudge I found in M&S and some alcohol for the adults (Kirsch and rum so far).

I can't have this at home.
Can't stand the clutter on the sides.

Ahhh this is such a cute idea!

What a lovely idea!

@Hel1980 it's gorgeous! Did you make the little winter scene on the left yourself from the things from Poundland? It's great! I have the little house on mine (I will post a pic of mine tomorrow).

Love the fox mug too. More lovely fairy lights too so it's a must add to mine!

I'm doing this this year. So far I've bought the hot chocolate, actual chocolate to melt in milk, DD says adding double cream to the mix take it to the next level.

I should say I love the idea of this. It's just nobody has any self control around sugar in our house and I'd be lucky if they even noticed I'd made it look pretty or had chosen lovely things to go on it.

I absolutely love the idea... I'm the only one that drinks it but that doesn't matter does it? La la la la!

Only problem is space - and flavours of hot choc since the bastards little elves at hotel chocolat have still not worked out how to deliver to Europe post Brexit. It's bad enough that there will be no Wensleydale cheese this Christmas, but I was really hoping for a Velvetiser from Father Christmas on the plus side bog standard French hot chocolate is absolutely delicious and I just rip up big marshmallows. Other problem is that I would be tempted every time I pass it...

I do remember Christmas items that came out every year in the 70s that had an almost hallowed mystery about them. We had a Santa's sleigh (basically made of glitter-painted cardboard) that sat on the dresser full of sweets and chocolates. There were no other sweets like those sweets, I swear... nothing at all that matched their mysterious fudgey deliciousness....

[quote ParadiseLaundry]@Hel1980 it's gorgeous! Did you make the little winter scene on the left yourself from the things from Poundland? It's great! I have the little house on mine (I will post a pic of mine tomorrow).

Love the fox mug too. More lovely fairy lights too so it's a must add to mine![/quote]
Ha ha yes, busted, it's a £shop festive goldfish bowl 😂
Thanks 🤗 , the mug was from asda but a couple of years ago

Yes we have one too.

First time I've done it and my teens love it.
And I'm not even a Mrs Hinch fan

I have the time to do it because it's a hobby and most people have time for a small hobby. I have enjoyed collecting used candle jars and making labels and bows to put on them, looking for old mismatched Xmas mugs in charity shops and making the hot chocolate mix and stirrers and baking the gingerbread biscuits. It might not be some people's idea of a good hobby, they might be into cycling or card making or bird spotting but, you know, we're all different and enjoy different things.

I have fallen a little bit in love with you.

Ok I'm on this!

Got a homemade sign on the go, and will order a few jars of ASDA smart price jam with my shopping so I can clean them out and use the jars

How many flavours of hot choc do I need? Will order powder, mini marshmallow, candy canes and squirty cream for now, and keep checking back for ideas....

We've just done one - I picked up
a free Tassimo machine on a FB page and have bought gorgeous glass gingerbread men cups in Asda and a matching jar to store the mini marshmallows in.
We got a huge bundle of different chocolate Tassimo pods on an Amazon Black Friday deal.

As it gets closer to Christmas, I'll put more festive bits in jars, like candy canes, mini gingerbread men and sprinkles.

The kids have loved coming home to it after a chilly week at school.

I need to do this! I'm taking DD for a hospital trip Monday afternoon so I'm giving her the day off school. I think we'll spend the morning shopping I'm also finally letting her have her ears pierced after years of pestering. She's going to be so surprised. Anything to make the hospital trip a bit more palatable.

There would be a trail of sticky destruction through the whole house, we would all be bankrupt from replenishing supplies, and I'd need an HGV licence to drive the family car with everyone in it

Yep. Us too

@fourquenelles ❤️ 😘

@ByeBumpHiBaby in the stirrers I've got normal chocolate, chocolate orange, mint and white chocolate or I will when I've finished making my other stirrers.

I had a chocolate orange hot chocolate with baileys while I was getting some if the decorations out this morning, it was 10.30

@user33323

Did I die and wake up on a Mrs Hinch fan forum?

Indeed. I’ve spent way too much time on the Hunbelievable facebook group to entertain the idea of any kind of food ‘station’

I’ve never heard of a hot chocolate station but I love the idea! We are having hot chocolate though and this is the plan so far:

Bottles of Cocio chocolate milk (the serving suggestion is to try it hot and I’m excited as I love it cold!)
Spray-cream
Mini marshmallows
Chocolate for grating

We also have salted caramel sauce, chilli and cinnamon in the cupboard so I suppose people could add whatever they like?

@UthredofBattenberg I looove the idea of the stroopwaffles - I need to get some for this, stat!