Hot Chocolate Stations - how does it work?

[DiamondBright]

I'm not criticising anyone, I just don't understand how they fit into Christmas.

If you have one is hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy canes etc. a regular thing in your house in the winter anyway, so it makes sense to keep all the fixings on display? Is it a daily treat?

I get maybe setting one up for a party or maybe on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day if you have guests but I gather they go up with the tree and stay up all December in some homes.

I don't have snacks out all December either and I know people have Christmas snack baskets, in the world of Instagram and YouTube anyway. Maybe I'm just the wrong demographic, I'd like to be eating treats and drinking hot chocolate all December but i already have a weight problem and wouldn't trust myself.

I bake and put out chocolates but not usually until around the 22nd or 23rd.

Nice pendragon hot choc in the cupboard for the teens to help themselves and they do. No need to leave anything out. They don’t do toppings!

Nice for a sleepover party, but day to day? Thanks, but no thanks.

@DiamondBright I can see those types of things being lovely at something like a sleepover or whatever but it’s just a giant pain in the arse day to day! Uncovered wafer sticks and open jars of marshmallows
Mmm, they’ll taste nice when I’ve been frying spices and yes, the potential for wet spoons touching something dry and just contaminating everything so it needs to be binned - just what a terrific waste!
Why?!?!

Im with others in thinking They're performative twaddle

I've always made my kids a few hot chocolate a week from November the 5th. It's a nice treat after the cold walk home. I don't leave all the stuff out though as my kitchen is tiny. But I do go all out with different flavours, toppings etc. This week my youngest had white hot chocolate, chocolate whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles and a ginger bread mug hugger . This is very fancy, normally it's just hot chocolate and whipped cream. I've cropped the picture .

And for clarity, my eldest is 24 so I've been doing this for 20 years.... because my mum used to take me and my sister for hot chocolate every week in November and December at the makro cafe or in garden centres so we could see the lights. I do not have Instagram 😂

This might be one of the tackiest things I’ve ever heard of.

Also just picturing how much fluff and cat hair would be plastered onto unwrapped candy canes.

Do people drink that much hot chocolate to need to have a dedicated area in their house for it? I quite like hot chocolate but have maybe three a year.

@LivingDeadGirlUK

I've never heard of this before, having just had a google I can proudly say I'm ahead of the curve. We frequently don't get around to putting away the shopping straight away and my hot chocolate powder, biscuits, and chocolates are often just left on the counter. Not even December 1st yet.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Tacky.
How much more sugary junk do people need to consume over December?

@SnekkinOnDown

I've always made my kids a few hot chocolate a week from November the 5th. It's a nice treat after the cold walk home. I don't leave all the stuff out though as my kitchen is tiny. But I do go all out with different flavours, toppings etc. This week my youngest had white hot chocolate, chocolate whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles and a ginger bread mug hugger . This is very fancy, normally it's just hot chocolate and whipped cream. I've cropped the picture .

A mug hugger????!!! Is this a thing too. I've never heard of a hot chocolate station OR a mug hugger. What other types of mug huggers are there?

We have hot chocolate, marshmallows and flakes in the cupboard, squirty cream and milk in the fridge.
Anyone can knock themselves out and make one whenever they want, we have the stuff in most of the year round anyway.

Same in this house!!

We don't have a Christmas snack basket but we do keep all the Christmas treats/goodies (mix of sweet abs savoury things) under the tree.

My MIL has a HUGE basket but she's had it for as long as I've been with DH (24 years) so definitely pre dates social media 😂

I love hot chocolate drink tea at home and hate coffee so that's always my go too if we are out and others have a coffee. I like the idea of having it in the house and have been considering buying a velvetiser. That would be for all year round though.

@Bluntness100

To be fair, I have tea and coffee in canisters, next to the kettle and then mugs in the cupboard above. I reckon I shall start calling it the tea and coffee station.

“Just off to the tea and coffee station darling to make my morning coffee, would you like anything?”

😂

Love this 😂😂

Do all the HCS people then moan in January that they’ve gained a stone in four weeks?

Maybe for a party, but not all the time.

@tootiredtospeak I've got a £12 milk warmer and frother from Aldi and to me does the same job as those fancy unnecessarily expensive velvetisers!

I've got a lovely hot chocolate station. It also has tea and coffee too. And a selection of biscuits. Hot water is always available from the kettle and hot milk after a couple of minutes in the microwave And it is all kept nice and tidy in the kitchen cupboards As a PP said, Instagram has a lot to answer for and sharing such staged pictures just seems vain

Cheers I will have a look for it. I always do hot chocolate with milk in a saucepan but it's a right faff and then takes ages to wash off.

@JamesWilbysAbs

I have only seen the little house ones ready made but I have seen cutters to make your own and they come in a few different shapes/styles. I was surprised to see that you can get shaped Marshmallow toppers in snowflake , Penguin and polar bear . They look cute but I do think it's a bit bonkers for a hot chocolate. I spent £14 on two tins of whipped cream, a tub of Galaxy hot chocolate, some mixed flavour sachets, a bottle of sauce and some mallows. Some of the women that follow mrs hinch and Stacey Solomon spend £££ on setting up proper strains with specially cut vinyl labels and themed decorations and all manner of things. It can get very competitive apparently!

@TheChosenTwo

Mindless clutter. Not happening in my kitchen! We have hot chocolate, marshmallows and flakes in the cupboard, squirty cream and milk in the fridge. Anyone can knock themselves out and make one whenever they want, we have the stuff in most of the year round anyway. Dc might have one a week in the winter. I don’t have anything out on my kitchen sides except a kettle and the coffee machine. I could live happily without either of them (don’t drink hot drinks!), there’s no way I’d be leaving crap out on the sides for this!

Can you explain why the drive towards having nothing on your kitchen work surfaces?

@MilkTooth because it’s less to have to lift to clean round? I loathe stuff sitting out.

I’ve even got rid of the kettle for a boiling water tap. Coffee machine and kitchenaid more than enough to clean.

We have a tray with a snowflake pattern on it which have just brought out of its cupboard and will stay out till Feb-ish. I put different types of hot chocolate on it, marshmallows & toppings. Squirty cream stays in the fridge. Nothing is labelled and nothing is left open/unwrapped. I don’t call it a hot chocolate station. I don’t even have a Facebook or Instagram account. I don’t remember ever taking a photo of it. Have done this for years. We are all a healthy weight. I don’t use any syrup thing as don’t like how sweet it makes the drink taste. But will add a few slugs of Bailey’s to mine. (In fact, might go and make one now )

I have never heard of a ‘hot chocolate station’ until this thread. Festive consumerism gets more and more batshit every year.

I'd never heard of it either but I've seen three posts in the last week about hot chocolate stations and there's an advert at the moment of a woman serving up hot chocolates from a sort of bar arrangement for a group of her friends, so it's obviously a 'thing' now.

I don't get it though. Why keep it all out on display for weeks? Do people really expect to be drinking hot chocolate with a ton of sugary crap tipped into it throughout December? Very strange.

And the candy canes. Why? They taste of peppermint and they are rock hard. What's the point of putting them in hot chocolate? It's hardly like dipping a biscuit in your tea, is it?

I feel increasingly old and bewildered.

@NdujaWannaDance and who is dusting it all! Boak!