My Favorite Hot Cocoa and Christmas Decorating

Thanks World Market for sponsoring this post. Of course, all opinions are my own!

Hi friends! Can you believe it’s December? I’m almost completely done with my holiday decorating and it feels so good looking around and seeing twinkling lights, lots of greenery, and pops or red and green. I just love it this time of the year.

If you’re like me, you spend A LOT of time in the kitchen during this time of year. Baking cookies, parties, and guests keep me really busy during the holiday season.

I’m so excited to be sharing a glimpse of my holiday kitchen/breakfast area along with 13 other amazing bloggers!!

One space in our house that gets a lot of traffic is my breakfast area. It’s right off the kitchen and we spend a lot of meal time in this space.

As we prepare for the holidays, I’m playing around with different ideas for place settings. I love these chalkboard tags as place cards.

This large roll of ribbon with a letter to Santa was so precious, I used it as a table runner. Every time I see it, I think this is exactly what my daughter would write if she could write a letter to Santa. Boy, does that little girl want a puppy!

My favorite part of the space is the hot cocoa bar! I set it up on top of my buffet  and it’s really easy to set out the goodies for our guests and clean it up as soon as it’s over. ps, you can print this adorable Sleigh Rides and Hot Cocoa printable over at Clean & Scentsible!

You have to have the right goodies for a hot cocoa bar. My goodies of choice? Peppermint!

I loved putting together this little space. My favorite part? That awesome vintage red kitchen scale from World Market, so cute! I also love this embroidered tea towel.

But of course, the best part of a hot cocoa bar, is the hot cocoa. Am I right? My favorite is a peppermint hot cocoa, which in my mind is the best when made with Torani Peppermint Bark syrup.

I bet you can agree when I say, a holiday kitchen isn’t complete without some cookies.

Our last trip to world market my daughter asked if we could bake cookies and even picked out the most adorable sugar cookie kit. We had such fun whipping them up.

And it also gave me a reason to snag this cookie box. Swoon. This box and tons more holiday goodies are available at World Market right now!

See peppermint hot cocoa recipe below!

Tons more inspiration to go…

Check out these gorgeous Christmas kitchens:

Yellow Bliss Road
Ella Claire
Liz Marie Blog
Just Destiny
Clean & Scentsible
Making Home Base
Domestically Speaking
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
AKA Design
Sand & Sisal
At the Picket Fence
Lolly Jane
Eighteen25
Love Grows Wild

My Favorite Hot Cocoa and Christmas Decorating

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  

• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream
• 4 tbsp Torani Peppermint Bark sauce
• Marshmallows
• Whipped Cream

Instructions

 

• Combine the cocoa and sugar in a saucepan.
• Stir in the boiling water.
• Bring mixture to an soft boil while stirring.
• Simmer for about 2 minutes careful it doesn't scorch.
• Stir in 3 1/2 cups of milk and heat until just before boiling.
• Remove from heat and add vanilla and peppermint bark sauce.
• Pour into four mugs.
• Add the cream to the mugs of cocoa to cool it to drinking temperature.
• Garnish with marshmallows and whipped cream.
• ENJOY!