Hot Chocolate Bar

I don't know how the winter has been in your neck of the woods, but it has been one of the mildest winters I can remember here in New Jersey. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the mild weather! But there's something about it being winter that makes you want to curl up inside with some hot chocolate and watch a movie or hang out with friends.

I took advantage of one of the colder weeks this winter and had an idea for my husband's high school Bible study to feature a hot chocolate bar in their meeting. This group meets Wednesday nights and my husband has mentioned it can be difficult to get this group of kids to open up and participate after they've been in school and are tired from the day. I thought it might be fun and encourage a more relaxed atmosphere if they had a nice hot mug of hot chocolate while they sat around and discussed the topic for the night. The best part was, other than the treats themselves, everything I used for the hot chocolate bar was found around my house.

I took a little inspiration from Pinterest, and because it was Valentine's week, stole all my red and pink serving items from the house and used them for the display. I wanted the kids to have actual mugs instead of paper cups so we brought in several mugs from our house.

For toppings we had whipped cream, graham cracker (which some of them crushed into crumbs :)), marshmallows, white chocolate chips, Twix, candy canes, and Oreos (not pictured here). The kids loved it and if nothing else, got them talking and chatting in the beginning of the night, rather than pull each word out of them during the lesson.This idea could definitely be done for a small group gathering you might be having at your house, a smaller birthday party for all you winter babies out there, or if you're a teacher, you could have this as some kind of reward party in your classroom. It's a lot of fun and very easy