The holiday season really inspires a lot of warm, fuzzy, cozy feelings in most of us. For a lot of parents, it's just really fun to experience the holidays with our kids — and to do our part to create big and small experiences that feel a little magical.
One way I like to do that is by trotting off to the kitchen and trying out brand-new or well-worn recipes with my kid, and we especially have a lot of fun when we try to make our own versions of something we would usually pick up at the grocery store. For example, you might be surprised by how easy it is to prepare your own hot chocolate with ingredients from the cupboard or pantry!
Here are six kid-friendly recipes to try out with your children this year (including that hot chocolate).
Simple Hot Cocoa
This is my son's absolute favorite hot chocolate recipe, and it's also really easy to double, triple, or even quadruple based on your family's needs.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 to 2 tbsp. sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup milk (or milk substitute)
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla
Steps:
- Whisk together cocoa, sugar, salt, and 2 tbsp. milk over medium to medium-low heat.
- Once the cocoa and sugar dissolve, add the rest of the milk.
- After it's hot enough, add the vanilla and serve!
Cupcake Christmas Tree
A cupcake Christmas tree is pretty delightful for a few key reasons:
- You're just making regular cupcakes and arranging them into a tree shape.
- You know they'll be delicious.
- The decoration doesn't have to be flawless!
If you want to keep it super easy, here's what you need:
- One box cake mix
- Cupcake pan
- White frosting
- Green food coloring
- 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
- Candy to decorate the tree
You can follow along the steps over at Kidspot Kitchen!
Snowflake Cookies
What's sweeter than making snowflake shortbread cookies that even sparkle in the light? Friends, not much.
Ingredients:
- 1⅓ cups butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tube white glitter writing gel
How to make them:
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Mix butter and powdered sugar until creamy.
- Add flour.
- Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and place it in your fridge for 30 minutes.
- Roll out your dough and cut into snowflakes.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Once the cookies are cooled, trace snowflake shapes with your writing gel.
Chocolate-Dipped Candy Canes
This recipe is definitely a crowd-pleaser around here, and it's also pretty easy to pull off! Here's what you need:
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 12 candy canes
- 3 oz. white baking chocolate, chopped
- Additional toppings (sprinkles, etc.) as desired
- Wax paper
How you make it:
- Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth.
- Dip curved ends of the candy canes into the chocolate. Place on wax paper.
- Melt white baking chocolate in microwave. Stir until smooth.
- Drizzle over the chocolate curved ends. Add toppings.
Pancake Snowman
These recipes aren't all for snacks! Pancake snowmen are super easy to make, and they'll bring a hefty dose of festive cheer to your holiday breakfast. Simply mix pancakes however you usually do, and then be careful to make sure your pancakes are three different sizes — for the head, midsection, and bottom of your snowman. You can use pretzel sticks as arms and berries as embellishments!
Stacked Christmas Tree Cookies
This is another cookie recipe that can be made with shortbread or sugar cookies. In addition to the cookies, you'll need green sprinkles and any color frosting that you'd like to use for the "tree" decorations. Here's another tip: You can use frosting to hold your cookies together in the tree shape!
What you need:
- 1 tube sugar cookie dough
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 can vanilla frosting
- Candy, food coloring, and any additional embellishments you want to add
You can follow along with the recipe over at Taste of Home!
