I cannot believe that Christmas is just a few days away. I swear the month of December went by so fast this year. If you’re like me and pretty much done with your Christmas shopping other than a few small gifts, this post is perfect for you. I’m going to show you how to make this DIY Spiked Peppermint Hot Chocolate in a Jar. This gift is absolutely perfect for anyone that you don’t know what to get them for Christmas, coworkers, or individuals that you’re not exchanging gifts with but you still want to get them a little something for the holidays.
This DIY Spiked Peppermint Hot Chocolate in a Jar is an extremely thoughtful gift, super easy to make, and is something just about anyone can enjoy.
I was originally looking up DIY Christmas gifts for my coworkers this year. I wanted to get them something small and something that was thoughtful and not too much. I stumbled upon many DIY Hot Cocoa recipes on Pinterest that looks adorable and decided to put my own spin on it and make a DIY Spiked Peppermint Hot Chocolate in a Jar myself.
The awesome thing about this gift idea is that it’s completely customizable and you can’t make it according to the person you’re giving it to. Some people might not like peppermint so you can always swap out the candy canes for m&ms or other types of candy. It’s really up to you and your preference.
To get started, what you’ll need is some dried milk, cocoa powder, powdered sugar (icing sugar), candy canes, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and some liquor of your choice. I also picked up some festive ribbon and a large mason-style jar to hold the hot chocolate in.
The recipe itself to make this Spiked Peppermint Hot Chocolate couldn’t be easier. It’s simply equal parts milk, cocoa, and sugar. Since my jar was on the taller side, I did about 3/4 cup of each item ingredient and then topped it all off with chocolate chips, candy canes, and marshmallows with an amount that I thought looked good-no measuring needed, but you will want to do enough so that it’s at least even layer across your jar.
If you have a smaller jar you can do a 1/2 cup of each or with a taller jar, you could do anything from a cup for each ingredient to whatever you see fit.
To assemble the jar, I just measured out my milk and started pouring it in. Since the jar opening isn’t extremely wide, using a funnel would be very helpful in this situation. However, I didn’t have one handy at the time. There’s very little mess or clean up required for this DIY, but using a funnel would really take out any cleanup necessary afterwards.
After the dried milk, I added the cocoa powder and made sure that I made it as even as possible. It’s very hard to get the ingredients to stay separate the whole time, but I found that tapping the jar after each layer helps flatten out the previous layer and makes it look a little nicer. After the cocoa powder, I followed up with some chocolate chips. As I mentioned, I didn’t really measure the chocolate chips, I just put an amount that made an even layer in my jar.
Next, came the candy canes. To crush the candy canes to make the little peppermint pieces, I unwrapped a handful of candy canes and put them in a plastic sandwich bag. Then with a hammer, I hit the candy canes to break them apart. You want to make sure you don’t crush them too much as we’re not going from candy cane sprinkles, more like candy cane pieces. You can just break the candy canes with your hands out of the wrappers, but I found that this way saves you a lot of mess and is a lot faster.
The final step is just filling up your jar with mini marshmallows. Of course, you could always add another layer of candy or chocolate to this Peppermint Hot Chocolate as well. I just topped with some plain white mini marshmallows and added a tiny bow to the lid.
I got some ribbon and tied my mini Baileys Irish Cream to the side of the jar to give the optional spike in the Spiked Peppermint Hot Chocolate. I think adding a little liquor just makes this gift a little more fun and exciting for adults, but without the liquor, it’s something that the whole family can enjoy as well, which I think is really nice to give the option for either when giving it as a gift!
You can also add a little gift tag, which I created and printed it out after the photos were taken. You can either create your own, write your own on a gift tag, or download my gift tag and directions by saving the image to your computer down below!
I hope you enjoyed this super easy and thoughtful DIY Spiked Peppermint Hot Chocolate Jar. It’s something that everyone can enjoy and I think is a great gift for anyone in your life- and it looks really cute! Have you ever gotten any gifts in a Jar before? Let me know in the comments down below!
