Have a Cozy Night in & Make a Festive Hot Chocolate Charcuterie Board!
A Hot Chocolate “Charcuterie” Board featuring all the toppings you can imagine!
Here’s a food trend we can all cheer for!
We all know about the classic savory meat and cheese charcuterie board. It’s super popular and Insta-worthy, while still being an easy appetizer to graze and snack on. But have you heard of the hot cocoa charcuterie board? This trend totally took off last year and I for one am excited to “sleigh” it!
A quick word on wording: We are fully aware that “charcuterie” refers to meats and cheese, of which this board has none. However, we’ve found more and more people are using that terminology when looking for these curated boards, so we’ve chosen to follow suit to help aid in their search.
Pssst… These are the days I know for sure that I have the best job EVER! It really doesn’t get any better than getting to photograph fun ideas like this one! Eeeek! 🙌
Just in time for the holidays, I’m sharing a yummy hot cocoa board with hot chocolate, snacks, and all the sprinkles, candy canes, and marshmallows your family will need to have a cozy night in. The best part is that you can customize it with sweets your family will enjoy and scale the servings for any size group.
Here’s a fun donut snowman treat idea I’ll be adding to my tray this year! ☃️
To compile these fun snowmen snacks I placed mini donuts on a wooden skewer and added M&Ms candy for buttons and for the nose. The scarf is Twizlers pull-apart candy, while the hat is a peanut butter cup, and the eyes are mini chocolate chips.
These are fun and easy to compile and would be a fun project to do with the kids!
Watch me make this snowman treat on Instagram!
Grab a large tray or platter, and let’s go!
I love this hot chocolate idea because it’s so easy and fun. Simply grab a large tray, serving platter, cutting board, or even a sheet pan would work, too. Add and arrange your favorite hot cocoa toppings and holiday treats. If you have some Christmas mugs, they would be fun as a holder for candy canes.
Items on our hot chocolate charcuterie board for inspo:
Hot Chocolate Charcuterie Board
yield: 10 SERVINGS
prep time: 10 MINUTES
total time: 10 MINUTES
A yummy hot cocoa board with hot chocolate, snacks, and all the sprinkles, candy canes, and marshmallows your family will need to have a cozy night in.
Ingredients
- tray or cutting board
- powdered hot cocoa mix
- toppings: sprinkles, candy canes, marshmallows etc.
Directions
1
Get a tray and gather all the goodies you'd like to include on your board.
2
Put some hot cocoa powder in a bowl or jar and take the candy and treats out of their packaging. Arrange the tray in small groupings.
3
Steam milk or water for hot cocoa, and enjoy!
Tips for making the best hot chocolate charcuterie board spread:
- The main tip that makes this a beautiful presentation is to take the treats and goodies out of the packaging and arrange them in an appealing way. You can use small bowls and jars to keep things tidy. It only takes a few minutes to lay everything out!
- On this board, I used a convenient powdered hot cocoa mix. If you want to make homemade hot chocolate, I’d recommend making this decadent slow cooker hot chocolate recipe we love.
- You can make this idea at various price points. For instance, visit Dollar Tree and check out their selection of hot chocolate packets, candy canes, sprinkles, and goodies to save big!
- My bar tray is Dip brand from my local Fry’s grocery store, but I found (and also own) a similar highly-rated serving tray on Target.com.
What a fun way to serve hot cocoa!
I love this idea to add to family holiday traditions and for any special winter occasion. My daughter’s eyes about popped out of her head when she came downstairs and saw this! LOL! It’s getting harder to impress these kids as they get older, but I feel like I succeeded!
I love this! Perfect for Christmas morning.
Thanks Lori!
So festive and clever Lina! Love this idea 🙂
Yes so fun! Thanks Bunny!
Does it get any better? Adorable idea!!!!
Right?! Ha Thanks Amber!
This is such a great idea! I’ve been constantly on the lookout for fun, frugal ways to treat the family. This has been a rough year for all of us and any way to make everyone in the family feel special is a win in my book. I’m looking forward to us all enjoying this on Friday night! Happy holidays, and thank you for all you do 🙂
Yay! I love that!!! I so agree and have fun!
What a lovely idea!
Thanks Bex!
This is so gorgeous, thank you Lina, for the inspiration! 💕 Love my H2S team, y’all always come up with the best ideas! Keep up the great work!
Aww thanks so much for the sweet comment!
Great idea!
Thanks Michelle!
Love it! We do this every time the weather gets chilly. And we are from KS so it starts around thanksgiving for us. You gave me some ideas to add to my hot chocolate station. We have a little hot chocolate station by the keurig with some hot chocolate k-cups. I will be adding the gingerbread cookies and the pretzels. We have most of those thing in pretty mason jars on a wooden tray and the kids favorite is the whipped cream but that has to stay in the fridge.
Oh that’s so fun! <3 Stay warm and Enjoy!
Yes! I was going to do a hot chocolate bar for Christmas morning and this has some great ideas! Thank you!
Another great idea!
THANKS so much Annette!
This looks awesome 🤩
Aw thanks so much!
Lina, I LOVE it! What a fun idea. Thank you for sharing!
Yay! Thanks so much Becky!
Thank you so much Becky!
This is adorable and I’m very tempted to do this for Christmas Eve but I’m a bit concerned about my little niece and nephew, who are only 6 and 3. I would have had no problem limiting my daughter at that age by saying “this or that” or “you can chose X items for your cocoa and Y treats” but I’d hate to upset my niece nephew or cause a battle for my brother and sister-in-law. I’m not trying to be stingy, just want to avoid upset tummies or major energy spikes. Anyone have any ideas or thoughts?
I’d also love a tip on the best no spill cups for little kids for hot-ish liquids. We went on a Polar Express train ride a few years ago when my niece was 2-3yo and they gave the kids a standard disposable warm-beverage travel cup (think Starbucks). The lid popped off hers and she got covered in cocoa. Thankfully she wasn’t burnt or anything but she was upset to get cocoa all over her pajamas.
My kids can’t handle the hot cocoa well. They are 2.5 and 7. It went everywhere and getting it to a good temperature was tricky. I put six or so marshmallows in each and that was plenty. I’d say hold off on the fancy cocoa tray until they are older and can appreciate it! I’m most worried about all the waste for the items that don’t get eaten or go stale from being out. That goes for all the food boards though!
That sounds like good advice – thanks for taking the time to reply
I know it’s kind of late to order things but Contigo cups are amazing. My husband has turned his coffee over MANY times on his desk and they are the only cup that hasn’t leaked at all. Love them and they are VERY reasonably priced considering. We pick ours up at Kohl’s when they have their Veteran’s Day sale but Amazon also has them on sale from time to time.
As for the sweets – just keep the tray small – maybe add some fun decorations (plastic ornaments, garland, etc.) to take up room on the tray so it looks very “magical” but isn’t just full of sugar. Or perhaps you can add some fun small stocking stuffer type items for them to keep (or just play with for the evening). A slinky, a yo-yo, etc. would be fun to look at and keep them busy for a bit.
Great ideas! Thanks!
Replying for others who may have similar concerns re hot cocoa and toddlers; my younger son did not tolerate warm or warmer liquids at all. He’d spit it out and cry. I gave up and used chocolate milk instead.
Love this idea! I’m not a good cook by any stretch of the imagination, so I struggle to come up with a dish that I can bring to the office holiday party. Granted, we can’t have the party this year, but I will be bringing this charcuterie board next year.
That’s a great idea!
I love that this can be done even with a small budget. Way to inspire some frugal magic Lina!
YES! I love hearing that – thanks so much Suzanne!
FYI I just picked up some peppermint “spoons” at my Dollar Tree yesterday that would work great. Now that I’ve seen this I think I need to return to DT for some more items to put out. 😋
Oh neat! Thanks for sharing!
I love this idea! Thank you. I’m going to make a Thanksgiving one.
Oh fun! Enjoy 💕
I know some were asking about little ones and hot cocoa. We’ve done something similar with chocolate milk in Christmas mugs! It’s a rare treat to get chocolate milk in our house, so having it was a thrill (especially with the frills on the tray!). Marshmallows won’t melt in cooler cocoa for the kids anyway, so they just float on the top to be eaten up by the “sipper”, so it works the same way with the chocolate milk! I would do it at the table with placemats as it gets a little messy. The kids enjoyed stirring it with their candy canes but they tended to put them down (on the table) to then sip the milk. 🤦🏼♀️. I limited the sweets (since the chocolate milk and marshmallows are sugary enough!) and used shiny garland on the tray too make it festive. I did add graham crackers to dip/munch because I felt they were less sugary than candy and cookies. It’s fun to take this idea and make it your own! Thanks for the inspiration, Lina!
Sure! Thanks Cj!
Love this!!
Thank you!
This is NOT a charcuterie board.
Where’s the meat? “Charcuterie” Charcuterie (shar-KOO-ta-REE) is a specific term with origins reaching as far back as 15th century France; literally translated, it means the products of a fancy pork butcher.
Definitions MATTER.
Thanks Jodi! Yes we are aware It’s just a creative snack board and not a traditional meat and cheese board.
But the title and description say “charcuterie”.
Hi Jodi! We’ve found more and more people are using the term “charcuterie” in relation to these fun, curated snack boards, whether or not they contain meats and cheeses. We completely understand the origins of the word pertain directly to having these items, so we understand why there are some readers who find the use of the word a little odd. But to aid those who are searching, we’ve chosen to still include “charcuterie” in the title and in a few spots throughout the post. I hope that helps!
I love the gingerbread man/men/woman on it, probably the first to go in my house, I also love love that lil white car with the gifts on top the decoration sooo cute
This is perfect. My daughter wants a fancy hot chocolate birthday party with a few friends this year. Now to find some cute mugs!