Delicious Christmas Traditions
Christmas is a time of year full of traditions, expectations, and special events- from family dinners, holiday movies on TV, and desserts to driving through decorated streets, ice skating, shopping, and music; Christmas is a time for making memories. Keeping traditions gives us something to look forward to, and something to cherish from year to year. At least that’s how it is for my family. If you haven’t seen the post I wrote for Thor Motor Coach “RV Holiday Traditions,” check it out. I wrote about how our traditions were modified to fit in the RV.
My family inherited the typical Christmas traditions
Milk and Cookies for Santa
from our parents- putting up the tree, stockings, larger than life Christmas Eve dinners, too many cookies and desserts; but when I started my own family, I wanted to start a special Christmas tradition that was just for us. And thus was born the Popcorn and Hot Chocolate night! At least that’s what I’m calling it now, before writing this post, it didn’t have an official name LOL! It’s been my long time belief that the best beverage to compliment popcorn (which is my all time favorite snack), is hot cocoa. Stu doesn’t really understand my obsession with it, but he does agree that hot cocoa and popcorn do go together like peanut butter and jelly…or peanut butter and chocolate (which is his favorite LOL!).
Each year, we have a special night when we not only eat the popcorn, but we string it up for the tree. I try to convince everyone else that this is the greatest tradition in the world, everyone just acts like it’s no big deal. So this year, to prove it’s a HUGE deal and the BEST tradition ever, I made homemade gourmet hot chocolate.
I’ve made this hot chocolate so many times this year- once for a “date night” to test out my recipe, in the RV for our Christmas dinner with Big Lou, and again for our Popcorn and Hot Chocolate Night.
Here’s what I made:
Traditional Recipe:
For the four of us, I did 4 cups of milk (I actually just filled the mugs to measure out four mugs for us), 3 Tbsp sugar, and 6-7 tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder (like the kind for cooking), 2 tsp of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Modify the sugar and cocoa powder according to your tastes- if you like sweet, milk chocolate, then perhaps 5 tsp of the cocoa powder. We liked it a bit more on the rich side, but it was definitely not “dark” chocolate. Taste throughout the heating process to adjust to your liking.
Heat in a saucepan over medium heat until warm (not too hot or boiling). You’ll want to vigorously whisk in the cocoa powder- it’ll be resistant to mix in, but don’t worry, it will. Trust me, just when you think it’ll never mix together properly, it will.
Variations: These were so easy to make for each person, because once you have the traditional recipe made, it’s just a matter of stirring in whatever additions you prefer.
S’mores- This was Stu’s favorite, and I simply topped the hot cocoa with mini marshmallows and toasted them under the broiler for a minute, and drizzled with chocolate syrup.
Peppermint- Even easier! I just topped with mini marshmallows and stuck a candy cane in it. By the time it was cool enough to drink, the candy cane had dissolved and flavored the drink. So good!
Salted Caramel- You may notice this as a trend with me- I LOVE salted caramel (I even made Salted Caramel S’mores). For this, I just stirred in a spoonful of caramel syrup, a pinch of sea salt, and topped with whipped cream, more caramel syrup and a sprinkle of sea salt. Obviously you can leave out the salt if you prefer.
Salted Caramel and Traditional Cocoa in the RV
I’m also a huge advocate of stove popped popcorn- none of that pre-packaged, movie theater “butter flavored” stuff. Real popcorn. I make mine with about a 2 Tbsp of coconut oil over medium heat and add 2-3 kernels until they all pop. Then add ¼ cup of kernels, and watch/shake/listen until it’s all done. I think the rule is when there are less than 5 kernel pops in 1 second, it’s done. But at this point I just take it off the stove when it feels right haha!
Milk and cookies after our Christmas dinner in the RV
This was the first year that I let the kids string up the popcorn- I was pretty wary giving them a needle before. But I feel that they’re responsible enough to handle it with supervision. I wish I had thought to take pictures of all of our Christmas traditions (including stringing up the popcorn), but sometimes I get so caught up in the moment, I don’t even think to pull out the camera- which is a good thing! Except when you’re trying to write a post on it LOL!
And after the tree gets taken down, we just hang it up outside for the birds to munch on.
What are your favorite Christmas or Holiday traditions? Have you tried to create ones of your own?
