The holiday season is definitely my favorite time of the year. Family and friends getting together enjoying each others company. The food – oh the food! Definitely look forward to that too! Now that I have a bigger house I want to start traditions. I decided to host The Moncada family’s 1st annual Kids Jingle Party. My kids love having their little friends over so it was the perfect excuse to bake up some treats and play some fun games!
The majority of the party items was ordered from Oriental Trading. They were generous enough to work with me on making the party extra special for the kids. I had about 9 kids that showed up.
The Yummy Treats
For the treats, I made chocolate dipped pretzels, cupcakes, gingerbread cookies, and tons of marshmallows for our hot chocolate bar! We also made some chocolate spoons! I found the molds in my local craft stores but can be found on Amazon (link provided below). We had tons of candy canes (of all flavors!) even for the adults! I used Brach’s peppermint crush candy canes for the chocolate dipped pretzels – so good!
The hot chocolate was a hit! I made it in my crockpot – awesome right?! It was so creamy and chocolaty. Some of the kids added a candy cane to their cup for a minty treat. We had jump marshmallows and whipped cream. We gave it to each kid their own mug that they can color.
Crockpot Hot Chocolate Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can sweet condense milk
- 6 cups 2% milk (or your choice of milk)
- 1 bag milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp cinnamon or add some cinnamon sticks
- Whipped cream
- Marshmallows
- (optional) Brach's peppermint crushed candy canes
Instructions
- 1. Add all the ingredients into your crockpot and mix well
- 2. Set the crockpot to 4 hours on low
- 3. Once the 4 hours are up, mix well and serve!
- 4. Garnish with some whipped cream or marshmallows
Fun Games and Activities
My sister was a big help in coming up with some fun games for the kids. They all had a blast!
1. Candy Cane hunt – we hid the candy canes all over our backyard for the kids to find.
2. Pin the nose on Rudolph – We blind folded the kids and gave them a red circle to pin on the reindeer. My sister cut out the design.
3. Jinge Bells – Like “hot potato” but with a big ornament with jingle bells inside. They pass it around until the music stops, whoever has the jingle bells must leave the game. It continues until you are left with 1 winner.
4. Kisses in a cup – we had 4 cups close together and each child had to get a Hershey’s Kisses Kissmas Chocolates into the cup. Every time a child gets a kisses in the cup, a cup gets taken away, until all cups are gone.
5. “Guess how many candy canes” – We filled a jar with candy canes and had each child guess how many were in the jar. The adults took some guesses too!
6. Letters to Santa – All the gives received a Santa letter template to write their wish list to Santa.
7. Goodie Gusher – a fun alternative to the pinata. Each child gets a key which they insert in to the keyhole. One of the keys will release the candy! The kids loved this!
Goody Bags
Each child received an adorable Santa box filled to the brim with holiday goodies. Pencils, notebooks, activity books, tattoos, stickers, and so much more.
The party was a hit and we cannot wait to do it next year! The kids had a blast and the parents had a great time mingling. Maybe it should be called, “Parents mingle, kids jingle” party. Ha ha. Everyone went home with full bellies and sleepy kids. That usually means a good time, right?!
I’d like to take the time to thank my sponsors who helped make this party a huge success:
Oriental Trading
Goodie Gusher
Slammers
Brach’s Candy
Hershey’s Kisses Kissmas Chocolates
Holiday Magic Specs
The brands are not just limited to Christmas – think Valentine’s Day, Birthday parties, or other events!
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