DIY Christmas Party Treats and Decoration Ideas! [Huge Post]

Hey everyone!

Recently me and a few other people threw an adorable surprise Birthday party for a friend who is obsessed with Christmas. I along with my friend Laura made a bunch of cute snacks and we all decorated her house to a Christmas theme. I think these snack ideas would be perfect for a party on Christmas day!

Treat #1: Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients;

• Shortbread cookies, you could bake them but I bought mine from Countdown because I'm lazy
• Candy Canes or festive sprinkles
• Milk chocolate

Method:

1. Crush your candy canes, I crushed them with a mug because I'm sophisticated and classy
2. Melt milk chocolate in the microwave using 20-30 second intervals
3. Dip half of your shortbread cookie into the chocolate and sprinkle on crushed candy canes or festive sprinkles
4. Sit the cookies for in the fridge for a bit for them to set

Treat #2: Reindeer Cookies

Ingredients:

• Pretzels
• Cashews
• Dark chocolate drops
• Milk Chocolate
• Jaffas
• Cookies of your choice

Method;

1. Chop your pretzels in half and a handful of cashews lengthwise using a knife
2. Dip two dark chocolate drops into milk chocolate and stick them on the cookies as eyes
3. Then using milk chocolate again, stick on the jaffa as a nose (a snout? idek)
4. Using the same technique again, spread milk chocolate on the cashew and stick it on as a smile
5. You guessed it, dip a bit of the pretzel into the milk chocolate and stick to the sides of the cookie
6. Leave the cookies on baking paper in the fridge to set for 30 minutes.

Treat #3: Festive Popcorn (the BEST popcorn ever)

Ingredients:

• Caramel dipping sauce (the ones you get near the strawberries in the supermarket)
• Lightly buttered microwave popcorn
• Milk chocolate
• Dark chocolate

Method:

1. Crush your candy canes in a zip lock bag
2. Spread your popped popcorn onto a baking tray
3. Using a spoon or fork flick your wrist (click the link) to flick on the caramel, milk chocolate and dark chocolate
4. Sprinkle on the crushed candy canes
5. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes or so
6. I used a spatula to transfer the popcorn into little cellophane bags, folded a paper doily in half and stapled the bag closed with it.

Treat #4: Hot Chocolate Spoons

These spoons are so cool, simply stir into warm hot chocolate until melted to intensify the flavour. The candy cane pieces also give your hot chocolate a delicious subtle peppermint taste.

Ingredients:

• Wooden spoons or metal spoons (plastic spoons could melt if your hot chocolate is too hot)
• Milk chocolate
• Dark chocolate
• Crushed candy cane

Method:

1. Melt both the milk chocolate and dark chocolate using 20-30 second intervals in the microwave.
2. Spoon the milk chocolate into the wooden spoon.
3. Drizzle on your dark chocolate
4. Sprinkle on your crushed candy cane bits
5. Set in the fridge to harden for 30 seconds or so. I used a chopstick under the handles while it set to balance the spoons so the melted chocolate wouldn't drip over the edges.

Treat #5: Candy Cane Hearts

(Thanks to Laura for the recipe!)

Ingredients:

• Candy Canes
• Milk chocolate
• White chocolate

Method:

1. Cut 2cm off the bottom of the candy cane and arrange it into a heart
2. Crush the left over candy cane bits
3. Melt white chocolate and milk chocolate and leave to cool for around 10 minutes at room temperature or 5 minutes in the fridge
4. Use your own judgement to see whether the chocolate is thick enough to be spooned into the centre but won't leak out the sides
5. Sprinkle the candy cane bits on top and put them in the fridge on baking paper for 10 minutes.

Treat #6: Melted Snowmen Cookies

Ingredients:

• Cookies of your choice (we used digestives)
• Icing Sugar
• Water
• Food colouring (black and orange)
• Marshmellow (the bigger the better)

Method:

1. Mix icing sugar and water to form the icing and spread over the cookie in an imperfect wiggly fashion (because snowmen don't melt perfectly circular)
2. Stick on the marshmellow before the icing sets
3. Make a thicker mixture of icing using more icing sugar and a bit of water and dye some with black food colouring and a bit with orange food colouring
4. Put the icing in a icing squeezer and draw on your snowmans features
5. Serving suggestion: Use a black slate and dust on icing sugar like snow!

Other Treats:
We had pink and green Bundaberg drinks which were the closest colours we could get to Christmas colours hahaha.
Laura also baked an amazing chocolate Birthday cake and we had sparkler candles (that failed but let's not dwell on that).

Decoration Ideas:

• We made a quick garland by tying balloons to a piece of string (which you could always do in Christmassy colours).
• We also folded paper doilies in half, stapled them onto a string and wrote "Happy Birthday" across them because it was for our friends Birthday, but you could always just write "Merry Christmas" instead.
• A beautiful Christmas Tree was set up
• We had a Christmas music playlist set up
• Little Santa Claus nick nacks were everywhere and some food was served on Santa Clause plates
• Christmassy candles were lit e.g. pine, vanilla scents
• Other ideas: you could also play Xmas charades and watch a Xmas movie

~THE END~

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post and are having an amazing holiday and Merry Christmas!

Bye for now,