DIY Magical Christmas Treats & Surprises - Guest Post by Debbie

Reindeer dust Making your dust animal friendly is really important when you’re leaving it out for the reindeer so no glitter or confetti should be in it. We use rolled oats and birdseed in our reindeer dust. You can add edible glitter and sugar decorations to make it glow. Add to cellophane bags or cones and decorate with tags and ribbon.

Whether you want some inspiration for your Christmas Eve Box, or North Pole Breakfast … Debbie Straughton makes the most amazingly magical Christmas treats and surprises for her school Christmas Fair, and has kindly agreed to share photos and tips on how she makes them. We’ve all been admiring them in our Facebook group Christmas & Magical Childhood Traditions for years! Over to Debbie …

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I joined the PTA at my two boys’ school 4 years ago. Until then I hadn’t really done anything remotely crafty, but having a lot of ideas of things I thought would sell well at a Christmas Fair, I set about investigating how to make them. My first year I made some hot chocolate goodies, polar express bells and Santa keys. Since then our repertoire has grown and grown and we have a whole craft stall at our fair that is extremely popular. So November in our house is all about crafting, and of course I have two of the best taste testers in the business.

Everything I’m about to share with you is made with things available on eBay, Amazon, Hobbycraft … or in the Supermarkets.

Hot Chocolate Bottles, Baubles and Spoons

These are a huge hit in our house, ideal for North Pole Breakfasts, Christmas Eve boxes or just cosy nights in front of the fire.

For Hot Chocolate Bottles, adorn them with ribbon, tags, wrap arounds and straws, anything to make them look Christmassy. Fill them with Belgian Chocolate buttons or chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. When you’re ready to enjoy them, simply add hot milk and stir to melt the chocolate.

Baubles can be decorated with ribbon and tags, add the same ingredients as for the bottles. These can be opened into a mug of hot milk to enjoy.

Hot chocolate spoons are great fun to make and you can make them in some many different variations. Use a hot chocolate spoon mould, melt your chocolate whichever way you find easiest (I personally use the microwave), pour into your mould and pop in a wooden spoon. You can then use different chocolate moulds to create toppers for your spoon and sprinkle with marshmallows, fudge pieces, flavoured chocolates or sugar decorations.

Chocolate bars

Like with the hot chocolate spoons there are so many options you could choose from to make some lovely Christmas chocolate bars. Choose different flavours of chocolate to mix and match your main bar with some decorative additions. You can use sugar decorations while the chocolate is setting. My favourite bar so far is this melted snowman chocolate bar.

Santa Keys and Polar Express Bells

You can either design your own tags for these, use Pinterest or Etsy to find printables or even use plain brown paper tags and hand stamp for a rustic look. Tie your key or bell to the tag with some pretty Christmas ribbon, they can be as elaborate or simple as you like.

Reindeer dust

Making your dust animal friendly is really important when you’re leaving it out for the reindeer so no glitter or confetti should be in it. We use rolled oats and birdseed in our reindeer dust. You can add edible glitter and sugar decorations to make it glow. Add to cellophane bags or cones and decorate with tags and ribbon.

DIY Magical Treats & Surprises. A guest post by Debbie Straughton for the International Elf Service — Reindeer Dust

Debbie Straughton is a Christmas obsessed mum to Sebastian, aged 8 and Cole aged 6, and lives in Manchester.