How to Host a Hot Cocoa Party

Thanks to Cost Plus World Market for teaming up with me on this post!

It is officially the time of year when you can play all of the Christmas music and plan holiday parties! I am a girl who loves her sweets so I decided to throw a winter hot cocoa party.

Here is how my dining room normally looks:

And here it is all decorated for my winter hot cocoa party

My theme for the party is “Merry and Bright” so I can showcase some fun pinks, whites, and golds (who says Christmas decorating has to be all red and green?!). I wanted an elegant and modern vibe.

The most important part of a hot cocoa party is the drink and the toppings! Here’s what I choose:

hot cocoa

For the cocoa, I went with Silly Cow mousse hot cocoa. I wanted something with a milk chocolate base so I could add in lots of flavors with toppings. Plus, you make this cocoa with milk so it is decadent and super creamy.

An important element of a hot cocoa is how to keep your water or milk warm. I used a white and gold kettle and heated the milk up as our friends were arriving. It stayed nice and warm in the kettle so we could refill as we talked.

Toppings:

white and gold kettle
chocolate chips
marshmallows (these snowflake ones are so adorable! I cut a little slit in them so they could sit on the edge of the mug)
holiday peppermint spoons
Pirouette cookies
toffee bits

To hold the toppings, I used a round gold and marble tray. I like using a tray to corral items- this makes it easy to know where the toppings are and keeps your table a little less busy.

With the toppings, I made some truffles. I wanted a small dessert to go with the drinks. These are super easy to make- only 3 ingredients (the recipe is here).

place setting

My favorite part of throwing a party is decorating! And for this party, the decorating is all about the place setting. I started out with cute plates. These set the mood for the table with the fun whimsical pattern and gold scalloped edge. I love that the set of 4 plates shares all 12 Days of Christmas!

I accented the plates with a simple snowflake mug, an ombre pink napkin (from Cost Plus World Market, but I can’t find it online), and a gold spoon.

table decorations

The next part to consider when hosting a hot cocoa party is what you’ll put on your table to make it pop. I wanted to bring in some bottle brush trees for the winter theme and tie together my color scheme. I also added some twinkle lights to make it extra festive.

wall decorations

The last thing I considered was what to put on the walls. I added a cute saying to my letterboard as an understated way to celebrate the season.

Since my theme is “Merry and Bright” I added a banner to the wall behind my table as a big statement.

This party can be as big or small as you’d like. We choose an intimate setting with 2 friends over. We put Don to bed and stayed up late and talked. For me, the holidays are all about spending quality time with the people you love most and we definitely did that!

Most of the items I used in this post are from Cost Plus World Market. I shopped at my local Farmington store. Here’s a link to their store locator so you can find the store closest to you too.