If you mean the cocoa santa heads ?..I can email you a pic if you pm me your email...

For the ones asking about the gingerbread bowls. I used a basic gingerbread house recipe. I can't seem to find where I put the recipe but I think I got one off of here or Taste of home website. It was simple, I cover the bowls with aluminum foil and draped the gingerbread dough over the bowl and left about an inch from the bottom for expansion, when done baking, I trimmed the gingerbread bowl with a knife around the bowl to get it more uniformed before it cooled and let the bowls cool about 10 minutes before taking them off the bowls. I hope this helps.

Kelleym, I have a question ... (thanks for the Alton Brown links BTW)
For the cocoa cones, the ingredients call for powdered milk, last year I wanted to make these so I went shopping, purchased "powdered milk" and it was HORRIBLE, it was not powder but flakes ... did I buy the wrong kind or am I missing something??? I was tempted to use powdered coffee creamer instead .... any thoughts?

Thanks!! And gread ideas everybody, I love this thread!

nefgaby.. Im not Kelleym but no its not flakes, Im not sure I have seen powdered milk in flakes... I buy the Carnation powdered Milk, Then I add coffee mate and Nesquik to along with what ever recipe you use to finish it !

I make reindeer mix and fill little tins I get from the dollar store to give to my nieghbors and friends. It is cheap and easy and makes a bunch! I mean BIG! All it is is cheerios, chex mix(corn and rice), m&m's(the red and green holiday ones), pretzels(the sticks), peanuts and you mix it all up and then melt almond bark(vanilla) and coat all of your mixture, lay it on wax paper and let it dry. You can even fill bags with it and tie it up with cute little bows. I don't use certain amounts because I just eye it and make sure that it looks like it is even, and thats it! I would probably say even amounts of the cereals.

Wow so many great ideas!! I do baskets for my husbands family every year. It is so much fun to do. This year I went to Tennessee in October and we went apple picking and made applesauce and apple butter.

Thanks Fiddlesticks and Kelleym!!! Now I know what to look for And I have no ideal what I got las year then ...

I have been making candy at the holiday's as gifts for the past 10 years. I make turtles, chocolate covered pretzels, thin mints (like the girl scout cookies), toffee, truffles, chocolate covered raisins, peanut butter cups, nut clusters, krispy bites, and peppermint bites.

I also make something called Holiday Crunch and I make glass blocks.

I tend to get a little crazy this time of year and go through about 100 bags of candy melts. And I wonder why I get stressed out!

Those are all so pretty! My MIL made me one of those glass blocks a few years back. I love it, I have it out now.

This link from Bakerella just came out today! too cute!!

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/

merissa.. I can try later If I can get the picture smaller !
shill... How awesome !!! Whats Krispy bites and peppermint bites ?

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/ Go here to shrink pics and make avatars.

I did find some pictures on the internet though. So if you dont want to bother, it isnt a problem!

Cocoa Santa Heads !

Yahooo! It worked ! I wasent able to get on CC for a couple hrs ??? It wouldnt let me on but anyway here they are!

The holiday crunch looks so good!

I've now got 5 bags of pretzel rods, the groceries have been out of them forever!!

I think I'm going to do a little tin for everybody at Christmas dinner at my sis in laws (all of her in-laws, plus my mom in law & dad in law, my mom, my brothers (she inivited all of our immediate family), I was going to put Christmas m&m's, choc covered pretzels, and still working on the last thing.....then I was going to tie a choc covered pretzel on a stick to the top of it....with a bow.

Had some PMs for the hot cocoa recipe I used for gifts. I thought I'd just post it here. Sorry it took me so long! I had to find it!!!

6 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 (5 oz) package of non-instant chocolate pudding mix (I use Jello's
cook-n-serve)
1 cup powdered chocolate drink mix (I use Nestle Quick)
1/2 cup powdered nondairy creamer
1/2 cup conf. sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine all ingredients. Dissolve 1/3 cup cocoa mix in 1 cup of boiling water.

This is a very rich and creamy, thicker textured cocoa...YUMMY!!!
I put this in a mason jar, and I covered the lid with some scrap Christmas fabric and tied it with some pretty ribbon. I attached a message and recipe with directions on the ribbon. I also bought a festive mug at the dollar store and a box of Holiday Jingles shortbread cookies. This all went into a decorative Christmas bag. I thought it turned out to be a great, fairly inexpensive gift for my neighbors.

Wow, those santa head cocoa cones are awesome!!

Lovin' the cocoa Santa heads!! Can you tell me what is in them? Thanks!

"White Trash" would make a great layered jar, too. If anyone is interested, I'll try to find that recipe and post it. (I haven't made it in a while. ) It is wonderful!!!

I found the recipe for "White Trash".

2 cups plain Rice Krispies cereal
2 cups Cap'n Crunch cereal
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 large jar dry roasted peanuts
2 2lb bars of white almond bark

Mix all ingredients (except almond bark) in bowl. Melt almond bark and pour over mixture. Drop small amounts of candy on waxed paper to cool.

For the mason jar, only do a half recipe (just to fit it all in). (It will just be a sampling for the gift.) Be sure to attach the original recipe/measurements to the jar.

What a lot of terrific ideas on this thread. One of my new favorite gifts this year was a bag of Paula Deens new cookies tied with a red bow. It is for a White Chocolate Peppermint macaroon cookie in one of her Christmas magazines. I hesitated to make it as it took so much coconut but it sounded good so I broke down and tried them. They are so pretty and really easy and if you like coconut, the combination is very good. I used the small scoop and really packed the mixture in so the cookies would hold the nice little round shape. The crushed peppermint really shows up pretty in the cello bags.

Fiddle--can you tell me what you use in the cocoa cones for some of the top layers. I can see the marshmallows and cocoa mix but what is next.
Thanks

Thanks for the nice comments everyone !
My Santa,s were done in a 12 in icing bag.... the hat is red hots..then crumpled up plastic wrap( hair I guess) then a bag of cocoa..then the marshmallows, then a cotton ball on the tip and some google eyes!and tied off with xmas ribbon ! I would think you can change it up anyway you want but I took ideas from a few different ones I had seen in different places! I also thought the colored mini marshmallows would look cute to ?

I bought some chinese takeout containers in Christmas patterns, and I am making a decorated cupcake for the center and cakeballs all around it in different flavors with Christmas m&m's as the filler. I love all y'all's ideas! Love those Santa cocoa heads!

Christie

I can't wait to try some of these. Thanks.

I would like to try popcorn that has chocolate drizzle. Does it make your popcorn go soft? How long will it keep before going stale/soft?

If anyone has tips on doing this I would appreciate the help.

Great ideas here!

good question! We bought some boyscout popcorn (the carmel chocolate kind...soooo good!) I was wondering if there was a way to make something similar. I was wondering if there was something special you had to do do keep it crunchy. Maybe the coatings keep it from getting stale?

Hey merissa.. We bought that same popcorn ! I have made the choc drizzled popcorn but if you dont eat it right away it seems to get soft ! I would love to know if anyone knows how to keep the crunch!