Make Snowman Hot Chocolate Kits in Jars

This snowman hot chocolate kit is made with baby food jars or mason jars to create a fun Christmas gift for friends, holiday gift exchanges, and fundraisers.

For a winter theme, I also have a recipe for melted snowman cookies here.

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How to Make Hot Chocolate Kits in Jars

It’s becoming clear that I cannot resist a craft challenge.

We were asked to come up with a repurposed gift under $5 for a holiday event and I opted to turn baby food jars into snowman hot chocolate kits. Of course.

I think I actually first saw a version of them in a craft book when I was a kid (I’m pretty sure I read every single craft book in our public library several times over).

These little snowmen are fun and easy to make, and you can reuse them. Plus, things with cute faces always seem to sell out first at fundraisers as I learned with reindeer cupcakes.

I’ll walk you through how I made them.

You could use any size jar but it will take quite a lot of supplies to fill anything bigger than baby food jars.

Supplies

Some links go to my affiliate account at Amazon.com.

For One Snowman

• 3 baby food jars and lids, clean, with labels removed
• Hot chocolate mix
• Mini marshmallows
• Candies – choose ones small enough to fit a bunch in the jar
• Eyes: chocolate chips and dab of white icing
• Arms: small twigs or pretzels
• Felt (or any scrap fabric) for scarf and mitts
• Embroidery floss for mitten strings
• Star sequins to decorate mitts and scarf
• Polymer clay (orange) for carrot nose. You could also use orange beads, twigs, or anything else that looks nose-ish. Or paint them on.
• Mini candy canes for buttons and hats
• Santa hat

TOOLS

• Marking pen for glass (black) for button mouth
• Heated glue dispenser with glue sticks
• Snippers for cutting twigs
• Scissors for cutting felt

Steps

1Fill Jars

Fill jars with marshmallows, hot chocolate powder, and candies.

• I’ve got 9 jars (below) to make three snowmen total.

2Glue Eyes and Nose

Hot glue the eyes and nose onto the marshmallow jar.

Tips:

• If using chocolate chips for eyes, let the glue cool a few seconds before applying. Unless you want them melt.
• If you don’t want to make a nose out of polymer clay, you can always draw one on the jar with a marking pen for glass.

3Decorate Eyes

Dab a bit of white icing or paint to give the eyes detail.

Tip:

• Often it’s easier to use the wrong end of paint brush for tasks like this.

4Attach Twig Arms

Apply twig arms with hot glue.

TIP

Cut the twigs on an angle (as shown below) for a better seal with on the jar the hot glue.

5Make Scarf and Mittens

Prepare scarf and mittens.

TIPS

Measure how long you want the scarf first before cutting the felt.

I folded the scarf in half lengthwise and glued it shut to make it thicker.

I used a star sequin to hide the hot glue attaching each mitten to the embroidery floss.

I also applied star sequins to the scarf using hot glue. Fancy, I know.

6Glue Jars Together

Hot glue the jars together.

TIP

Decide if you want the jars upside-down or right-side-up. The lids on top can give the look of the brim of a stove-pipe hat.

I chose upside-down because I like the marshmallows showing on top of their heads.

7Complete Decorations

Add rest of decorations.

• I broke up mini candy canes (carefully), keeping them in their wrappers to form little round hats. Or halos. Depending on how you look at it.
• Broken candy cane pieces are used for the buttons.

• If you’re giving them away, be sure to provide mixing instructions for the hot chocolate mix.

All done!

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛