Cookies and Cocoa Holiday Brunch
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Tis the season for holiday parties! While this year, I can’t host my people in my home and will instead be delivering cookies and gifts to my friends and family, it's the perfect time to showcase one of my favorite parties I’ve been waiting on since last year, the Cookie Box and Cocoa Bar Holiday Brunch I threw to begin the holiday season! My friends arrived in their various four wheeled sleighs throughout the morning to partake in home baked breakfast with an extensive coffee and cocoa bar; then went merrily on their way with fresh Christmas cookies, my favorite gift to make every holiday season.
DECORATIONS & DETAILS
For my holiday brunch, the decorations took traditional christmas and tripled it; because my house got bedecked in a trio of decorated trees! Since this was a casual morning meet up, it was all about having my house decorated for the holidays and taking advantage of my newly purchased forest to make a guide for anyone wanting to learn how to decorate their own tree, Every year my themes and trees are different, but I always stick to the same process of designing and decorating them. This along with all my own tips and tricks from decorating over the seasons are all compiled in my post, Christmas Tree Decorating 101, so check it out to learn more!
Each of the trees in my little indoor forest was themed in a different style, from my traditional tree in our basement to the Christmas Eve night themed tree in the bedroom. Upstairs, my favorite tree of the trio was the centerpiece to the main party room, bedecked in a scheme of whites, champagnes and metallics for a gorgeous centerpiece for guests to enjoy after grabbing a pastry and a warm drink from the pastry breakfast bar!
FOOD & DRINKS
My friends can all attest, I’m our casual aspiring pastry chef. So when hosting them all for breakfast, I had to break out my mixer and rolling pin to bake my favorite pastries just for the occasion! Now my go-to for pastries are Danishes and croissants, so an assortment of options were what my pop up pastry shop hosted this holiday! To make up the breakfast spread, a trio of croissants: traditional butter, prosciutto & cheese, and Nutella were matched by a choice of cream cheese Danishes or pistachio rolls, perfect for munching on after visiting the decked out Coffee and Cocoa Bar!
I absolutely love coffee and cocoa bars during the cold winter months, so the holidays are the perfect reason to indulge in this favorite bar of mine along with writing a guide to outline all the ins and outs of Designing a Coffee & Cocoa Bar for home hostesses for any holiday gathering! Guests had a choice between coffee or hot water to add to homemade cocoa mix; along with a variety of mix-ins and toppings for custom crafted coffee cocktails for adults or cocoa mocktails for the kids, which was perfect for this kids inclusive holiday party! In the true sugar coma Christmas style, after this treat filled breakfast guests departed with sweets for enjoying the rest of the holiday season, or maybe to leave out for Santa!
GUEST GIFT BOXES
One of my own homemade holiday traditions that I started well over a decade ago is to bake assorted holiday cookie boxes for my friends and family; so as my nearest and dearest friends in town were the ones to attend my yuletide brunch, of course they were sent home with fresh baked boxes of Christmas Cookies!
I went with some of my favorite classic cookies for these festive boxes; including dark and white chocolate thin mints, snickerdoodles, chocolate dipped biscotti, and iced sugar cookie trees. Once my friends had taken their boxes home, I dropped off the rest to be shipped out to all And while all were delighted and no cookie was unloved, the chocolate dipped thin mints were the clear favorite of all my friends and family this season, so they are sure to make the lineup in my future boxes!
Every year since my teens that I’ve had a kitchen to bake in I’ve enjoyed creating cookie assortments for my loved ones, and this brunch gave me the perfect opportunity to outlining my process for this several day endeavor, which I compiled in this lovely post, How to Design & Bake Holiday Cookie Boxes! There I outlined how I plan what cookies to include and the way I go about baking hundreds of them each season for my favorites near and far, along with my favorite tips and tricks for cookies that always make it into my holiday lineup!
This low key family friendly brunch was the best way to start my holiday season and to see all my friends before the snows of winter separated us until spring. Our guests loved warming up with warm drinks and Christmas cheer before starting their own holiday adventures, and I enjoyed all the fun cocoa and coffee drinks with the extra toppings and mix-ins for the rest of the holiday season!