December 1: Easy and Festive Christmas Recipes

By: Ashley Manzo, Reporter

Santa popcorn

Once you pop, you cannot stop! This Santa popcorn is sweet, savory and delicious. Just a couple quick steps and the perfect festive snack is ready!

Ingredients:

  • 10 cups of popcorn
  • Salt
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • M&M candies (pretzel, peanut butter or normal)
  • 3 cups of mini marshmallows

Procedures:

  1. Start with about 10 cups of popped popcorn. Make sure not to burn the popcorn. Take out all of the kernels and add any salt if desired.
  2. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a medium-sized saucepan over the stove on medium heat. Add three cups of mini marshmallows once the butter is melted. Stir in the pan until all of the marshmallows are melted completely and then turn off the heat.
  3. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Spread your popcorn out on the baking sheet. Pour the melted marshmallow mixture over the popcorn and gently mix the popcorn with a spoon or other utensil until almost all of the pieces of popcorn are covered in the mixture.
  4. Add the M&M candies. Try and sprinkle the candies onto the popcorn as soon as you can after adding the marshmallow mixture so the candies can stick. You can throw in a small handful of mini marshmallows or Christmas sprinkles to make it even more festive.
  5. The Santa popcorn tastes best if eaten once you finish making it.

Reindeer pretzels

These sweet, salty and delicious reindeer pretzels are easy and fun for the holidays. Just melt, press, eat and enjoy.

Ingredients:

  • Circle or square pretzels
  • Hershey’s kisses
  • M&M candies

Procedures:

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
  2. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Place pretzels on baking sheet, make sure they are spaced apart.
  3. Unwrap Hershey’s kisses and place them on top of the pretzels.
  4. Place in oven and remove once kisses begin to melt. This will take about 4 minutes.
  5. Remove pretzels from the oven and gently press M&M candies down on the top of each Hershey kiss. The kisses should flatten out when you press down on them. If they are not flattening out, put them back in the oven for another 30 seconds.
  6. Let the reindeer pretzels cool completely and let the chocolate set for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator. These are a great treat to make 1-3 days before you need them.