Yesterday we transformed my sister’s kitchen into a Chocolate Factory and all of the kids made their own chocolate dipped holiday goodies.

If you’re looking for a frugal gift idea, this is a great one.  I spent a total of $75 on:

• 12 Plastic Goodie Containers.
• 40 Pretzel Rod Bags.
• 10 Goodie Bags.
• 1 Box of Graham Crackers
• 2 Boxes of Shortbread Cookies
• 3 Boxes of Chocolate Chip Cookies
• 3 boxes of Pecan Sandies
• 2 Bags of Pretzel Rods
• 1 Bag of Regular Marshmallows
• 1 Bag of Peppermint Marshmallows
• 1 Bag of Mini M&Ms
• 1 Bag of Peppermint Candy Crumbles
• 1 Bag of Mini Chocolate Chips
• 1 Box of Cheerios
• 5 Packages of Dipping Chocolate
• 2 Packages of Vanilla Dipping Chocolate

*Whew!*  Yes, I got a ton for the amount of money I spent (I bought all store brand/off brand items) and we got a TON of goodies from all of this.  The ‘Chocolate Factory’ was open for over five hours LOL!

I started out by putting two large pans on the stove top with three inches of water in the bottom.  I placed two large metal mixing bowls on top of that for a double boiler effect.  I turned the heat on low and dropped my dipping chocolate chunks into the mixing bowls – starting with one package of white and two packages of dark.  It took about 20 minutes to melt it down.  (Don’t rush this step – you don’t want the water boiling.  Be very careful to not get any drops of water in your melted chocolate, it will harden it.)

I worked with each child one at a time.  Because we were working with heat I explained where they could and couldn’t touch our work surface – and helped them steady their hands when necessary.

It was lots of fun – especially the sprinkling part!

Here are some of the goodies we made:

For more fun Christmas Goodie ideas check out our free Inspiration Guide!