Much like the conductor in the Polar Express, in our house we’ve only got one rule at Christmas:

Never ever let it cool!”

One of our family’s favourite Christmas traditions, alongside making a massive Christmas bed in the living room and walking around in our pyjamas for days on end, is drinking a copious amount of rich, velvety hot chocolate. Like many of our festive-time traditions, it started three years ago when my wife and I watched the Polar Express with our then 4-year-old. The hot chocolate scene came on, and set in motion a tradition that still lives strong in our family to this day.

From around the third week of December, we start collecting the necessary supplies. Unfortunately, these aren’t the kind of supplies you can just leave sitting around with 2 young boys in the house, if you know what I mean. High-quality chocolate (I prefer the 85%+ cocoa, the wife and kids a bit lower), enough full-cream milk for a small army, condensed milk, whipping cream, marshmallows, sprinkles and more are all in play.

As far as exact recipes go, don’t be too rigid. We’ve found that playing and experimenting with the recipes is just as good as drinking the hot chocolate, and the children love coming up with their own creations. Besides, in a lot of ways, hot chocolate is like pizza; even when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. When you get it juuust right though, it’s like getting your own golden ticket to board The Polar Express. That being said, by now we’ve experimented with it enough to have a base recipe that everyone likes, and that serves as a great starting point for everyone to customise from there.

In a slow cooker set to low, combine roughly 6-8 ounces (200g) of chocolate for every litre of full cream milk. Darker chocolate is better, as low-cocoa chocolate ends up being too sweet without enough chocolate flavour. Let it heat up while stirring occasionally to melt the chocolate. If you don’t have a slow cooker and are making it in a pot on the stove, it’s important to do it over low heat and never let it boil. Once the chocolate is melted, add about half a can of sweetened condensed milk, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. That’s it! The slow cooker will keep everything at serving temperature for hours without you having to worry if it will burn or bubble over, and it’s all you need to move on to the next step, making it your own.

The kids love adding whipped cream, marshmallows and sprinkles; wifey and I like adding something a bit stronger, usually of the Caribbean persuasion. Either way you serve it, it’s the perfect drink to sip on while cuddling up in our pyjamas, in our Christmas bed, watching our favourite holiday films.

While ours might not be served as extravagantly as in The Polar Express hot chocolate, our homebrew version brings just as much joy and Christmas spirit; to this family at least.