Greetings Bobcats! It is that time of year again where you go out, get your Christmas tree (or put an artificial one up), and light up your house with red, green, and white lights! Well, to add to your holiday experience, I have found three very simple treats that you can make over the winter break. All of them require little to no baking experience, and taste amazing.

For my first treat that I have chosen, it is a fun and simple strawberry Santa. Ingredients you will need to make the Santa include: fresh strawberries, vanilla icing, and black icing/gel. You will also need a knife to cut the strawberries, and either a piping bag or Ziploc bag with a corner cut of, to dispense the icing. To start off, make sure all of the strawberries are nice and washed, and then cut them in half horizontally. Next, take some icing and place a nice dollop of it on the bottom half of the strawberry, and then place the top half on. And another very small dab to the top of the berry to act as a hat. Finally, take the black icing/gel, and place 2 small dots of the icing in the middle to act as eyes. With very little effort, you have made your own strawberry Santa! For the full recipe, here is the article: https://www.smartschoolhouse.com/easy-recipe/strawberry-santas

The next treat that I found is a peanut butter cup Christmas tree! The ingredients that you will need to make the tree are: 1 peanut butter cup, 2 small peanut butter cups, 1 Hershey kiss, decorating icing, and sprinkles. First, place one of them small cups upside down on a table, and add icing to the bottom of it until it is completely covered. Next, take the large cup, and place that upside down on the icing. Cover the bottom of that with icing, and add the other cup on top of that. Repeat covering the bottom of the cup, and add the kiss to the top to finish off the tree. Now, it is time for decorating. Take the icing, and make whatever pattern you want going around the tree. Finish off by adding sprinkles all over the tree as well, and put a star on top! For the full recipe, here is the article: http://onelittleproject.com/peanut-butter-cup-christmas-trees/

Finally, the last treat that I have is a pretzel M&M hug. Ingredients you will need to make this include: pretzel squares, Hershey chocolate hugs, and chocolate M&M’s. First, you will need to preheat your oven to 200°F for about 10 minutes. While the oven is heating up, grab a piece of baking sheet, and begin to place the pretzels on the sheet, spacing them about an inch apart. After the pretzels are laid down, place 1 hug chocolate on top of each pretzel, and put them into the oven for 4 – 5 minutes, making sure that the chocolate does not completely melt. Take the pretzels out of the oven, and before they start to cool and harden up, place an M&M on top of the hug. And with all of that done, you have made your very own M&M hug’s! For the full recipe, here is the article: https://www.cookingclassy.com/pretzel-mm-hugs-christmas-style/

Happy holidays Bobcats! Enjoy the time off of school, and spend it with your friends and family! I hope you all get what you want for Christmas, or Hanukkah, or any other holidays you celebrate!