The Gift of December- Snowman Soup

You have got to take a peek at Rebekah's blog There will be a $5.00 charge for Whining!  Seriously, this lady makes me laugh out loud- often! Here's what she says about herself-

 I like books, classical poetry, musicals, vintage china, scrapbooking, the color red, flip flops, sushi, little boys named Josiah, the smell of lemons and dangly earrings. I am sometimes right, but more frequently wrong. I am sometimes only slightly fruity. Most of the time I am mostly fruity. I am learning to take what I have been given and make for myself and my little family a beautiful life.
Enjoy!  And thank you, Rebekah!



 I am tickled that Michele has let me hang out on her blog for a bit. She is always such a blessing and an encourager. What a treat to be able to share one of my Christmas projects going on at my kitchen table right now!

I LOVE Christmas! I love everything about it. As we begin our preparations for the celebration of the birth of our Lord, my heart always turns with how I can bless others.

Some years, I have a little more to give. Some years...a little less. You know how it is. However, I've learned that a cute and thoughtful gift doesn't have to be extravagant or complicated.

I also like having projects that my son and I can work on together. Not only do we get to share in a fun Christmas memory, but he is learning how to give.

I am sure most of you have heard of Snowman Soup. It's the kitschy little gift perfect for teachers, neighbors and friends. Or your teacher's neighbor's friends.  We are fairly free with our snowman soup.

I first heard of Snowman Soup many years ago. My sister-in-law and her family participated in a secret "pal" kind of gift exchange that took place with other members of their church. One cold evening, they heard a knock at the door. When they opened the door the family found a whole basket filled with Snowman Soup ingredients and a cute little poem. A bag of marshmallows! A box of candy canes, fun Christmas mugs....Everything a family would need for a wintery night at home.

This was the days before Pinterest (can you even remember?) and over the years I have created many versions of Snowman Soup.

The easiest and most economical version is one of my favorites. This year we are assembling snowman soup bags for Swim Coaches, the student teachers from my son's P.E. class, neighbors and church folks.

To create Snowman Soup you will need:

Hot Chocolate mix (you can make your own if that's the way you roll)
Peppermint Sticks
Candy Kisses
Mini-marshmallows
Small clear party bags


This year I even doodled my own little bag topper. I want to share it with you! I'll link to the final product (PDF) at the end of the post. I used cardstock for my bag toppers. I find cardstock is sturdy and makes for a nice presentation. However, you can use plain copy paper if that is all you have. You can make it sturdier by gluing it to a piece of construction paper.

I hand colored this copy. This is a perfect project for the Littles. I am going to also provide you a link with the colored version to make somebody's life easier. The assembly of the Snowman Soup baggies will be enough for at least a few of you (I remember those days). I like using gel pens for coloring. They make me happy. Colored pencils are also a good choice for these kinds of doodles. A finer tip will provide a much nicer result.

For the Snowman Soup poem I enlisted the help of my ever pithy momma. There are plenty of cute Snowman Soup poems out in webland. However, because I doodled this bag topper just for you, I wanted something I could share without infringing on someone else's creative property. Feel free to use this bag topper as often as you want!

After preparing my bag toppers, I gathered my ingredients together...minus a few candy kisses. This project is so economical. A body could get everything he or she needs at The Dollar Tree.

This is the size of the party bags I used. I am a big believer in using what you have. You can even use lunch sacks, but these cost under $1 at Walmart. I like the clear bags so the ingredients are visible.

I stuck all the Snowman Soup ingredients in the bag and folded over the top just a little bit. I tried to take a picture of that particular step, but the end product was too shiny to see. You will just have to take my word for it!

I then folded my topper in half and stapled the whole thing at the top.  I also added a little sparkly bag filler with my Snowman Soup ingredients. Everyone needs a little sparkly bag filler in their life.

This is the back view. I forgot to color his nose! Want to know something funny? Notice the word "SassyFras" just underneath the snowman. My mom and I have a online shop called SassyFrass Art & More. Did you just notice my boo boo? What kind of person misspells their own business on the back of a product? And here I thought I was being clever.

I did add some bling (in the form of some stick-on rhinestones) at the last minute. I looked for my glitter, but couldn't find any. That, my friends, is probably a good thing. I can get fairly liberal with the glitter.

As promised, I am providing links to my doodles just for you!

These links will take you to my Google Drive. You can print off as many as you need to. Set the kiddos down with the Snowman Soup ingredients and have an afternoon (or evening) of Soup making!

Just a few housekeeping notes. I did notice that my Black and White product wound up with some sort of strange line around the doodle. I think the paper moved during scanning. Just cut it off. And if you can remember...Add a another "s" to SassyFras!

Snowman Soup Black and White
Snowman Soup Color

I hope that you will find all sorts of folks to bless with Snowman Soup this year!