My girls and I LOVE our hot drinks during the cooler weather. There are many days where we will sit with a pile of books and our hot chocolate during a chilly afternoon.

If you haven’t noticed in my small kitchen love post, I am a fan of simplicity. The fewer steps to get what I want the better!

I often found that I was hesitant to do hot drinks for my kiddos as a great because it meant

1. Getting out the fancy tea cups

2. Finding the hot chocolate in my pantry that can be a nightmare to find things in currently

3. Oops! Someone wants apple cider instead today…. Heading back into the pantry to find that box

4. Where are the marshmallows…. Do we even have any?

5. I want coffee so let’s find that now!

You get my point. By the end of getting all the supplies out I am ready to just have it done!

I have been seeing hot drink stations all over Pinterest and so finally took a morning and created a hot drink tray for our family.

Not only does the tray of eclectic tea cups, saucers, cute napkins and warm drinks make my kitchen looks super cute… But it is inviting!

Making “a cuppa warm” (my kids helped me come up with this!) is now something I am invited to do on a daily basis because it’s all right there waiting for me.

I also know that in making hot drinks for us all that we will all intentionally slow down for a bit, enjoy sitting near each other and be IN the moment. Really that is what it’s about for me.

Are you ready to make your own hot drink tray? If you don’t have all the supplies that I have feel free to improvise!

Step 1: Gather your supplies:

1. Mugs or tea cups and saucers (enough for everyone in your home)

2. A tray to set everything on

3. A small basket to put drinks in

4. Small mason jars

5. Cloth napkins

6. Tiny cardboard boxes and tissue paper or scrapbook paper (use the box your hot chocolate came out of!)

7. Drinks- hot chocolate packets, apple cider, coffee (I have both decaf and regular Nescafé in mine- you just mix with warm water), hot tea bags, mini marshmallows)
Step 2: Make the containers for your drink packets and tea

I cut down a box that was in my recycling to fit the size of my hot drink packets. Then i covered it with cute tissue paper. You could use cute scrapbooking paper or ribbon!

Step 3: Fill your small mason jars with marshmallows and if you want put some coffee in another jar! If you have homemade hot chocolate (my goal is to get some made before thanksgiving!) you can also put that in your mason jars!

The goal here is to have everything at hand that you would normally put in your hot drink. Do you add sugar to coffee? Do you want to set out a small jar of spoons?

Step 4: Put everything together on your tray

Now it’s time to make it all fit! I was able to put all my tea cups & saucers on the tray by stacking. If you are using mugs, you may not be able to fit them all on your tray. It’s ok! Put your drink accessories in your basket and set your mugs & saucers all around.

                 Here I used mugs on my tray. I could only fit two. I then decided to try out my vintage tea cups! 

 I love the vintage tea cups and saucers because they stack so easily!

Step 5: Find a place to put your tray and add a cute sign!

Finding a place to put your tray may be the hardest part of all! Get creative! Does this mean you need to move some things off your countertop for the cold season? Try it… Know you aren’t making a lifetime commitment here! We moved our microwave off the counter for our tray, but we are thinking we are going to need to put the microwave back eventually!

Now what about a cute sign?! The sign I have in my picture is one that I made. I took a small metal tray, painted it with chalkboard paint, added a ribbon and some leaves and tada! While a sign is not necessary, it sure is cute!

    
Now you are ready to enjoy some warm early morning, afternoon or dinner drinks as a family!

Seriously… Just do this! Jump in, use what you have and try it!

Here are some different ideas of drink trays I have come up with:

(note- these are all for sale- emai me if interested and I will give you details!)

 
Simple. A set of 6 tea cups and saucers on a beautiful ceramic tray. There isn’t room on this tray for the drink accessories so I would set a cute little basket next to it with all the drink options.

 

 Why  not change up your hot drink tray for the holidays? Here is a cute vintage Santa tray with four mugs and saucers. Same Tray as above but I added a basket to hold all the drink ingredients.

 This is a beautiful fall tray. It is a smaller tray so I could only fit four mugs and saucers. Once again, I would use a basket next to the tray to add drink supplies.
  Picture of the tray used in the Fall set.

 Picture of the vintage Santa tray used in the holiday set.

What is your favorite warm drink to enjoy during this cold weather?