Nothing pleases all crowds, young and old, quite so much as a good old-fashioned hot chocolate. However, not every cup of hot chocolate need be old-fashioned.

When my wife first mentioned hot chocolate bombs to me, all I could think of was those bath bombs that dissolve into a bubble bath when you drop the ball into the water. Without clarification, I imagined the horror of a scene not unlike that of the “Caddyshack” film, where a rogue chocolate bar was released into the public swimming pool.

Sensing my lack of hesitation, my lovely wife explained that hot chocolate bombs functioned like bath bombs in that when they were deposited in hot water or milk, they would dissolve, creating a fresh piping mug of Christmas cheer.

Which makes them equally as efficient to use as instant cocoa mix. I figured these would be a far more decadent option than simply dumping a bag of powdered cocoa in.

As my wife began lining up all the various chocolate ingredients, I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed.

After seeing the menagerie of chocolate-pasted bowls and plates, I was only slightly less enthused about the endeavor, but since we had a dishwasher for the bulk of the cleanup, I wasn’t too put off.

Apparently her recipe was adapted from a number of similar recipes she had been perusing online. Her decisions on some of the optional ingredients, such as crushed creme-filled sandwich cookies, were purely due to the need to empty leftover treats from our cupboards, but hey, who’s complaining?

I’m not normally a big sweet-tooth guy—don’t get me wrong, I love my baked goods, and I won’t shy from a cookie—but when it comes to things with concentrated amounts of chocolate or sugar, I tend to pause. The big determining factor here was that it was snowing out and there was truly no better option for a hot wintertime drink than this marvelous dark creation.

Our son Rorick also has been on a hot chocolate kick as of late, and Christmas is nothing if not an outlet for spoiling your children with all the wonderment you can excuse.

Suffice it to say, that evening his face was smeared with chocolate, and he snored on the couch like a tranquilized rhinoceros. Parents often knock the whole sugar-high thing, but to me, it’s simply physics. What goes up, must come down, hence the crash and the blissful naptime that we as parents needed more than our progeny.

So if you need a simple idea to entertain guests, or even give as a Christmas favor or gift, try these little suckers out. If your kids are a little older than ours, I might even suggest making a craft activity out of it. Just remember to prep the wipes for cleanup, and the pillows for the fallout.