Name: Christmas Chex Mix
Prep time: 15 min
Ingredients: 3 c Chex Cereal; 3 c Cheerios; 2 c Pretzels; 1 1/2 c Peanuts; 1 1/4 c M&Ms; 1 lb Vanilla candy coating/bark

This sweet and salty Christmas Chex Mix is a simple treat made with Chex and Cheerios cereal, pretzels, peanuts and the sweetness of vanilla bark and M&Ms.

I can’t believe how simple this is to make but it is a hit with everyone I’ve given some to try. This isn’t a new treat, but people make it their own by adding their favorites. I don’t use as much Chex cereal as others and I also add peanuts to mine. I also don’t use as much M&Ms because I really don’t think it is needed but it adds color to the mix.

The first time I made this last year for Christmas it was for my coworkers. They all went crazy for it and then I forgot to post it. I’ve since made it for different holidays I’ve made this with strawberry and blueberry Cheerios for Valentines Day and Fourth of July. Once I even made it with chocolate bark instead of vanilla because it is all I had on hand and I wanted to make my coworkers an airplane treat for our trip the next morning. Yes, I am that person handing out baggies of goodies at the airport.

Story time: I once was on a plane and the lady next to me was being a little rude. Like I would say excuse me or something to her and she would just ignore me. It was so noticeable that the man next to her was aware of it. She asked the stewardess for a snack before we even took off and of course she wasn’t able to give her anything. I noticed she seemed like she really needed it. Me, being the type who always has snacks offered her some and she took it without saying a word. After she ate a little bit she still hadn’t said anything and the man next to her said “wasn’t that nice of her to share her snacks with you? Shouldn’t you say thank you.” I was a little embarrassed by that but she did thank me and she then shared she was diabetic and was so grateful I had snacks and shared with her. You just never know why someone is acting the way they are and it’s just another reason I carry extra snacks. Well, that plus I’m just a snacker.

Back to this Christmas Chex Mix – play around with it. Add different types of Chex cereal or Cheerios. You can use peanut butter M&Ms or even Almond M&Ms. I like to use the holiday colored M&Ms. I also change up the shapes of pretzels. For Christmas I like the star, ornament, tree shaped ones. But other times it’s what I have on hand. If you didn’t want M&Ms, you could try mini chocolate chips.

You can make this your own with you favorite snack mix. Enjoy!

Tips for making the mix:

When melting your chocolate, mix it up after every :30 seconds to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn.
Use the largest mixing bowl you have so you have room to mix the chocolate in.
You can freeze the mix in ziplock gallon freezer bags for a few months.