The holidays are here and to celebrate we put together a little holiday-themed sundae bar with Hudsonville Ice Cream!

When it comes to ice cream, Hudsonville is by far my favorite! They’re an ice cream company out of the Midwest with a passion for creating the best flavors around. Hudsonville Ice Cream is about more than just ice cream. For them, it’s all about making life’s special moments a little sweeter! Not sure where to find it? Use their scoop locator to find a store near you.

When December rolls around, I am all about celebrating the holidays with family and friends. Our sundae party was a huge hit and I’m going to show you how to make everything merry and bright!

Today I teamed up with Hudsonville Ice Cream to share a few tips on creating a holiday-themed sundae bar:

FIGURE OUT YOUR FLAVORS

Obviously, we need to talk about the ice cream first. When creating a sundae bar, it’s important to have a few different flavors for your guests to choose from. You for sure need to include the basics (like Creamery Blend Vanilla), but it’s also fun to add a few fancy flavors too!

Hudsonville Ice Cream is known for their festive flavors and a few of my favorites that we added to the mix include: Strawberry Cheesecake, Brownie Batter Cookie Dough (my daughter’s FAVORITE!), and Mackinac Island Fudge.

PICK YOUR TOPPINGS

Now it’s time to talk toppings. I like to provide guests with a variety, but not make it too overwhelming. I think anywhere from 5-10 options is a good number to stick with. You always want a combination of healthy, sweet, crunchy, and saucy. They of course can overlap, but you want to make sure you have enough variety so that everyone’s favorite is available.

We were going for a holiday-theme over here so I made sure to include a few festive choices like peppermints, holiday sprinkles, red + green M&Ms, mini gingerbread men, marshmallow snowmen, and chocolate candies. We also included chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and cherries.

Some other toppings you could consider include: fresh berries, coconut flakes, dried banana slices, crushed cookies, gummy bears, peanuts, granola, almonds, toffee bites, and cereal. Also let’s not forget about the sauces. It’s always fun to add chocolate syrup or hot fudge, caramel sauce, whipped cream, or some sort of berry compote.

MAKE SURE TO DECORATE

Obviously the ice cream is the star, but since we were celebrating the holidays, we had to add a few decorations. I love a festive tablecloth (you can find mine here), as well as some holiday platters (like this one and this one). Lastly some holiday lights or small holiday-themed decor to scatter around the table so that everything shines!

PLAN AHEAD

I always find it easier to scoop ice cream once it has been left out for a few minutes. I suggest taking your ice cream cartons out of the freezer about 15-20 minutes before serving. That way it will be way easier to scoop and eat.

Another idea is to pre-scoop your ice cream and have them ready to go in containers. This works well if you plan on having a lot of guests at once to your ice cream bar. Since we were having such a small group, I just decided to scoop the ice cream right out of the carton.

So there you have it, a few tips for hosting a holiday-themed sundae bar. It’s the perfect excuse to celebrate and eat ice cream! You really can’t go wrong with this one, just make sure to choose quality ingredients (like Hudsonville Ice Cream) as well as a variety of festive toppings.

See some more photos of our celebration below: