Its winter and everyone (at least in the cold midwest) loves a nice warm beverage at a holiday gathering. This instructable is to show you how to make delicious hot chocolate that is easy to transport to your next holiday gathering. I will also give you some ideas for some add-ins that will make your hot chocolate the new favorite at holiday gatherings. I brought it to a recent party and everyone loved it!

Step 1: Mix All Your Ingredients in Your Slow Cooker

To make the hot chocolate you will need:
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (~2 cups)
1 carton of cream (16oz)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14oz)
6 cups of milk (I used 2% because that is what we drink)
1 Tablespoon of vanilla

Mix everything together in the slow cooker.
Alternatively you can use whatever your favorite hot chocolate recipe is and mix it all in the slow cooker. Subbing your favorite type of chocolate in for the semisweet chips is also a way to mix it up (white chocolate chips also make a very yummy hot chocolate).

Step 2: Let the Slow Cooker Do Its Thing

Once everything is mix set the slow cooker to low and let it heat for about 2 hours.
I whisked the mixture after about 1 hour and then 1.5 hours in. After 2 hours I whisked again to make sure all was incorporated, after 2 hrs all the chocolate should have melted and it should be a delicious hot chocolate.

Step 3: Gather Add-ins

The hot chocolate on it's own is pretty awesome, but everyone loves a little extra too! The event I am bring this to has both drinker and non-drinkers so I left everything to the side so people could choose what they want to add!

Ideas for non-alcoholic mix-ins
Mini marshmallows (or big ones)
whipped cream
caramel sauce

Ideas for alcoholic mix-ins
Peppermint Schnappps
Butterscotch Schnapps
Irish Cream
RumChata
Kahlua
Infused vodkas
Alcohol infused creams

Step 4: Travel to the Party and Enjoy

Once the hot chocolate is made you can just transport your slow cooker to where ever the party is, plug it in and have it set to warm or low.
People can ladle hot chocolate into cups and mix with all the extras!
Yum!
I forgot to take a picture before I went and there wasn't any left afterwards to take a picture of!