This is the best Christmas Popcorn recipe you’ll find! Light and crispy popcorn coated with white, red, and green chocolate candy melts and mixed in with holiday sprinkles, M&Ms, and candy cane kisses. It’s a sweet treat that you’ll be asked to make over and over again.
Christmas popcorn, or sometimes called Christmas crunch is a sweet popcorn treat packed with candy and sprinkles that is always a hit.
Bring it to a cookie exchange party, or your Christmas eve celebration. Send it to school for holiday parties or take a batch to work to share with your coworkers. Everyone will love it.
I make a similar treat for Easter – it’s called Bunny Bait! And for Halloween, try Monster Halloween Snack Mix.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- No Baking: Holiday baking can be fun, but it’s also really handy to have a no bake holiday treat recipe up your sleeve. This recipe for Christmas popcorn can be made entirely in the microwave in about a half hour.
- It’s Fun: Making things out of candy melts is fun, particular for kids. Let them help you with this Christmas popcorn recipe.
- Festive Fun: Red, white, and green treats are so much fun this time of year. Honestly, I don’t think this would taste as good without the extra punches of color from the candy melts and M&Ms.
- Sweet and Salty: This is mostly a sweet treat, but a little bit of salt from the popcorn gives it that irresistible sweet and salty snack thing. You may have trouble keeping your hands out of the bowl.
Key Ingredients
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Popcorn: Popped corn is the base to this snack mix. I used a regular bag of microwave popcorn (salted, not buttered) to make this. You can also make it on the stove or using an air popper.
- Candy Melts: We’ll use three different colors: White, Red, and Green to make this recipe extra Christmassy.
- Holiday M&Ms: Red and green, to fit the theme.
- Candy Cane Hershey’s Kisses: A confession… I stock up on these in December so that I have them all year round to snack on. They are one of my favorite candies! A handful of them in this recipe looks and tastes amazing.
- Sprinkles: To make this Christmas popcorn over the top festive, a final addition of Christmas Sprinkles is needed.
How to Make Christmas Popcorn
- Make Popcorn. Use your favorite method to pop 8 cups of popcorn, and place the popcorn in a large bowl. To make 8 cups of popcorn, you need about ¼ cup of unpopped kernels.
Tip!
Make sure to remove any unpopped kernels before mixing the popcorn in with the candy melts. You don’t want anyone to chomp down on that.
- Melt White Candy Melts. Add the vanilla candy melts into a medium sized microwavable bowl. Microwave according to the package directions. Typically you should microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds, stir, and continue to microwave at 30 second intervals until fully melted.
- Coat Popcorn. Pour the melted white chocolate melts into the bowl with the popcorn and stir to coat. Add the holiday M&Ms and stir together.
- Drizzle: Spread the coated popcorn onto a flat surface lined with parchment paper. Spread the sprinkles on top, then spread the kisses around. Melt the red and green candy melts in separate bowls using the same method as above. Drizzle each color over the popcorn.
- Let Set. Allow the popcorn to sit for 30 minutes to an hour, until the candy melts have fully hardened. Break apart if needed before serving.
Recipe Tips
- Avoid Butter: Microwave popcorn will work in this recipe, but I find it’s best to use a non-buttery style. Try all-natural, or a simply salted variety. Or make it yourself over the stovetop with a little bit of neutral-tasting oil.
- Use what you have: If you don’t have parchment paper, wax paper or aluminum foil will work just as well.
- Have Fun: Drizzling the colored candy melts over the top is probably the most fun step in this recipe. Have a ball! Kids like to help with this step too.
- Use a Tray: You can let the popcorn set on the counter, but putting it on a cookie sheet tray will allow you to move it out of the way.
- Set it Quickly: Use the fridge to speed up the hardening process if you’re in a hurry.
What to Serve with Christmas Popcorn
Add bowls of Christmas Popcorn to your holiday treat platters, along with cookies like Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, Christmas Pinwheel Cookies, or Christmas Tree Brownie Bites.
Enjoy Popcorn Variety by serving Christmas Popcorn with Homemade Kettle Corn, Caramel Popcorn, and Movie Theatre Style Popcorn. Let everyone have a little bit of each for a movie night treat.
Have a Drink with your holiday popcorn. This Santa Cocktail is super fun, or try a relaxing mug of Mulled Wine. Use a french press to make the perfect hot coffee for a winter afternoon.
Christmas Popcorn Variations and add-ins
Change the Flavor: You can experiment with adding candy flavoring to the candy melts to give this a different flavor. Try cinnamon or peppermint. They also sell flavored candy melts, or you can use regular chocolate in the mix.
Try Different Candy: Stick with festive add-ins, like crushed candy canes, holiday mini marshmallows, or holiday themed chocolate covered pretzels. You can replace the peppermint kisses with regular chocolate kisses or any other Christmas-themed ones.
Make it for a different occasion: Use different colors of M&Ms, sprinkles and candy melts to customize this mix for other holidays, birthdays, or any day.
FAQs
You can use any kind of popcorn that’s easy for you to make! A bag of microwave popcorn works really well in this recipe, just go for one without a lot of extra butter or other flavors.
Pop your own popcorn and add a bit of salt to use for this recipe. Making Popcorn in the Instant Pot is super simple.
This treat can be stored in a large resealable bag at room temperature. It’s best if eaten within 3 days.
Absolutely! I would be thrilled to get this as a Christmas food gift. You can bag up the popcorn and wrap it in cute boxes for teacher gifts, neighbor gifts, or just because gifts for everyone on your Christmas list.
You’ll get six servings from the ingredients listed here. Feel free to double or triple the recipe to serve or gift to a crowd.
Enjoy this Christmas Popcorn recipe! You’ll be the favorite when you bring this to the holiday party. Pin it to make later!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Christmas Popcorn
Ingredients
- 8 cups popped salted popcorn ¼ cup unpopped kernels
- 12 ounce bag vanilla candy melts or white chocolate
- 1 cup holiday M&Ms
- ½ cup Candy Cane Hershey’s Kisses
- ¼ cup red candy melts
- ¼ cup green candy melts
- 2 tablespoons holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Use your favorite method to pop 8 cups of popcorn. Remove any unpopped kernels and place the popcorn in a large bowl.
- Add the vanilla candy melts into a medium sized microwavable bowl. Microwave according to the package directions. Typically you should microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds, stir, and continue to microwave at 30 second intervals until fully melted.
- Pour the melted white chocolate melts into the bowl with the popcorn and stir to coat. Add the holiday M&Ms and stir together.
- Spread the coated popcorn onto a flat surface lined with parchment paper. Spread the sprinkles on top, then spread the kisses around. Melt the red and green candy melts in separate bowls using the same method as above. Drizzle each color over the popcorn.
- Allow the popcorn to sit for 30 minutes to an hour, until the candy melts have fully hardened. Break apart if needed before serving.
Notes:
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
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