Here’s a surprising tip for the week before Christmas: stop making Christmas-themed products and packaging. It may sound a bit crazy but hear us out! Focusing on winter-themed items instead (think snowmen, snowflakes, cozy winter scenes) can make your products more versatile and appealing beyond Christmas, lasting into the New Year.

Why This Shift Works

Holiday-specific packaging and designs can lose their appeal as soon as Christmas is over. By pivoting to a general winter theme, you make your products suitable for both holiday gifting and as thoughtful treats into January. A snowflake-covered box or a snowman-themed treat feels just as festive now as it does in the depths of winter.

Ideas for Winter-Themed Confections

 

 

With the holiday season approaching, shoppers will come to your store in search of the perfect gifts. To enhance their shopping experience and boost your sales, consider optimizing your point of sale (POS) strategy. A simple yet effective tactic is to offer small, enticing items right at the checkout counter.

 

A sleeve of beautifully decorated chocolate-covered sandwich cookies or a charming little bag of foil-wrapped chocolates can easily be added to a customer's purchase. Presenting small, eye-catching treats by the register, perhaps tied with a festive bow or ribbon, creates a visually appealing display that encourages impulse buys. This not only enhances the shopping experience but also prompts customers to treat themselves or grab a quick gift.

Positioning and Pricing for Success

To make this strategy effective, consider the placement and pricing of your POS items. Items should be easily visible and within arm's reach of customers as they wait in line. Keep the price reasonable—around $3 to $5—so customers feel comfortable adding these small extras to their purchase.

Highlight Seasonal Favorites

Offering seasonal items can add to the holiday spirit and draw customers in. For instance, a pair of holiday-themed chocolate truffles or a square of peppermint bark can create a festive atmosphere and resonate with customers looking for something special.

Encourage Shoppers to Treat Themselves

A small sign saying something like, “You deserve a treat!” can remind shoppers to enjoy a little pick-me-up. After a long day of holiday shopping, many people appreciate a small indulgence.

Before the holiday rush, take a look at your checkout area. Make sure it’s stocked with fun, affordable items that make great little gifts or quick treats. By adding these festive extras, you can increase sales and make your customers’ holiday shopping experience more enjoyable.

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The holiday season is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than with candy canes? These classic red and white striped treats are a staple of Christmas, and can be used in a variety of ways to add a festive touch to your confectionery creations. In this week's blog post, we're sharing 10 creative and easy ideas for incorporating candy canes into your product mix and presentation for the holidays.

 

 

1.  Candy Cane Trees

Make an impact in your holiday window display or size it down for an eye-catching centerpiece for a tabletop display. Click here to view a step-by-step tutorial on the massive candy cane showpiece pictured above.

 

 

2.  Peppermint Swirl Marshmallow

Sold separately or aside your own blend of hot cocoa mix, these festive peppermint marshmallows would add a pop of color to your shelf when packaged in clear candy bags. Click here to view recipe.

 

 

3.  White Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallow Pops

RCI member, Water’s Edge Chocolates of Tullahoma, Tennessee, dips their marshmallows in white chocolate and tops with crushed peppermint before adding a lollipop stick and a matching red ribbon. These would make great stocking stuffers, as well as a festive addition to a holiday gift basket.

 

 

4.  Peppermint Bark Fudge

If your customers love peppermint bark, they’re going to have to add a new favorite to their Christmas list! RCI member Hilliard’s Chocolate of North Easton, Massachusetts transforms the family’s original fudge recipe with an added layer of their own “Oprah’s favorite” peppermint bark on top.

 

 

5.  Candy Cane Rudolph Pops

Could Rudolph get any cuter? We don’t think so! These darling Rudolph pops are so easy, with the right supplies, you could whip up a big batch in a flash or package as a kit for families to take and make at home. If you’re hosting a holiday open house, this could be an easy and inexpensive activity for kids to make in your shop. Click here for a past blog post featuring pro-tips from an RCI member for hosting a similar event (except for Easter) in your shop.

 

 

6.  Peppermint Bark Mendiants

For an upscale spin on peppermint bark, create peppermint bark mendiants. Mendiants are a French confection consisting of a chocolate disk traditionally studded with nuts and dried fruits. In this example, Cacao & Cardamon features layers of dark and white chocolate topped with peppermint pieces and mini marshmallows.

 

 

 

7.  Peppermint Crunch Oreos

RCI member Marie’s Candies of West Liberty, Ohio puts their own sweet spin on chocolate-covered Oreos^®. A seasonal treat only made for Christmas, these mini-Oreos are covered with sweet white coating and crunchy peppermint dust.

 

 

8.  Candy Cane Bark Popcorn

Save the plain popcorn for decorating the Christmas tree! Give out samples of candy-sweet popcorn bark to your guests and watch it pop off the shelf! Click here for more details.

 

 

9.  Peppermint and Caramel Chocolate-Covered Pretzels

While adding crushed peppermint to chocolate-covered pretzels is not exactly a new revelation, throwing caramel into the mix may be. Mrs Prindables, known for their caramel apples, dips pretzel rods in their signature caramel and, again, in white chocolate before sprinkling with peppermint pieces. We think it’s worth a try!

 

 

Photo credit: Sprinkle Some Sunshine, Oh!Nuts, Home & Hallow

10.  Candy Cane Sweetheart Pops

With a box of candy canes, a lollipop stick and a bit of added heat, mould candy canes into hearts to frame your favorite holiday bark or dark chocolate. Plus, with the right color ribbon, this could easily double as a Valentine treat and a good way to use up leftover candy canes.

While National Candy Cane Day is the day after Christmas (December 26), we hope this week’s post inspires you to celebrate the candy cane all month long!

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While truffles make for a sweet holiday gift, a stunning truffle tree is sure to make any Christmas celebration unforgettable! This week, we’re sharing steps to make your own truffle tree from RCI member, Annedore's Fine Chocolates, plus inspiration for creating a very merry holiday showpiece.

For ease of construction, undipped ganache balls may be stored in the freezer. Simply follow the instructions below for thawing and dipping the ganache balls and you are ready to build a tree on demand.

Materials Needed

 

• Truffles
• Silicone mats
• Plastic wrap
• Foam block
• Parchment paper or aluminum foil (optional)
• Round toothpicks
• Tempered chocolate
• Foam cone
• Wrapping paper or fabric (preferably coordinating with the color of your truffles)
• Flathead pins
• Scissors
• Ribbon or tree topper (optional)

 

Step-By-Step Instructions

Prepare truffle centers using your favorite ganache recipe. Pipe ganache onto silicone mats. Cover the mats with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours. Transfer mats to the freezer for 12 hours. Remove mats from the freezer and pop out ganache balls (Note: Ganache centers may be returned to the freezer for future use). Cover balls with plastic wrap and allow them to come to room temperature.

 

 

Cover a foam block with parchment paper or aluminum foil, so it can be reused. Adhere a toothpick into each ganache ball by dipping one end of the toothpick into tempered chocolate and then inserting that end into the center of the flat side of the ganache ball. Allow toothpick to set up firmly in the ganache ball.

Once the toothpick is firmly set in the ganache ball you are ready to dip each ganache ball in tempered chocolate. Dip each ball carefully and then insert tooth-picked end of the ball into the block of foam. This will allow for perfect-looking, uniform truffles to create your truffle tree. Allow chocolate to set up. Truffles may be decorated while standing in the block of foam.

Before you begin to build your tree, first, wrap the foam cone completely with wrapping paper or fabric – secure with flathead pins, as needed.

 

 

Christmas Truffle Tree Inspiration

While this truffle tree can be made to celebrate any number of holidays and celebrations, here’s some inspiration to make your truffle tree extra festive this Christmas.

 

 

Gingerbread Truffle Tree

The addition of gingerbread royal icing decorations, colorful non-pareils and foil balls make this truffle tree especially festive.

 

 

Berries & Bows

This Christmas truffle tree is understated and elegant with bright, red cranberries and a big wire bow as embellishments.

 

 

 

Chocolate Roses

We love how this truffle tree is adorned with hand-sculpted chocolate roses.

 

 

 

White Christmas

The use of white sprinkles, silver sprinkles and desiccated coconut helps achieve this dreamy white Christmas themed truffle tree.

A truffle tree is an eye-catching way for your customers to serve truffles to a large group, in addition to an impressive merchandising display for your retail shop. It is a big-ticket item that can add nice revenue to your store’s sales. With a little advance planning, building the tree can be relatively easy to execute.

Crave more?Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

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With gentle nudging, you can help ensure stockings (and your bottom line) overflow with sweetness this holiday season! Stockings stuffers are the ultimate impulse purchase, representing the opportunity to add a few extra dollars to in-store and online purchases. In this week’s post, we’re exploring two key components that make for great stocking stuffers and how to increase sales with effective marketing and merchandising.

Price
In a report by  Field Agent, 51% of survey respondents spent between $10-25 per stocking, while 24% spend between $26-50 each. This emphasizes the importance of identifying more inexpensive gifts. We recommend identifying gift ideas in 3 pricing tiers to appeal to different budgets, ranging from low, middle range to high. Select a range that best fits your prices, but an example would be $5 and under, $6-$10 and $10 and up.

While stocking stuffers are typically small and inexpensive, don’t shy away from items with a higher price point. As the saying goes “the best things come in small packages.” Consumers may be more willing to spend more for gifts that will create more of an impact. While you don’t want all your stocking stuffer options to be pushing the price threshold, identifying a few items that are small, but mighty can create a real impact for both the gift giver and recipient.

 

 

Packaging
While sticking to a general price range is important when identifying stocking stuffers, the packaging ( or size) of a product is pretty much non-negotiable. Standard-size Christmas stockings range in length from 18 to 28 inches. With that said, by getting creative with your packaging you could encourage customers to spend more. For example, you could sell a single individually wrapped item ($) or you could sell multiple items packaged in a long, slender box (like pictured above) or small bag ($$$). Take notes from major candy brands like M&Ms that sell candy cane-shaped tubes for Christmas or Lindt's small bag of truffles.

 

 

Merchandising
While scavenger hunts are fun and all, impulse purchases happen when shoppers aren’t actually shopping for that product. Creating a well-marked display of stocking stuffers near the front of the store or near check out will make it easier for shoppers to find these products and increase the likelihood of them making a purchase. As for online merchandising, consider creating a themed web-page with a grouping of stocking stuffers, as well as social media posts to promote gift ideas. You may have all the best stocking stuffers, but if you don’t help these items stand out through marketing and merchandising efforts you will sadly miss many sales opportunities during the holidays.

Even if shoppers didn’t come to your store or website looking for stocking stuffers, showcasing your stocking stuffers will increase the sale of these products. Additional communication on social media, emails and on your website will also increase sales. Stay tuned for next week's post when we share quick and easy ideas for stocking stuffers.

Crave more?C lick here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices.  Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business .