Get into the festive spirit with these Rice Krispie Christmas Trees! A perfect cozy activity, these easy-to-make treats are customizable with your favorite decorations, bringing joy and creativity to your holiday celebrations.
Christmas is a time we should all enjoy together, making memories and having fun.
Today I’m bringing you a tutorial for these super easy and fun Rice Krispie Cone Christmas Trees!
I first made these when I was a kid, and I remember how much joy I got out of creating something so cute, so I knew I wanted to do a little video for you all!
Why not have a cozy afternoon with a hot chocolate and some Christmas music on while you make these?
I chose to decorate my little trees with some sugar stars I found at my local grocery store, but you could go nuts with any kind of decorations.
Equip yourself with a squeezy tube of icing (this is not a make-your-own kind of recipe!), get some bowls full of candies, and have fun!
As you can see from the video above, the dusting of icing sugar at the end transforms the trees into a snowy winter wonderland.
It reminds me of what the Black Forest in Germany looks like in the winter!
Important Note on Food Coloring: Don’t be tempted to substitute common water-based food coloring! It will cause the chocolate to seize and render it useless. Instead, use an oil-based or gel food coloring, like this one.
We’ve been getting very Christmassy around here, we’ve already had a Christmas Table Setting and a Christmas Main Dish, so make sure you check out those posts to put you in the festive spirit!
Rice Krispie Christmas Trees
Ingredients
- 7 oz white chocolate
- 6 ½ cups rice krispies
- food coloring oil based or powdered; use according to package instructions. do not use water based food coloring
Instructions
- Roll the parchment paper semi circles into cones by using the middle of the flat side to create the point. Fasten with sticky tape (full demonstration in the video above).
- Melt the white chocolate and add green gel food coloring until you have the color you desire. Add the Rice Krispies and mix until they are evenly coated.
- Spoon the mixture into the cones, pressing down with the back of a spoon as you go to make sure it is as compacted as possible. Stand the filled cones point side down in a glass to hold them, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Once chilled, peel off the parchment paper to reveal your beautiful Rice Krispie Christmas Tree! Decorate however you like. I used a squeezy tube of white icing to stick on some stars, but you can really use any kind of decoration you want, or leave them plain. It’s totally your creative project!
Hi Patty! The reason is because when chocolate comes into contact with water, it seizes, so if you were to use water based food colouring, you’d end up with a lump of play doh like chocolate. If you can’t find it in stores, I would suggest maybe trying to find an oil based or powdered colouring on amazon, or try using green candy melts instead!
I have just attempted to make the trees, but there is way too many Rice Krispies for 6 small cones, are you sure you used 8″ circles and 200g of Rice Krispies?
Thank you
Gill
Hi there, it would also depend on how tightly you wind the circles, obviously as I’m not there in your kitchen I can’t guarantee they are exactly the same size as mine. I would just make a few more if you have leftovers :)
My supermarket only had a gel – can you let me know if it worked ok for you?
Hi Lisa, I used Wilton gel food colouring myself.
You can get the gel coloring on Amazon. Reviews were great for AmeriColor. Amazon also has the powdered coloring, but based on reviews the gel is much better.
Thanks for the tip Wendy!
How many trees does this recipe make, based on the cone size in the video?
I got around 6 from 8 inch circles cut in half :)
Thanks, Lauren. Will be making these with my 7 & 9 yr old granddaughters for them to give as gifts. We did cookies last year, so this will be different & so much fun!
Great! Hope they love them!
HELP PLEASE! We have today attempted to make these gorgeous looking trees, & have failed 3 times ???? The chocolate melts beautifully, the minute we put the food colouring in the chocolate thickened and we couldn’t do anything with it! What are we doing wrong?
Help please. We have today gone to make these gorgeous looking Christmas trees and have failed 3 times ???? The chocolate melts beautifully , the minute we put the food colouring in the chocolate goes thick. What are we doing wrong? Many thanks Yaana
Hi! It’s the type of food colouring. It needs to be either powdered or oil based. If it’s a water based food colouring the chocolate will seize. If you can’t find the right kind I would suggest just leaving it out and having snowy trees!
I bought the Dr Oetker gel the ingredients are: Glucose syrup, sugar, water, safflower, lemon gelling agents. Will this work?
I couldn’t say for 100% as it does have water in it it might not work. But as it’s not the top ingredient it might be ok. I would suggest trying it on a small amount of chocolate first to check before adding it to the whole batch. That way you won’t waste it if it does seize and you can make white trees :)
No… I tried it
You can definitely try the gel but it may cause the chocolate to seize up. I would suggest maybe testing it out on a small bit of melted chocolate before mixing it with the whole batch, then if it doens’t work out, just keep them out and have very snowy trees!
How many cups white chocolate chips to how many rice crispies?
Hi Sug, I’m not sure unfortunately, I live in Europe and we weigh everything with a food scale. There’s some good conversion tools if you just google it :)
How big are the parchment circles please?
I think mine were 8 inch circles cut in half, but you can make them any size you like :)
Although white chocolate sounds great, I was thinking marshmallows might be good too.
Quite possibly, as I’m vegan I don’t use regular marshmallows and I haven’t had any luck finding any vegan ones here. If you try it and it works out let me know!
Freedom Confectionery make vegan friendly marshmallows :) Must be available in the UK cause I got sent some in my Vegan Kind subscription box.
Basically I just make sure the bottom is flat when I press it into the cone. You have to put them in the fridge upside down (as shows in the video), but as long as you press the bottom flat they should stand up just fine
Can you use normal white chocolate ?
Yes definitely, just make sure you use an oil based or powdered food colouring. Water based food colouring will cause the chocolate to split
H Natalie, yes you can!
Hi Lauren these are fab.
Can I ask how long they last. Do they need to be refrigerated until eaten or left on the side (covered/ uncovered) x
Hi Hannah! So glad you like them. They only need to be refrigerated while they are setting, once they are solid they can be kept covered at room temperature. As it’s only chocolate and Rice Krispies I’d say they will keep about a week or so, if they last that long haha!
Thanks Lauren. Can’t wait to try them at the weekend with the children x
Does it matter how you melt the chocolate as mine has split
No not at all, whichever method you find works best for you :)
The Christmas trees look amazing. Will at somepoint make them and let you know how it went.
Can’t wait to see them!
Whoa, a masterpiece! *.*
Awww thanks Olivia! Hope you like them!
Oh these look amazing! What a cool idea. I think I’d (almost) love them too much to eat them!
Haha! They taste better though ;)
Great idea! Happy holidays Lauren! :-)
Thanks Theodora! Happy Holidays to you as well! :)
I would like to try these, but trying to convert the grams to cups is odd. 200g is 0.8453505639719999 cups lol
Ahhh I live in Europe so we don’t use cups that much… when you buy a chocolate bar does it say the weight on it or are you using chocolate chips? I will try and find a cup equivalent measurement for this recipe and update!
My suggestion would be… ALMOST fill a cup, just eyeball roughly 90% of the cup full. Because it’s not a baking recipe, being absolutely exact is not necessary. As long as the rice kripsies are coated in the chocolate mixture and it’s roughly 90% of the cup, it should be fine – they just need to stick together! Hopefully that’s ok! Thank you for the comment!
Simply use equal parts chocolate to rice krispies if making lots use 2 cups or 4 cups small use 1 cup its equal parts of each
Lauren, these are almost too beautiful to eat! I love them. I can’t wait to try and make these with my family. They’re going to be so excited! Hugs, CoCo
I’m so glad you like them Coco! Send me pics when you’ve made them I would love to see how they turn out! :)
HI Lauren,
Thank you! Lucky to get one from Ben today, lovved it.Also the tree looks great on my desk here, although disappearing by the minute :) AJ
Ahh thank you AJ! So glad you all like them!
Oh my w-o-r-d Lauren I love love love this & the video is awesome!!!
Thanks Johlene! I had a lot of fun making these!!