Whenever Saturday morning rolls around, I always have an urge to slow down, watch cartoons and eat a sweet breakfast of pancakes, waffles, or french toast! I have fond memories of Saturday morning pancakes, (my parents made pancakes for us in the shape of our initials, or Mickey mouse), and I want to make sure my kids have some good pancake memories, too. I’m thinking of starting a new Christmas pancake tradition; wouldn’t these fun holiday pancakes bring cheer to your Christmas breakfast?

You need:

• pancakes
• mini marshmallows
• something red and brown (mini M&Ms or craisins and raisins)
• syrup for glue
• white “glue” such as cream cheese, whipped cream, or marshmallow creme
• red jam
• leaf cookie cutter (optional)

For Santa:

Make pancakes, then use one as face. Cut hat out of another pancake.

Cut a mini marshmallow in half for whites of eyes, and lay on pancake sticky side up. Affix the marshmallows to the pancake with a dab of syrup. Put brown mini M&Ms on marshmallows for pupils. Dab syrup and place red M&M for nose.

Cut mini marshmallow almost in half and spread out for mustache. Place craisin on pancake for lip, and put mustache over craisin.

Spread cream cheese around face for beard base. Place marshmallows on top of cream cheese (I tried this without the cream cheese, but it seemed like WAY too many marshmallows! Sugar overload!) You could also use whipped cream or marshmallow creme for his beard.

Spread jam on hat and place a row of marshmallows for brim of hat and pom-pom of hat.

For Rudolph:

Make pancakes, then use an oval-shaped one as face (I chose one that was a little, ahem, overdone. It looked brown like a reindeer!) Cut antlers out of another pancake. You can either freehand-cut them, or use a cookie cutter. I used an oak leaf-shaped cookie cutter. You could use a flower cutter, and cut it in half, etc. Just use your imagination.

Cut a mini marshmallow in half for whites of eyes, and lay on pancake sticky side up. You can affix the marshmallows to the pancake with a dab of syrup if you want. Put brown mini M&Ms on marshmallows for pupils. Dab syrup on bottom of pancake and place red M&M for nose. Easy!

Heather Mann is a regular contributor at Make and Takes. She’s is the mother of three boys, ages 3, almost 2, and newborn. She publishes Dollar Store Crafts, a daily blog devoted to hip crafting at dollar store prices, CROQ Zine, a print magazine devoted to hip crafting, and also CraftFail, a community blog that encourages crafters to share their not-so-successful craft attempts.