Strawberry Cheesecake Santa Hats

Well, we did witch hats for Halloween and pilgrim hats for Thanksgiving, so I wanted to do a Santa hat for Christmas.  It took me a while to come up with something no bake that the kids could help with, but I think they turned out really cute.



Strawberry Cheesecake Santa Hats
Ingredients:
1 lb. strawberries (little ones work the best)
8 oz. softened cream cheese
3-4 TBSP powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Vanilla wafers

Wash and dry your strawberries.  Since I like a high cheesecake to strawberry ratio, I also hollowed out a little of the strawberry to get more in there.

Mix the cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar together.  I found it was easiest to pipe the mixture onto the wafers before putting the strawberry on.

Top this with a cheesecake-filled strawberry and add the "pom pom" on top.

If soft(ish) wafers gross you out (my husband) then make them right before you serve them.  If you actually kind of like them like that (after all cheesecake crust isn't crunchy!) go ahead and make them ahead of time.

We're having these (along with a visit to Santa) for day 6 of our book advent when we read Are You Grumpy, Santa?  It's a really humorous story all about Santa's bad day beginning with being woken by the snore of Mrs. Claus and ending with dropping from a chandelier.  Our favorite part is when Santa gets stuck in the chimney of the first house.  "He wiggled side to side, then gave a mighty push.  He fell into the fireplace and sprained his chubby tush!"  Santa's misadventures continue all over the world.  "In Paris, he was chased by a tiny, growling puddle.  In Italy, he slipped upon a rigatoni noodle." Finally, Santa roars, "I'm a grumpy Santa Claus!"  and then spots some cookies and a card made for just him.  His grumpies disappear.  It's a fun book with a simple message about doing nice things for others.