This Christmas Reindeer Chex Mix Recipe (also known as Christmas Muddy Buddies or Christmas Puppy Chow) is easy to make, and because it’s a large batch recipe, it’s the PERFECT treat to bring to a Christmas party or to make and use to assemble little homemade gifts!

This type of Christmas snack mix is so popular this time of year…for good reason! It’s simple to throw together, it’s fun to eat, and it makes for adorable packaged-up homemade gifts!

You might also know this kind of recipe as “reindeer chow,” “reindeer food,” “Christmas muddy buddies,” “Christmas puppy chow,” – they’re all basically the same thing.

However, I’ve given the classic recipe a bit of an upgrade with a couple more add-ins, as well as those suuuuper cute reindeer & Santa pretzels, which I’m going to show you how to make. They’re pretty easy and only require a few ingredients!

I mean, by golly…is this not just the cutest Christmas snack mix you’ve ever seen?! (What a fun time of year to eat! 😆) This fun & festive treat will be a huge hit at your Christmas gatherings this year!

Here’s why you’ll love this Christmas Reindeer Chex Mix recipe:

It’s a super easy recipe. You don’t even have to turn your oven on! It’ll require a few steps, but everything is easy to do.
You can customize it to your liking. I’ve basically given you a guide for this recipe, but if you want to omit anything or add anything, you can pretty much make this however you want!
It makes a large batch, so it’s great for a big Christmas party snack or to give away in baggies/mason jars as little homemade Christmas treats. It’ll fill quite a few cellophane bags or mason jars for gifting it out!
It’s so tasty! The recipe is certainly mostly sweet, but the popcorn & the salty pretzels with the candy coating add in a nice sweet & salty aspect to this snack mix.
It’s SO DARN CUTE. You’ll be turning every head when you share this with people! Those little reindeer & Santa pretzels are just too cute! Seriously – cutest recipe of the holiday season!

Ingredients you’ll need:

For the “Muddy Buddy” portion:

Chex cereal (Rice Chex preferred over Corn Chex)
Creamy peanut butter
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Powdered sugar
1/2 stick of unsalted butter

For the candy-coated popcorn:

1 bag of freshly-popped popcorn
Peanuts (I add them here vs. at the end because I want them to get coated with the baking bark)
Vanilla almond bark (which, for all intents and purposes) is very similar to white chocolate or white chocolate chips, except that I think it actually tastes better and it’s WAY easier to work with because it melts much more smoothly and thinly, making it a lot easier to actually coat the popcorn and peanuts.

For the reindeer & Santa pretzels:

Pretzel twists
Vanilla baking bark (use leftover from the popcorn)
Semisweet chocolate chips (use leftover from the Muddy Buddies)
Eyeball sprinkles (you should be able to find these pretty easily on the baking aisle of your grocery store)
Red candy coating (I’ve seen these at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels)
Mini red M&Ms

Add-ins:

Holiday M&Ms (use the peanut butter ones if you know what’s good for ya! 😜)
Mini Reese’s cups
Mini marshmallows

These exact ingredients aren’t completely necessary – they’re options of what all you could add – so feel free to change it up a little if you’d prefer! (And, if you’d prefer minimal ingredients, you can also omit any of these!)

You can also consider adding:

Skinny pretzel sticks
Rolos
Any other nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds)

How to Make this Christmas Reindeer Chex Mix Recipe

I’m going to show you how to make the:

Christmas Muddy Buddies
Candy-coated popcorn
Reindeer pretzels
Santa pretzels

And then you just add everything else in!

Ready to get cookin’?!

To make the Muddy Buddies:

Put semisweet chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter into a medium microwave-safe bowl. (Preferably one that is glass – like Pyrex – vs. a ceramic one. The Pyrex will heat much more evenly and the dish won’t get as hot in the microwave.)

Microwave for 30 seconds, remove, stir, and microwave again for 15-30 seconds. The chocolate chips will probably be melted by now, but if they’re not, then try again for 15 seconds after stirring.

(When I put mine in the microwave, I don’t ever adjust the heat settings. I just use the microwave as-is. However, if yours gets really hot, you may want to adjust the settings to heat at a lower temp.)

If you prefer to do the double boiler method:

Pour an inch or two of water to a small saucepan, and put the pan on the stove over medium heat. In an oven-safe bowl (that can rest on the saucepan), add the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter and then place the bowl on top of the saucepan. It should be able to nestle a little bit inside of the rim of the saucepan, but not touching the water. Stir the mixture until it melts, and then remove from heat.

You should have a nice and smooth peanut butter & chocolate mixture.

I find that it’s easier to work in a couple of batches, so I pour about half of the peanut butter mixture over the cereal in a large mixing bowl, give it lots of gentle stirring to prevent the cereal from crumbling too much, and then once it’s evenly coated…

Add it to a gallon-size Ziplock bag, add about half of the powdered sugar, zip up the bag, give it a shake, and then repeat that same process with the remaining peanut butter mixture/cereal/powdered sugar.

(All of the mix should fit into one gallon bag.) I will say, I would usually make this in a large tupperware and give it lots of shakes to evenly coat the cereal mixture with the sugar, but the bag method works a LOT better for even coating.

That’s it! Now set that aside and it’s time for the popcorn.

To make the candy-coated popcorn:

Put a couple of chunks (about 3 ounces) of vanilla baking bark into a microwave-safe bowl, and heat that up the same way you did the chocolate chip mixture – in 30-second intervals, stirring in between.

You can also do the double-boiler method with this, but it’s just so easy in the microwave.

Once it’s melted (probably after 1-2 turns in the microwave), you’ll pour it over the popcorn & peanuts & give it all a good stir until everything is evenly coated.

Pro tip: when you’re putting the popcorn into the mixing bowl, consider scooping it out of the bag with your hands vs. pouring the popcorn into the bowl. This will help you avoid most of the unpopped kernels from getting into the bowl, sticking to the candy coating, and then entering into your mouth for a hard bite!

Pour the popcorn & peanut mixture onto a foil-covered (or you can use wax paper) baking sheet. Add Christmas sprinkles right away if you’re going to use them. The candy coating sets quickly!

Then set this aside for a bit to allow the candy coating to harden (or you can stick it in the fridge for super quick hardening – it’ll set in about 10 minutes in the fridge).

That’s it for the popcorn! Now onto the pretzel characters.

To make the reindeer pretzels:

Lay out pretzel twists onto a wax-paper covered baking sheet. Then you’re going to melt the chocolate chips the same way you melted them earlier – in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring in between. It should only need 2 rounds in the microwave – you don’t want it too hot, so you may even want to try for 15 seconds the 2nd round. (Also, just to be clear, you’re ONLY using chocolate chips now – no peanut butter or butter in the mixture!)

Once it’s completely melted, you’ll add it to a sandwich baggie…

And then cut the tip out and start the process of making your reindeer heads. First, you’ll fill in that bottom section like this:

(Doing this first helps to stabilize the pretzel & also prevent the reindeer from having a concave face 😆). Then you’ll go back over it and give it an oval face there on the bottom part of the pretzel:

I usually make 3-4 reindeer faces at a time, so I’ll put chocolate on a few, then add the eyes and the noses. Then continue with that pattern until they’re all finished. LOOK HOW CUTE.

They will eventually harden, but I’d speed up the process by placing this in the fridge. They’ll set in 10ish min in the fridge.

That’s it for the reindeer! Now onto the Santa pretzels!

To make the Santa Pretzels:

You’ll have a similar setup to the reindeer pretzels, except you’ll want to put these pretzels upside down on your baking sheet – the top part makes the hat and the bottom part makes Santa’s beard.

Melt the candy coating the same way you’ve done all the others – in the microwave at 30-second intervals with stirring between. (You’re getting good at this now, huh?! 😉)

Then put them each in separate baggies:

I prefer to make the hat first – fill in that top gap just like you did for the reindeer…

And then cover the rest of the top part with a hat shape – tail included.

Then fill in the rest for the beard. Fill in the holes first.

And then in a swirly motion, fill out the rest of the pretzel and add a little dot on the end of the hat.

Add the eyeballs & the nose, and you’re good to go!

Just so darn cute!

You’ll want to allow these to set as well – and just like the others, I’d recommend using the fridge, just to speed up the process.

You’re all done now!

Just combine everything together at the end! Pour the popcorn into the cereal mixture, and then add the Christmas M&Ms, mini peanut butter cups, and marshmallows.

Mix together and you’re all done!

Serve up this Reindeer Chow:

In a large bowl on full display as the centerpiece of your Christmas party’s dessert table
In some separate smaller bowls around your dessert table for pops of festive color
This makes ADORABLE mason jar Christmas gifts! Especially since it makes such a large batch, this is perfect for making gifts in bulk. (And you can really dress it up with some adorable printable Christmas labels. 😉)

Questions about the snack mix:

How should I store this?

It’ll keep for a few days if you store it in an airtight container. (Because of how much this makes, you may end up needing to use 2-3 large Ziploc bags.) The “muddy buddy” part will last for longer than a few days – it’s the popcorn that tends to get stale fairly quickly. If you want it to have a longer shelf life, then you could either omit the popcorn, or you could assemble everything else ahead of time, and then make the popcorn right before you need the completed recipe.

How much does this make?

A LOT. It’ll fill 2 gallon bags pretty easily, but it’ll likely spill over into a 3rd. It depends on how many add-ins you include, too. You can easily add more/less!

So fun to make, share, AND eat! Have fun making this easy reindeer chow recipe!

Other fun Christmas recipes you might like:

Decorated Sugar Cookies
- Soft & Chewy sugar cookies
- Delicious cutout sugar cookies
- Royal icing (that actually tastes good!)
- Buttercream frosting (perfect for sugar cookies!)
- Glossy sugar cookie icing

3 Comments

Bonnie says:

December 2, 2022 at 2:56 pm

This sounds like the perfect Christmas activity to make some memories with my 3 grandsons who are 8, 6 and 4! They will be so proud and will love making the mason jar giveaways for friends and neighbors.

1. TheAmericanPatriette says:
  
  December 2, 2022 at 2:59 pm
  
  I hope y’all enjoy!!
  
Gloria says:

December 2, 2022 at 10:15 am

Love it !!!

Christmas Reindeer Chex Mix Recipe (Reindeer Chow)

Here’s why you’ll love this Christmas Reindeer Chex Mix recipe:

Ingredients you’ll need:

For the “Muddy Buddy” portion:

For the candy-coated popcorn:

For the reindeer & Santa pretzels:

Add-ins:

You can also consider adding:

How to Make this Christmas Reindeer Chex Mix Recipe

To make the Muddy Buddies:

To make the candy-coated popcorn:

To make the reindeer pretzels:

To make the Santa Pretzels:

Serve up this Reindeer Chow:

Questions about the snack mix:

How should I store this?

How much does this make?

Other fun Christmas recipes you might like:

Christmas Reindeer Chex Mix Recipe (Reindeer Chow)

Ingredients

For the Muddy Buddy Portion

For the candy-coated popcorn

For the reindeer pretzels

For the Santa pretzels

Add-ins

Instructions

To make the Muddy Buddy portion:

To make the candy-coated popcorn portion:

>>> See blog post for making the reindeer pretzels & Santa pretzels - I give you some tips in there to help yours turn out perfectly the first time! <<<

Notes

3 Comments

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