Entertaining

8 Easy Holiday Cocktails That Anyone Can Make

It’s not Santa’s elves that are making cocktails magically appear in your glass; it’s your blender. Dump vodka, Fernet Branca-Menta, peppermint schnapps, milk, soda and ice cream in that handy wintertime life-saver, and watch a minty fresh dessert cocktail come to life right before your eyes. You’ll be blitzen up another round in no time.

The basic Champagne Cocktail is already two-thirds of the way towards being an easy holiday celebration: It’s festive, thanks to the Champagne, and easy as heck thanks to its simple mix of booze, sugar and bitters. The only thing missing is the holiday. Apple brandy and walnut liqueur put a seasonal spin on the festive fluted cocktail, and it’s garnished with a cranberry for jolly punctuation.

Holiday Jello Shots seem intimidating, but this recipe couldn’t come together faster. Grab a carton of eggnog from your local corner store (let the try-hards have their homemade stuff), mix it with some gelatin over low heat, add your booze(s) of choice, pour into some festive molds, and refrigerate. You’ll be popping jiggly bites of holiday joy before you know it.

Sometimes you can’t even muster the effort to choose between Hanukkah and Christmas, so just say, “Feh! Let’s be jolly,” and drink to both. Yes, you have to dry shake an egg before shaking with ice, but every decent seasonal libation includes some sort of fatty thickener. With chocolate and fruit liqueurs (and enough vodka to make sure you’re enjoying the holiday celebrations), this cocktail is the best of the season, all in one glass.  

A juniper-heavy G&T already tastes like pine trees, so little separates the classic year-round libation from a special seasonal sipper. Old Tom style gin is just a bit sweeter for a touch of holiday decadence, and a rosemary sprig for garnish makes the Highball look as green as the Christmas tree it evokes.

Christmas mornings should be filled with the sounds of children’s joyous shouts and other wholesome acoustics, not the clacking of shakers or whirring of blenders. If you do need a little help with your holiday cheer first thing in the morning (after a raucous Christmas Eve, perhaps), you can upgrade your Mimosa with a few seasonal garnishes that will add pep to your bleary-eyed a.m.

Anyone can make Eggnog, but with literally zero extra effort, you can have yourself a nuanced, slightly esoteric Scottish riff on the big batch eggy beverage. Scotch adds a smouldering fire beneath the usual creamy flavors, while dark rum combines with sugar to move the party along. Not only is it as easy to make as traditional Nog, but it’s easier to drink thanks to the lively flavors cutting through the thick cream.

Oat milk is practically cheating. The chocolate version of this dairy-free faux milk makes your hot cocoa rich without adding any heavy dairy to sabotage your winter diet. Combined with molasses-heavy blackstrap rum, coffee liqueur and a hint of orange liqueur, it makes for a warm winter upper to keep your energy high during the family bonding time and long days of holiday vacation.