The 12 days of Christmas begin on  Christmas Day and last until the evening of the 5th January – also known as Twelfth Night. Celebrate this special holiday time with these festive flavorful cocktails.

Colleen Jeffers is a craft cocktail writer and photographer based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her book “Bubbly” includes lots of festive cocktails made with champagne and sparkling wine. Her Honey Ginger Champagne Mule is one of my favorites. I keep the ginger honey syrup in a mason jar in my refrigerator to sweeten cocktails and hot tea. Mionetto Prosecco is the perfect bubbly to mix with cocktails…lots of bubbly flavor without an expensive price tag.

Honey Ginger Champagne Mule

Makes 1 cocktail

1 Ounce vodka

3/4 ounce ginger honey syrup

To make ginger honey syrup: Yield about 10 ounces. Combine 3/4 cup honey, 3/4 cup water, and 1 large knot of ginger (about 6 inches long or 50 grams by weight, peeled and thinly sliced) in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat to low and let simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight (or at least 8 hours), then strain through a fine mesh sieve, discarding solids. Use immediately or store in the fridge.

1/2 ounce fresh, strained lime juice

Chilled champagne to top (about 3 ounces)

Optional: candied ginger or honeycomb, to garnish

1. Combine the vodka, ginger honey syrup, and lime juice in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake hard for 15 seconds, then strain into a copper mug or tumbler filled with ice.
2. Top carefully with the chilled champagne.
3. Optional: garnish with candied ginger or honeycomb.

Note: This recipe is also fantastic with gin in place of vodka. If you’re a fan of whiskey, try it with bourbon, as in a Kentucky Mule. With rum, it’s basically a Dark and Stormy – a Champagne Dark and Stormy. Catch my drift? You can sub almost any spirit in here and it will be delicious in an entirely new way.

My friend Madena is a mixologist extraordinaire. She creates these cocktails for our annual New Year’s Eve celebration:

Snowflake Martini

Makes 1 cocktail

1/2 ounce Frangelica

1/2 ounce white creme de cocao

1 ounce vodka

1/4 ounce half and half.

Mix ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass.

Pomegranate Martini

Makes 1 cocktail

1/2 ounce PAMA pomegranate liqueur

1 1/2 ounce vodka

Splash sweet and sour mix

Splash sprite

Mix ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry with stem attached.

Lemon Drop Martini

2 ounces Absolut Citron

3/4 of a lemon cut into wedges ( 1 ounce lemon juice)

Splash sweet and sour mix

Splash Sprite

Mix juice of lemon wedges with other ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass rimmed with superfine sugar. Garnish with a lemon twist. (To rim martini glass, pour a little lemon juice on a small plate. Dip and twist the rim of the glass so that the rim is coated with the juice. Place some superfine sugar on a small plate. Dip and twist the rim of the glass into the sugar.)

Annie Tobey shared her Seasonal Cocktails for Celebrating in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Spirited Virginia:

Winter Bourbon Smash

1 1/2 ounce Bowman Brothers bourbon

2 tablespoons jam or preserves of choice

1/2 ounce triple sec

1 ounce orange juice

Splash of club soda

Orange wedge

Add all ingredients to a shaker half filled with ice. Shake vigourously for 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled glass with ice. To with a splash of club soda. Garnish with an orange wedge.

(from A. Smith Bowman, Fredricksburg, Virginia)

Limoncello Collins

1 1/2 cups vodka

1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice

6 tablespoons simple syrup

1/4 cup limoncello

1 1/2 cups club soda, chilled

Combine vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and limoncello in a large pitcher. Pour in the club soda and stir. Serve the Limoncello Collins in highball glasses with ice or in a champagne flute.

Holiday Royale

4 ounces sparkling wine

1/2 ounce raspberry liqueur (or peach raspberry liqueur)

Pour the sparkling wine into a champagne flute. Add liqueur and toast.

(I garnish this rosy cocktail with fresh raspberries lightly rolled in fine sugar on a cocktail pick.)

One of my all time favorite holiday cocktails is the Poinsettia! It is so pretty and has a pretty powerful punch for such a delicate drink. This recipe is from the Emeril’s Creole Christmas Cookbook, by Emeril Lagasse. 

Poinsettia Cocktail

1/4 cup vodka

1/4 cup Champagne

1/2 cup cranberry juice

Crushed ice

2 strips orange zest, each about 1/4-inch wide and 2 inches long.

Combine the vodka, Champagne and juice in a large-stemmed red wine glass. Add crushed ice and stir until the mixture is well chilled. Twist the orange strips over the glass, drop them in, and serve.

Pear and Proscecco Cocktail

The original recipe for the Pear and Prosecco Cocktail is a Southern Living Christmas Cookbook.
Serves 6
Pear simple syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup finely chopped peeled pear (or Asian Pear)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup (2 ounces) pear liqueur
Ingredients to finish the cocktail:
6 thin pear slices (or Asian pear slices) Put the pear slices in the pear simple syrup to keep them from turning brown while you prepare cocktails.
1 (750-milliliter) bottle prosecco, chilled
Combine water, chopped pear, and sugar in a small saucepan; bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.  Pour through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a measuring cup; discard solids.  Stir in liqueur. Divide evenly among 6 champagne flutes. Place 1 pear slice in each glass, and top with prosecco.

Winter Citrus Simple Syrup

Enjoy Winter Citrus Simple Syrup in your favorite bourbon cocktails or in hot tea.

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 star anise
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 6 cardamon pods, crushed
• 12 cloves
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
• Peel of one orange

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and stir. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and continue to heat and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cover. Allow the syrup to steep for one hour. 
Place in a mason jar, covered with jar lid, in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Raspberry Prosecco Christmas Punch

Serves 4
The citrus spice sugar mixture requires it to sit overnight to infuse the citrus spice flavors into the sugar.
6 tablespoons fine sugar
Peel of one Meyer lemon
Peel of two Mandarin oranges
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
6 ounces fresh raspberries + (reserve a few of the raspberries to use for garnish)
1/2 cup gin
1.5  ounces blood orange liqueur
1.5  ounces Cointreau
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
1 bottle Prosecco
Citrus peel twists for garnish
Ice
In a small container with a tight-fitting lid combine the sugar, lemon and Mandarin orange peels, cinnamon stick and star anise.  Seal the container and refrigerate overnight. Turn the container over several times while it is in the refrigerator to mix the sugar, spice and citrus.
Place raspberries in cocktail shaker. Muddle raspberries with the back of a wooden spoon.  Add gin and stir gently.  Add citrus sugar mixture, lemon juice, Cointreau and blood orange liqueur. Fill shaker with ice and shake to combine all ingredients.  Pour mixture through fine mesh strainer into a pitcher. Add prosecco and stir gently.  Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve in champagne flutes garnished with raspberries and citrus peel twists.

Rum Rum Rudolph

This cocktail tastes like a boozy chocolate coconut milkshake!
For the cocktail glass rim:  Pour a little of the cherry juice from the jar of cherries onto a flat plate. Pour some flaked coconut onto a flat plate. Roll the rim of a martini glass in the cherry juice, then roll in coconut.  If the coconut does not stick in certain places on the rim, dip the rim in juice and coconut again.  Set aside until ready to pour the cocktail.
To make one cocktail:
1 ounce coconut rum
1 ounce Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1 ounce Bailey’s Almond Milk Liqueur
Bourbon Flavored Cherry with stem and ground nutmeg for garnish
Place coconut rum, chocolate liqueur and  almond milk liqueur in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake to mix the cocktail.  Strain the cocktail carefully into the center of the cocktail glass rimmed in coconut. Sprinkle ground nutmeg over the top. Slice the cherry allowing the stem to stay in tact so that the cherry will slide onto the rim of the glass.

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Happy Holidays!

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