The strongest drink here, the Rob Roy, is 1.7 standard drinks in one glass. The lightest, the Irish Whiskey Hot Chocolate, is 1.0. 3 of the 15 contain egg, and those need cooked or pasteurized eggs, because the spirit doesn't make raw egg safe. Every recipe uses a bottle we've reviewed.
1. Bourbon Eggnog
The Christmas drink, made the safe way: cook the egg-and-milk base to 160°F or use pasteurized eggs, chill it, then add the bourbon. More on why in the egg section below.
Recipe: 1½ oz Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 4 oz cooked eggnog base, fresh nutmeg. Stir the bourbon into cold eggnog, grate nutmeg over the top.
2. Poinsettia Cocktail
Cranberry, orange liqueur and bubbles. It looks like Christmas in a glass and it's one of the lighter drinks here, which makes it the right one to hand out at the door.
Recipe: ½ oz Cointreau, 1 oz cranberry juice, 4 oz Prosecco (La Marca). Add Cointreau and cranberry to a flute, top with Prosecco.
3. Mulled Cider with Jamaican Rum
Keep the cider warm on the stove all afternoon and let people spike their own. A funky, high-proof Jamaican rum is what makes it taste of more than apples.
Recipe: 1½ oz Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum, 5 oz hot mulled cider. Pour the rum into a warm mug, top with hot cider, garnish with orange and star anise.
4. Gingerbread Old Fashioned
A spoon of gingerbread syrup in place of sugar. Start from our Old Fashioned method and change nothing else.
Recipe: 2 oz Knob Creek 9 Year Small Batch, ¼ oz gingerbread syrup, 2 dashes Angostura bitters. Stir with ice, strain over a large cube, express an orange peel over the top.
5. Candy Cane Martini
Pink, creamy and dangerous at an office party. Crush the candy canes in a zip bag with a rolling pin for the rim.
Recipe: 2 oz vodka, 1 oz half-and-half, ½ oz peppermint syrup. Shake hard with ice, strain into a peppermint-rimmed glass.
6. Pomegranate Christmas Margarita
Red and green with a rosemary sprig for the tree. A clean, inexpensive blanco works here; save the sipping tequila for later.
Recipe: 2 oz Arette Blanco, ½ oz Cointreau, ¾ oz fresh lime juice, 1 oz pomegranate juice. Shake with ice, strain over fresh ice into a rimmed glass.
7. Tom and Jerry
The old-school Christmas drink: a whipped egg batter, rum, brandy and hot milk. The batter is raw egg, so make it with pasteurized eggs.
Recipe: 1 oz Appleton Estate 12 Year Old Rare Casks, 1 oz VS Cognac, 2 tbsp batter made with pasteurized eggs, 4 oz hot milk. Spoon batter into a warm mug, add the spirits, top with hot milk while stirring.
8. Irish Whiskey Hot Chocolate
Pot-still Irish whiskey has enough body to stand up to real chocolate. Use milk and chopped chocolate, not the packet.
Recipe: 1½ oz Green Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, 6 oz hot chocolate, whipped cream. Stir the whiskey into hot chocolate, top with whipped cream.
9. Christmas Tree Gin and Tonic
A rosemary sprig standing up in the glass is the whole trick. An Islay gin with foraged local botanicals gives it more than juniper.
Recipe: 2 oz The Botanist Islay Dry Gin, 4 oz tonic water, rosemary, cranberries. Build over ice in a balloon glass, stand the rosemary up, add cranberries.
10. French 75
Gin, lemon and bubbles. It carries straight through to New Year's Eve. Strong gin, small pour.
Recipe: 1 oz Tanqueray London Dry Gin, ½ oz fresh lemon juice, ½ oz simple syrup, 3 oz Prosecco (La Marca). Shake gin, lemon and syrup with ice, strain into a flute, top with Prosecco.
11. Vieux Carré
New Orleans' rye-and-cognac sipper. Three spirits and almost no mixer, so it's built small: three quarter-ounce pours and a splash.
Recipe: ¾ oz Rittenhouse Straight Rye Whisky BiB, ¾ oz VS Cognac, ¾ oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica), ¼ oz Bénédictine, 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters. Stir with ice, strain over a large cube, garnish with a lemon twist.
12. Coquito (Puerto Rican Coconut Eggnog)
Puerto Rico's Christmas drink: coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon and rum, with no eggs in this version. Make a bottle and keep it cold.
Recipe: 1½ oz Mount Gay XO Reserve Cask, 3 oz coquito base (coconut milk, condensed milk, cinnamon). Blend the base, stir in the rum, chill, shake before pouring.
13. Rob Roy
A Manhattan made with Scotch: Christmas-dinner warmth without the sugar. A blended malt keeps it smooth.
Recipe: 2 oz Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, 1 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica), 2 dashes Angostura bitters. Stir with ice, strain into a chilled coupe, garnish with a cherry.
14. Spiced Rum Old Fashioned
Aged rum in an Old Fashioned tastes like the holidays without any added spice. Go light on the syrup; this rum is already sweet.
Recipe: 2 oz Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva, ¼ oz demerara syrup, 2 dashes Angostura bitters. Stir with ice, strain over a large cube, express an orange peel.
15. Cranberry Whiskey Sour
The foam comes from egg white, so use pasteurized whites from a carton. Our whiskey sour recipe covers the dry shake.
Recipe: 2 oz Wild Turkey 101, ¾ oz fresh lemon juice, ½ oz cranberry syrup, ¾ oz pasteurized egg white. Dry shake without ice, shake again with ice, strain into a coupe.
Is Homemade Eggnog Safe?
It is if you cook it or use pasteurized eggs. FDA egg-safety guidance says dishes containing eggs should be cooked to 160°F. For recipes served with raw or undercooked eggs, it says to use shell eggs treated to destroy Salmonella or pasteurized egg products. On this list that covers the Bourbon Eggnog, Tom and Jerry, and Cranberry Whiskey Sour.
A lot of aged-eggnog recipes say the booze makes raw eggs safe. FDA's guidance names cooking and pasteurization, and does not list alcohol as a substitute for either. Pasteurized eggs are sold next to the regular ones in most grocery stores, and they whip up the same.
How Strong Is Each Christmas Cocktail?
A US standard drink is 0.6 fl oz of pure alcohol, and most of these are well over one.
| Cocktail | Pure alcohol | Standard drinks | Drinks per 750 ml bottle of the base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bourbon Eggnog | 0.68 oz | 1.1 | 16 |
| Poinsettia | 0.64 oz | 1.1 | 6 |
| Mulled Cider with Jamaican Rum | 0.85 oz | 1.4 | 16 |
| Gingerbread Old Fashioned | 1.00 oz | 1.7 | 12 |
| Candy Cane Martini | 0.80 oz | 1.3 | 12 |
| Pomegranate Margarita | 1.00 oz | 1.7 | 12 |
| Tom and Jerry | 0.83 oz | 1.4 | 25 |
| Irish Whiskey Hot Chocolate | 0.60 oz | 1.0 | 16 |
| Christmas Tree Gin and Tonic | 0.92 oz | 1.5 | 12 |
| French 75 | 0.80 oz | 1.3 | 25 |
| Vieux Carré | 0.90 oz | 1.5 | 33 |
| Coquito | 0.65 oz | 1.1 | 16 |
| Rob Roy | 1.02 oz | 1.7 | 12 |
| Spiced Rum Old Fashioned | 0.80 oz | 1.3 | 12 |
| Cranberry Whiskey Sour | 1.01 oz | 1.7 | 12 |
Pure alcohol is each pour multiplied by the ABV on our review of that bottle, plus: Cointreau 40%; La Marca Prosecco 11%; vodka at 40%, the federal minimum (27 CFR 5.142); a stronger bottle adds more; VS Cognac 40%, the legal minimum for Cognac; Carpano Antica 16.5%; Bénédictine 40%. Bitters dashes and syrups are left out. One standard drink is 0.6 fl oz of pure alcohol (NIAAA). Ice and shaking add water, not alcohol, so dilution does not change these figures.
How Much to Buy for a Christmas Party
For a 20-guest party pouring 2 French 75s each, you need 40 oz of gin and 120 oz of Prosecco. That's 2 bottles of Tanqueray London Dry Gin and 5 bottles of Prosecco. The bubbles run out first, so buy them by the case. The "drinks per bottle" column works the same sum for any other drink above.
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