28 Christmas Cocktails That Go Beyond Eggnog and Mulled Wine

My sister-in-law hosts Christmas Eve every year, and for about five years running the bar cart was the same three things: eggnog, mulled wine, and whatever red wine was on sale.

Nothing wrong with any of that, but by hour three of a family gathering, people start wanting options — something lighter, something without dairy for the lactose-intolerant cousin, something that isn’t room-temperature by the time you actually get to drink it.

Last year I took over the drink situation and built out an actual menu — six or seven options spanning classic, modern, and a couple of zero-proof ones so nobody’s left out.

It turned into the thing people talk about more than the food, honestly, which was not what I expected from “I made a cocktail list.”

Here are 28 ideas, organized by style — classic/warm, modern/make-ahead, festive but light, and a batch of non-alcoholic options — so you can build a menu that actually fits your crowd instead of defaulting to eggnog because it’s December.

1. Classic eggnog, but homemade (it’s worth it once)

Store-bought eggnog is fine, but a from-scratch version — whisked egg yolks, warmed cream and milk, a proper hit of nutmeg, and bourbon or rum stirred in right before serving — is noticeably less sweet and less heavy than the carton stuff. It takes about 30 minutes and genuinely changes how people feel about eggnog as a category.

2. Mulled wine with orange peel and star anise

Classic for a reason: red wine simmered low (never boiled, or you cook off the alcohol and flatten the flavor) with cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange peel, and a couple of star anise pods. Keep it in a slow cooker on low during the party so it stays warm without anyone babysitting the stove.

Pro tip: Add the sugar or honey at the very end, after tasting — wines vary enough in sweetness that a fixed amount in the recipe often oversweetens a dry red.

3. Cranberry moscow mule

Vodka, ginger beer, and a splash of cranberry juice over ice in a copper mug is faster to make than almost anything on this list and the cranberry gives it a genuinely festive red color without needing a single other holiday ingredient.

4. Spiced pear bourbon smash

Muddled fresh pear with bourbon, a touch of maple syrup, and a few dashes of bitters, topped with a splash of soda, is the drink that got the most compliments at my Christmas Eve last year — it tastes like fall and winter at the same time, and pears are cheap and widely available in December.

5. Peppermint white Russian

A standard White Russian (vodka, coffee liqueur, cream) with a few drops of peppermint extract and a crushed candy cane rim turns a dessert-adjacent cocktail into something that actually tastes like the holidays instead of just “coffee drink with vodka in it.”

Comparison: Christmas Cocktails by Prep Time, Batch-Ability, and Vibe

Cocktail Style	Prep Time	Batches Well?	Best Served
Mulled wine / warm drinks	30–45 min	Yes — slow cooker all night	Warm, mugs
Shaken cocktails (smash, sour)	3–5 min each	No — shake fresh per drink	Chilled, up or on the rocks
Stirred/built drinks (mule, spritz)	2–3 min each	Partially — pre-mix base, add soda last	Over ice
Punch-style	15–20 min upfront	Yes — the whole point	Punch bowl, self-serve

6. Cranberry gin fizz

Gin, fresh lemon juice, a little cranberry simple syrup, and a top of soda water or prosecco makes for a lighter, less sweet option on a table otherwise full of rich, dairy-heavy drinks — good for guests who want something festive-looking without the sugar crash.

7. Hot buttered rum

A compound butter made with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and softened butter, melted into hot water or apple cider with dark rum stirred in, is one of the coziest drinks on this entire list and takes almost no active effort once the butter’s made ahead of time.

8. Christmas punch bowl (the crowd-pleaser)

A big batch punch — cranberry juice, orange juice, a bottle of spiced rum or bourbon, ginger ale, and floating orange slices and cranberries for garnish — solves the “everyone wants a different drink” problem in one bowl, and it looks genuinely impressive with almost no individual bartending required.

9. Gingerbread martini

Vanilla vodka, gingerbread syrup (or a simple syrup infused with ginger, cinnamon, and molasses), and a splash of cream shaken hard and strained into a chilled glass with a graham cracker or gingerbread-crumb rim is basically dessert in a glass.

10. Spiked apple cider

Warm apple cider with a cinnamon stick, a few cloves, and a generous pour of bourbon or spiced rum is nearly as easy as mulled wine but tends to appeal to people who find wine-based drinks too heavy.

Pro tip: Toast your cinnamon sticks and cloves in a dry pan for 30 seconds before adding them to the cider — it wakes up the spices noticeably compared to adding them cold straight from the jar.

11. Pomegranate champagne cocktail

A sugar cube soaked in bitters at the bottom of a champagne flute, topped with pomegranate juice and sparkling wine, is an easy make-one-at-a-time drink for a toast moment — simple, elegant, and the pomegranate seeds floating on top double as garnish.

12. Spiced rum old fashioned

Swapping the usual whiskey in a classic old fashioned for a good spiced rum, with a dash of allspice bitters instead of standard Angostura, gives you a warm, holiday-leaning riff on a drink most people already know and like.

13. Candy cane martini

Vanilla vodka and peppermint schnapps, shaken with a little cream and strained into a candy-cane-rimmed glass, is the most overtly “Christmas candy” drink on this list and tends to be the one kids (the adult kind) ask about by name.

14. Cranberry orange mimosa

A simple swap on a brunch classic — cranberry juice and fresh orange juice topped with prosecco — works especially well for a Christmas morning brunch rather than evening drinks, and it batches easily in a pitcher if you’re hosting a crowd.

15. Chai spiced white Russian

Brewing a strong chai tea bag into the cream before mixing gives a standard White Russian a completely different, spicier profile than the peppermint version above — good if you want two riffs on the same base drink without repeating flavors.

16. Brandy Alexander

A classic that doesn’t get enough credit around the holidays: brandy, dark crème de cacao, and cream shaken hard with a dusting of fresh nutmeg on top. It’s basically a boozy chocolate milkshake and reads as elegant rather than kitschy.

17. Sparkling cranberry rosemary spritz

Cranberry juice, a rosemary-infused simple syrup, and sparkling wine or soda water, garnished with a fresh rosemary sprig, is one of the better-looking drinks on this list for very little effort — the rosemary sprig alone makes it photograph like it took far more work than it did.

18. Irish coffee, Christmas version

Standard Irish coffee (hot coffee, Irish whiskey, brown sugar, topped with lightly whipped cream) gets a holiday upgrade with a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg stirred into the coffee itself before adding the whiskey — good for a post-dinner, pre-dessert option when people want something warm but not too sweet.

19. Pear and ginger fizz

Pear nectar, a splash of ginger liqueur or ginger beer, and vodka or gin, topped with a little soda water, is a lighter alternative to the heavier cream-based drinks on this list and works well for an earlier-in-the-day gathering.

20. Chocolate peppermint martini

Vodka, crème de cacao, and peppermint schnapps shaken and poured into a chocolate-drizzled glass is essentially a grown-up peppermint patty, and the chocolate drizzle is a five-minute garnish that makes the drink look far more elaborate than it is.

21. Maple old fashioned

Swapping the standard simple syrup in an old fashioned for real maple syrup, with a dash of orange bitters instead of the usual Angostura, gives a familiar drink a warm, distinctly winter flavor without needing a single new ingredient most people don’t already have.

22. Non-alcoholic cranberry ginger mocktail

Cranberry juice, ginger beer, a squeeze of lime, and a few muddled fresh cranberries gives non-drinking guests something that looks and feels just as festive as the alcoholic options on the table, not an afterthought lemonade in a plain glass.

Pro tip: Rim a mocktail glass with sugar the same way you would a cocktail glass — it’s a small detail that makes a non-alcoholic drink feel like it got the same care as everything else on the bar cart.

23. Sparkling apple cider mocktail with cinnamon

Sparkling apple cider (the non-alcoholic kind) with a cinnamon stick stirrer and a few dashes of alcohol-free bitters is close enough to a real cocktail in presentation that most guests won’t think twice about it being alcohol-free.

24. Virgin hot chocolate “martini” with whipped cream

Rich hot chocolate served in a stemmed glass with a generous dollop of whipped cream and crushed candy cane on top reads as a dessert cocktail even with zero alcohol, and it’s genuinely one of the most-requested drinks at any gathering with kids present.

25. Poinsettia mocktail

Cranberry juice topped with non-alcoholic sparkling wine or sparkling white grape juice, with a few fresh cranberries dropped in, mimics the classic champagne-based Poinsettia cocktail closely enough that it works as a toast drink for guests who aren’t drinking.

26. Eggnog, non-alcoholic version

The same from-scratch eggnog recipe above, minus the bourbon or rum, with an extra dash of vanilla to fill in some of the flavor the liquor would normally add — this one’s worth making as its own batch rather than just “the eggnog without booze,” since the ratios shift slightly without the alcohol.

27. Build a self-serve garnish station

Rather than garnishing every drink yourself, set out small bowls of cinnamon sticks, orange peel twists, fresh cranberries, rosemary sprigs, and a sugar/salt rim plate so guests can customize their own drink — it turns the bar cart into part of the entertainment instead of a task you’re doing all night.

28. Keep one batched, pre-mixed option always ready

Whatever else is on your menu, having one large-format drink (the punch bowl or a pitcher of the spritz) that’s always topped off and ready means you’re never stuck mixing individual drinks the entire party — it’s the single thing that made hosting actually enjoyable instead of a part-time bartending shift.

My honest pick if I were building a menu from scratch

If I only had time for three drinks, I’d do the mulled wine (warm, low-effort, self-serve from a slow cooker), the spiced pear bourbon smash (the one that gets the most compliments), and the cranberry ginger mocktail so nobody’s left with just water. Everything else on this list is a nice-to-have once those three are covered.

FAQs

How do I keep mulled wine warm for a whole party without it over-reducing?
Keep it on the “warm” or lowest “low” setting of a slow cooker rather than simmering it on the stove — a slow cooker holds a steady, gentle temperature without continuing to reduce and concentrate the alcohol and sugar over several hours.

What’s the easiest Christmas cocktail to batch for a crowd?
Punch-style drinks and anything served from a pitcher (a spritz, a mule base pre-mixed without the soda) batch the most easily, since you’re not individually shaking or stirring each serving.

What’s a good non-alcoholic option that doesn’t feel like an afterthought?
A sugar-rimmed cranberry ginger mocktail or a non-alcoholic poinsettia (cranberry juice topped with sparkling cider) both look and feel just as festive as their alcoholic counterparts, which matters more to most non-drinking guests than the flavor itself.

How far ahead can I prep ingredients for a Christmas cocktail menu?
Infused syrups (ginger, rosemary, gingerbread) and fruit garnishes can be made up to a week ahead and refrigerated; anything involving fresh cream or dairy is best made the day of or the night before at most.

What liquor should I buy if I only want one bottle to cover the most drinks?
Bourbon covers the widest range on this list — the old fashioned variations, the smash, hot buttered rum substitutes, and spiked cider — making it the single most versatile bottle if you’re keeping the bar cart minimal.