Easy Christmas Cocktails To Make At Home

Blogmas Christmas

Blogmas: Easy Christmas Cocktails To Make At Home

by Steph Fox 16th December 2021

I thoroughly enjoy a limited edition winter cocktail over the festive season, just have a look at some of the ones in my most festive bars in Newcastle post that I shared last week, there are some amazing ones in there. All Bar One have done four chocolate cocktails with Hotel Chocolat and they’re incredible, plus WC Newcastle have a great menu too. But, for the nights at home it’s nice to be able to raise the bar (pun not intended) by creating some of your own. I’ve tried and tested most of these, so here’s my easy Christmas cocktails to make at home.

If you have a bar cart (here’s my bar cart essentials that I shared last year), then you’re likely to have most of the ingredients that are required for these with just a couple of extras needed. Aside from the spirits and mixers, the additional ingredients you will need for these easy Christmas cocktails are:

Monin winter spice syrup – a key ingredient to turn some of the basic recipes into more festive ones. It’s like golddust though there are extended delivery times on Amazon but it is available, I ordered mine directly from the Monin site. They have a whole range of flavours so even if winter spice isn’t your thing you could go for gingerbread or vanilla instead – whatever tickles your tinsel.

Cranberries and cranberry juice

Spices like cinnamon sticks, star anise and cloves – you might already have these if you’ve been making mulled wine or mulled cider

Cointreau or any other orange liqueur

Pomegranates, pomegranate juice

Sloe gin (or any winter gin you like, I’m a fan of Poetic License fireside, or Ophir spiced gin)

Baileys

This might seem like a lot but this covers all the cocktails I’m going to mention, so you can pick and choose which ones you’d like to make to keep costs down if you prefer.

The Most Festive Bars In Newcastle For 2021

Mudslide

You know it’s Christmas when everyone suddenly fancies a Bailey’s, and this cocktail uses it in abundance. After having a couple of Baileys hot chocolates when we first opened the bottle, I ventured out into Bailey’s cocktails and this one is really easy to make. This recipe makes one cocktail so alter for more.

Chocolate sauce – the type you get for ice creams

1 shot Khalua or coffee liqueur

1 shot vodka

Double/Treble Baileys

Ice

Optional: whipped cream and chocolate powder/sprinkles/flake

Start by chilling a glass in the freezer, and then put your Khalua or coffee liqueur, vodka, Baileys, a big squirt of cream and ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake until the outside is freezing.

Take your glass out the freezer and swirl chocolate sauce around the edge. Give the shaker one final shake and then strain into the chilled glass over ice. If you’re going for a milkshake option then add squirty cream to the top and any other toppings you like. I prefer it without though as I drink milkshakes far too fast. This also makes a really good desert cocktail, especially if you’re tucking into the Celebrations tin too.

Cranberry Gin Fizz

This is a new one I tried recently, and really liked it. Serve in a jam jar glass for novelty value.

Shot or two of gin however strong you want it

Spoonful of cranberry jelly

Half a shot of lime juice

Spoonful of vanilla syrup

Put your ice in a glass and add the gin, then a spoonful of the jelly. Pour in the lime juice, and vanilla syrup then shake well. Strain it into a glass of ice and top up with prosecco. Add cranberries or raspberries across the top on a cocktail stick to finish. Gorgeous!

Festive Flavour Espresso Martini

You may remember from lockdown if you followed me back then, the trauma I had every Saturday until I perfected the espresso martini. Well I finally got there with the following recipe. It could be salted caramel Bailey’s, Christmas spice syrup, cinnamon, gingerbread or any other you choose.

Double shot vodka

Single shot espresso coffee

Single shot Kahlua

1 tbsp sugar syrup – use the Christmas spice syrup here

Add a shot of flavoured Baileys here

All in a shaker with loads of ice and shake for ages to get the froth.

Chill a martini glass, and pour in. If you have two coffee beans add them on top. I found that adding the espresso last gives the best result overall and it transformed my espresso martini cocktail making from a total disaster into a success.

Winter Sangria

The sangria I make in the summer is pretty good – using a recipe I stole from one of Kierans friends, so here’s a twist on the classic summer favourite for winter.

Bottle of red wine, ideally Spanish but any you like will do

Sparkling water or soda water for bubbles, or just normal water if not. I think for this one the sparkling tastes better

Grapefruit and orange slices, you could also use apple and lemon too

A cinnamon stick, star anise and a couple of cloves

Pour the wine into a jug of ice, then top up with the sparkling or soda water. Chop up your fruit and add in, give it a good mix. Add in the spices and mix again. Leave it in the fridge for at least an hour, but with these spices adding in they’ll mix into the flavour over a longer period of time so the longer the better. You could even leave it overnight. Serve and for an extra festive touch add cranberries or pomegranates to make it look beautiful.

If you don’t want to make your own, I highly recommend the sangria from Cafe Andaluz it’s delicious!

Spiced Pornstar Martini

Another one where the only difference from the original recipe is the addition of spiced syrup to give it a Christmas taste.

1 passionfruit

Double shot vodka

Single shot Passoa

1tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp Monin winter spiced syrup

Halve a passionfruit and scrape into a cocktail shaker, add the vodka, passoa, lime juice and winter spice syrup, as well as a lot of ice. Shake well before pouring into a chilled martini glass. Add half a passion fruit on the top, or a star anise if you don’t mind the strong taste and depending how you drink yours add a shot of prosecco into the drink or into the passion fruit half.

It doesn’t quite taste the same as All Bar One’s amazing ones but it’s not too far off.

Christmas Margarita

I thoroughly enjoy a margarita, but again when they’re made for me. My favourite ones are from Lobo Rojo on the North Shields fish quay as they’re so nice, and in Newcastle Horticulture also do a pretty good one. Here’s how to make this Christmas one, and it’s loosely based on this recipe I found online. You can mix about with the measurements depending how strong you want each flavour.

Shot and a half tequila

Sugar syrup (I used plain not the Christmas spiced one here)

Double Cointreau

Double cranberry juice

Double pomegranate juice (if you have it I didnt bother)

Half shot of lime juice

Put some salt on a flat dish and run a lime wedge around the rim of a glass, rub in to the salt to get the salt rim. Mix the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with a bit of ice, then pour into the glass. Add a lime wedge, or if you’re feeling more festive then use frozen cranberries, or a sprig of rosemary.

Sloe Gin Easy Christmas Cocktails

Sloe gin is a great Christmas equivalent for gin cocktails at this time of year. I made my own sloe gin last year and still have a bottle left so I’ve been using that, but you can also buy it. Here’s some ways to drink it:

Sloe Gin Fizz

Probably the easiest one to make, you just add a shot (or two) of slow gin, a dollop of syrup, and a tablespoon of lemon juice to a cocktail shaker with ice, and shake before pouring into a glass and topping up with Prosecco or champagne. Some recipes also suggest using egg white too for a frothy top but I prefer to keep it simple.

An even simpler way is to just put a shot into the bottom of a champagne flute, top up with champagne/Prosecco and give it a stir. I like this one for New Years Eve.

Mulled apple and sloe gin

Use the same recipe to make the mulled apple as you would for my mulled cider here, but use apple juice instead. Then squeeze some fresh orange juice in too, and add a double shot of sloe gin. Serve with any of the spices or fresh orange and cranberries.

Sloe Gin Toddy

I’m not a fan of whisky which is what hot toddy’s traditionally come with but you can swap out the whisky for sloe gin instead. Using BBC Good Food’s recipe as inspiration:

Shot of whisky – swapped for sloe gin

1 tsp honey

Cinnamon stick

1 tbsp Lemon juice

Mix together the sloe gin, honey and lemon and top up with boiling water. Add the cinnamon stick and slice of lemon to garnish.

There are obviously so many more variations to these cocktails I’ve mentioned and other ones you could make. Last Christmas I tried a bottle of Mother Mercy’s ‘Run for the Sun’ (PR gift) and it was so delicious, it tasted very festive despite the name which sounds quite summery. It was fizzy and not too sweet which some bottled cocktails can be.

If you fancy giving it a go yourself then all of these are really easy Christmas cocktails to make at home, especially if like me you have a bar already stocked with most of the ingredients from having to do it for most of last year anyway. Cheers!