Mac Daddy and I are hosting our 15th annual Christmas party tonight. We’ve been holding the festivities on Christmas Eve for the past several years, but the extravaganza didn’t start this way. We realized when we lived far away from family that many others were in our shoes too. We started having people over to share Christmas joy so everyone felt just a little closer and more loved during the holidays. Since Bird and Deal don’t have cousins or grandparents or aunts and uncles close by, it added some familial oomph for them to run amok with other children. And affectionate squeezes from neighbors, coupled with trays of cookies didn’t hurt. We all made merry and felt comforted being around the people whose lives we share. Hosting this party has been loads of fun (and work!), yet cathartic too.
Last year we had a champagne bar. This year I’m shifting gears to have a whiskey bar. I think Jennie would approve.
This is such a no frills, easy way to entertain. Your guests play bartender while you flit about enjoying your friends and actually get in a little nosh too.
Here’s what you need to set up:
A jug of whiskey (Make it good but not so good that it’s only for sipping. You are, after all, mixing this.)
Homemade sour mix
Rosemary simply syrup
Maple syrup
Apple cider
Ginger ale
Club soda
Vermouth
Bitters
Accoutrements:
Glasses, natch
Shot glasses
Stirrers (Fresh sprigs of rosemary make wonderfully festive cocktail stirrers too!)
Ice
Cocktail napkins (I have a serious cocktail napkin addiction. If you opened the small cabinet under the bar in my kitchen you’d find enough cocktail napkins to stuff in my shirt to make me look like I have Santa’s belly.)
Cheers, friends! May your days be merry and bright and may you celebrate the season with people you love and admire.