Author: Susan Dunn, You Personal Coach
Please make the children's table festive! I watched a little
munchkin's face fall last holiday when she realized she was
relegated to the "children's table."
I make it the focal point of my own decorating, and invite you
to consider the possiblities!
Here are some festive drink recipes for the little elves at your
celebration.
Choose festive ware and garnish. Any drink with whipped cream,
you can put sprinkles atop, candied fruit, cinnamon candies,
Christmas "picks," drizzle with (non-alcoholic) creme de menthe for color, shaved colored chocolate, a Candy kiss.
Tie a red bow with an evergreen sprig on the punch ladle;
surround the base with greens and sugared cranberries or toy
ornaments. If it's hot, stick in a cinnamon stick or candy cane;
dollop with whipped cream and garnish with sprinkles, cinnamon
candies, confectioner's sugar; add a holiday "pick"; stick a
sparkler in each mug and light at presentation time.
If it's cold, use decorated ice cubes - freeze cranberries, tiny
ornaments, mint leaves, anything festive and NON-POISONOUS into
the cubes and add at presentation time. (Remember that holly
berries and all parts of the mistletoe are poisonous); or freeze
the same things in an ice mold. You can have great fun with
floating ice rings for punch for the kids - put in ornaments,
cherries, greenery, anything you can make hygienic-enough and
that isn't poisonous!
Whatever you serve, serve it with festive flare, and give it a
holiday name! There's no more appreciative audience when you go
the extra mile.
NANA'S NOG
3 cups milk
1 cup half 'n' half
3 T. sugar
Put in blender with ice and frappe. Consider food coloring and candy sprinkles.
Serves 4.
CHRISTMAS MINT PUNCH
1 1/2 c water
10 oz mint jelly
3 c pineapple juice, chilled
1/2 c lemon juice
64 oz Sprite
1 qt lime sherbet
In small saucepan, combine water and mint jelly; cook and stir
until jelly melts. Cool. In large punch bowl, combine jelly mix
and juices. Just before serving, add Sprite and lime sherbet.
TRIM-THE-TREE CIDER PUNCH
1 gallon apple cider
12 whole cloves
2 large apples (Granny Smith, Rome Beauty), peeled, left whole
2 cinnamon sticks
Ground nutmeg
Pour apple cider into large pot. Insert 6 cloves into each
apple. Add apples and cinnamon sticks to pot. Bring to boil.
Reduce heat; cover and barely simmer over very low heat 1 hour
to allow flavors to blend. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover
and refrigerate. Rewarm over low heat before continuing.) Ladle
hot cider punch into mugs. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve.
Source, Bon Appétit, December 1995
SNOWMAN PUNCH
Stir up a pint of ice cream - vanilla, peppermint, mint, adding
a little milk to thin it. Scoop it into snowcone cups or other
festive ware. Disposable plastic Christmas ware is great for
little elves!
Variation: Add green creme de menthe flavoring, non-alcoholic.
SPICY CRANBERRY PUNCH
1/2 cup red cinnamon candies
4 C. water
8 C. cranberry juice cocktail, chilled
6 oz. can frozen limeade concentrate
6 oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate
In small pan, melt candies in water; chill. At serving time,
combine candy liquid and fruit juices in punch bowl. Stir to
dissolve. Makes 18, 5-oz. cups.
WASSAIL BOWL
Whole cloves
1 large orange
2 qts. apple juice or cider
3 T. lemon juice
4 cinnamon sticks
Heat oven to 350. Insert cloves into orange. Place in shallow baking pan and bake at 350 for 30 mins. Pierce orange in several places with tines for a fork.
In large saucepan, combine apple and lemon juice, cinnamon
sticks and baked orange. Cover; simmer over low heat 30 mins.
Remove sticks and orange. Pour into heatproof punch bowl. If
desired, float the orange in the bowl. Serve [safely] hot. Makes
16, 4 oz. servings.
CRANBERRY "CHAMPAGNE" FOR CHRISTMAS CHERUBS
Combine 2 well-chilled 750-ml. bottles non-alcoholic sparkling
cider with 1 cup cranberry juice cocktail or to taste.
ELF WARMER
1 qt. vanilla ice cream
3 sticks margarine
1 box brown sugar
nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice
Combine and keep in freezer. At serving time, put 1 heaping T. scoop into a mug, add hot water (to taste) and heat.
SANTA-RED PUNCH
4 cups water
3 cups sugar
2 small packages of red Jello
l large can pineapple juice
1 bottle of almond extract
Serves 25-30.
EVERGEEN PUNCH
2 pkgs. unsweetened lemon-lime Koolaid
2 cups sugar
2 qts. water
1, 46-oz. can pineapple juice
1 quart gingerale
Dissolve sugar and koolaid. Add pineapple juice and chill. Add
gingerale at serving time. Good too if you freeze it for a while
until it's slushy. Then call it Santa Slush. Serves 36.
