The Sipping Christmas Hub
Christmas, from the first cork to the last coffee.
Recipes, traditions, pairings, bottles, party plans and the quiet drinks after dinner. Built to help you choose what is genuinely useful rather than cover the house in festive garnish.
23 festive guides for the season.
Planning dinner wine, Glühwein, eggnog, pudding, cheese, a party or the midnight toast? Start with the moment in front of you and let the rest of Christmas unfold from there.
Christmas guide
Start here
Christmas traditions
Christmas drinking traditions: why we toast, mull, warm and save the good bottle
Christmas drinking traditions are less about one official festive drink than a sequence of moments: the welcome glass, the table bottle, the toast, the after-dinner pour and the warm drink when everyone has stopped pretending they are not full.
Read the guideChristmas pairings
Christmas drink pairings: what to pour with the whole festive table
Christmas dinner is not one pairing problem. It is roast meat, gravy, herbs, sweetness, salt, sprouts, cranberry, pudding, cheese and probably three snacks nobody remembers buying.
Read the guideParty planning
Christmas party drinks: quantities, batching, alcohol-free choices and a bar that works
A good Christmas party bar is designed to disappear into the evening. Guests should understand it in seconds, and the host should not spend the night measuring 15ml of anything.
Read the guideGift guide
Christmas gifts for drink lovers: bottles, coffee, tea, glassware and experiences
A good drinks gift says “I noticed what you like.” A bad one says “the supermarket had a tower of identical gift tubes near the till.”
Read the guideChristmas guide
Recipes & cocktails
Warm & spiced
Mulled wine and Glühwein: a better festive recipe, plus the mistakes to avoid
Good mulled wine should still taste like wine. The fastest way to ruin it is to boil away the freshness, bury it under cloves or make it sweet enough to qualify as pudding.
Read the guideCreamy classics
Eggnog: what it is, how to make it and which spirits actually work
Eggnog sounds like a dare until you remember that custard, cream, nutmeg and spirits have been getting along perfectly well for a very long time. The key is making it rich without making it heavy.
Read the guideFestive mixing
Christmas cocktails worth making: classics, warm drinks and party-friendly serves
The best Christmas cocktail menu has fewer drinks than most people expect. One sparkling opener, one proper spirit-led option and one alcohol-free serve is often enough.
Read the guideFor a crowd
Christmas punch: how to build a festive bowl without making liquid fruit salad
Punch is useful because it moves work away from the bar. It becomes less useful when every festive ingredient in the house is dropped into the same bowl.
Read the guideLow & no
Alcohol-free Christmas drinks that feel like part of the celebration
The quickest way to make an alcohol-free guest feel like an afterthought is to offer orange juice beside a table full of carefully chosen bottles. Christmas gives us far better options.
Read the guideChristmas guide
Wine, beer & spirits
Christmas Spirit
Christmas Spirit: whisky, rum, brandy and gin for the festive season
“Christmas Spirit” gives us permission for one terrible pun and a genuinely useful question: which spirits earn their place at Christmas, and what should you actually do with them?
Read the guideChristmas table
Christmas dinner wine: reds, whites and fizz that can handle the whole plate
The best Christmas dinner wine is usually the bottle that survives the plate rather than the bottle that wins an argument in isolation.
Read the guideFortified favourites
Port and Sherry at Christmas: what to buy, when to pour it and what to pair
Port and Sherry are often placed in the same festive cupboard because both are fortified wines. In the glass, they can behave completely differently.
Read the guideFestive fizz
Champagne and sparkling wine at Christmas: where the bubbles earn their place
Bubbles are good at celebration, but they are also technically useful: acidity and carbonation make sparkling wine one of the most food-friendly drinks on the Christmas table.
Read the guideMalt & orchard
Christmas beer and cider: winter ales, stout, spiced cider and food pairings
Christmas does not have to mean wine. Beer and cider are often easier with salty snacks, cheese, pork, leftovers and the kind of grazing that takes over Boxing Day.
Read the guideChristmas guide
Food & after dinner
Pudding & spirit
Rum or brandy on Christmas pudding? Flavour, flaming and what actually works
Brandy is traditional for flaming Christmas pudding, but dark rum can be every bit as convincing in the glass and often echoes molasses, dried fruit and spice beautifully.
Read the guideCheese board
Christmas cheese pairings: what to drink with Stilton, Cheddar, Brie and more
The Christmas cheese board is often where sensible pairing rules finally give up. The trick is not to find one magic bottle; it is to match intensity and pick a route that works across most of the board.
Read the guideChocolate
Christmas chocolate pairings: whisky, rum, Port, stout and coffee
Christmas chocolate comes in every form from dark truffles to orange segments and boxes with mystery centres. Pairing gets easier once you know the cocoa level and filling.
Read the guideAfter dinner
Christmas coffee and hot chocolate: the drinks people actually want after lunch
After a large Christmas lunch, the most welcome drink in the room may be coffee. Hot chocolate comes into its own later, when the meal has become leftovers and nobody is pretending to need another course.
Read the guideSecond helping
Christmas leftovers drink pairings: turkey sandwiches, ham, curry and bubble & squeak
Leftovers are where Christmas pairing becomes more fun because the plate has stopped pretending to be formal. Acidity, bitterness and carbonation become extremely useful.
Read the guideChristmas guide
The festive calendar
24 December
Christmas Eve drinks: the calmer night before the big table
Christmas Eve has a different rhythm from Christmas Day. It is often more casual, more snack-led and a very good time to avoid opening every special bottle twenty-four hours early.
Read the guide26 December
Boxing Day drinks: leftovers, cold cuts, cheese and a slightly easier pace
Boxing Day food is often better for drinks than Christmas dinner because the rules have loosened: cold meats, pickles, cheese, sandwiches, curry and whatever survived the previous twenty-four hours.
Read the guide31 December
New Year’s Eve drinks: fizz, cocktails, midnight and the morning after
New Year’s Eve drinks have one unavoidable deadline: midnight. Everything before it should make that moment easier rather than turning the kitchen into a bar shift.
Read the guideFestive world
Christmas drinks around the world: Glühwein, coquito, ponche and more
There is no universal Christmas drink. Climate, religion, local ingredients and family history all shape what appears in the glass, which is why the interesting part is context rather than collecting exotic names.
Read the guideShop with a reason
Find the bottle after you know the job it needs to do.
Once you know the style, flavour or bottle you need, move straight into current products, pairings and cocktail ideas without losing the Christmas thread.