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50 best Christmas cocktails for your repertoire this December 2025
Need new drink inspiration?
The festive season is officially here, meaning we're keen to have a Christmas cocktail recipe or two up our sleeves. Whether you like something punchy or are into subtle flavours, having a good tipple on hand is essential to see us through December.
Whether it's Prosecco, gin or tequila based, we've rounded up 50 of the best Christmas cocktail recipes for you, whether you're throwing a big party or a refined dinner and drinks. From a Winter Break to a Sloe-secco, most of them even come with a fancy Christmassy name!
Talisker Campfire Hot Chocolate at The Gallivant Hotel
Heat up 150ml milk (dairy or oat) with 60g dark chocolate and 1tbsp dark chocolate powder until warm. Add 10ml golden syrup, before combining in a glass with 50ml Talisker 10 and toasted marshmallow to garnish - or head to The Gallivant Hotel to enjoy instead!
Nirvana Perfect Spice
Mix 60ml Paul John Nirvana, 15ml Cocchi Di Torino Vermouth/Sweet Vermouth, 15ml Dry Vermouth and 3 - 4 small pieces of thinly sliced ginger with a spoon of honey in a mixing glass over ice and stir for 15 - 20 seconds. Strain in a coupe glass and garnish with a lemon twist.
Spicy Brancott
Add a slice of chilli to cocktail shaker and muddle to release heat. Add 90 ml Brancott Estate Classic Sauvignon Blanc, 15 ml Maple Syrup, 45 ml Cranberry Juice to a shaker, and fill with ice. Shake for 10 seconds until some of the ice has diluted, before fine staining into a wine glass and garnishing with a chilli.
Disaronno Sour
Shake 50 ml Disaronno, 25 ml fresh lemon juice, 5 ml sugar syrup and an egg white with ice. Strain into a glass and garnish with a slice of lemon.
Chateau Breakfast
Combine 45ml Herradura Reposado with 25ml lemon juice, 20ml sugar syrup and 5ml Grenadine. Muddle 3 raspberries in the shaker. Add egg white or foamer, shake and double strain in a coupette. Garnish with raspberries
Never Felt Bitter
Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in 25ml Smokehead and 25ml Fernet Branca. Top with coke and garnish with a charred lime wheel.
Limoncello Spritz
Combine 2 shots Luxardo Limoncello with 1 shot dry white wine and half a shot Supasawa. Top with the soda of your choice (we like ginger ale for maximum flavour). Garnish with fresh mint.
Pomegranate Cosmopolitan
Shake 50ml Teremana Blanco, 25ml Triple sec, 25ml Lime juice and 25ml Pomegranate juice with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist or peel on side of glass.
Holiday Sonata
Shake 30ml Teremana Blanco, 15ml Apple juice, 15ml Cranberry Juice, 15ml Demerara/ Allspice sugar syrup and 10ml Orange Liqueur with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a coupe glass and top with 60ml of Champagne. Garnish with a Demerara sugar rim and twist of orange zest.
To create allspice-infused demerara syrup, add 1/2 tsp of ground allspice to a saucepan for every 3 cups of demerara rich syrup. Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes, and rest for 5 minutes. Strain mixture through a cheesecloth to remove excess.
Baileys Chocolate
Add 50ml Baileys Chocolate, 25ml Ketel One Vodka and 10ml Simple Syrup into a cocktail shaker. Shake and fine strain into coupe/martini glass. Garnish with shaved Belgian chocolate.
Apple Strudel Tumbler
Add 50ml Spiced Rum, 75ml Apple Juice, 10ml Lime Juice and 10ml Cinnamon Syrup into a tumbler. Top up with Franklin and Sons Ginger Ale, add ice and garnish with a Clove-Studded Lemon Wedge.
Mozart Martini
Melt two squares of milk chocolate and dip the rim of the martini glass in it, then cover in some chocolate shavings. Leave to set. Shake 50ml Mozart Chocolate Cream Liqueur, 50ml Milk and 15ml Vanilla Vodka over ice, before straining into your glass. Serve and enjoy.
Never Say Die Winter Old Fashioned
Add 50ml Never Say Die Small Batch, 10ml winter syrup and 2 dashes Angostura bitters to a rocks glass and fill with cubed ice or an ice block. Stir until well chilled and diluted, top up the ice if needed and garnish with a smouldering cinnamon stick.
Absolut Polar Espresso Martini
In a cocktail shaker, combine 25ml Absolut Vanilia vodka, 25ml Kahlua, 10ml chocolate syrup and 50ml espresso with lots of ice. Strain into a glass and garnish with three coffee beans.
Midnight Maple
Make Christmas Pudding Bitters by combining one bottle of Angostura Bitters with 100g raisins or dried apricots, 2 cinnamon sticks and a knob of ginger. Infuse for 24 hours, strain and serve.
Then, add 50ml Johnnie Walker Black Label, 10ml Maple Syrup, 4 Dashes Christmas Pudding Bitters into the glass with ice and stir for 30 seconds to combine. Garnish with a slice of orange.
Bauble Bubbles
Combine 35ml 1800 Silver tequila, 15ml Lime Juice and 10ml Agave in a coupette glass. Top up with cava or prosecco and garnish with a scoop of pomegranate and rose sorbet & a mint sprig.
Mulled Collins
Mix 50ml Mulled Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru Gin (20g of shop bought mulled spice mix infused into 250ml of gin), 20ml fresh lemon juice and 25ml Monin sugar syrup in a highball glass, and half fill with cubed ice. Top up two thirds with soda water, and add more fresh ice. Garnish with a lemon wheel.
Velvetised™ Chocolate Martini
Melt 2tsp of Hotel Chocolat Milky 50% Chocolate Flakes into 50ml your milk of choice and stir. Add ice into a cocktail shaker, along with 50ml Velvetised Chocolate Cream and 25ml Rum (or spirit of choice). Shake well. Strain contents into a coupe glass, garnish with chocolate flakes and enjoy.
Festive Negroni
Mix 30ml Bombay Sapphire infused with coffee and raspberries (mix 15g coffee beans and 100g raspberries into a bottle and leave to infuse for five hours), 30ml Martini Rosso Sweet Vermouth and 30ml Bitter aperitif (e.g. Campari) in a mixing glass and fill with cubed ice. Stir to integrate the flavours. Strain into a rocks glass filled with more cubed ice.
Magnum martini
Stir 60ml Silent Pool Gin and 15ml Dry Vermouth on ice and drain in a martini glass. Add a twist of lemon (or lime or grapefruit if preferred!) and serve.
Dusty Baxter-Wright is an award-winning journalist and the Entertainment and Lifestyle Director at Cosmopolitan, having previously worked at Sugarscape. She was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work covering pop culture, careers, interiors and travel, and oversees the site’s Entertainment and Lifestyle strategy across print, digital and video. As a journalist for the best part of a decade, she has interviewed everyone from Louis Theroux and Channing Tatum to Margot Robbie and Ncuti Gatwa, while she has also spoken on Times Radio and BBC Radio. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram here.
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