Christmas Punch is the perfect festive beverage for your next holiday party! Quick and easy made with rum, 3 juices, cinnamon and ginger ale.
With warm spices, winter fruits and punchy ginger ale, this is the perfect Drink Recipe to bring to potlucks and parties this holiday season. For more special drinks for the holidays, check out my Holiday Apple Cider and Classic Eggnog recipes.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Christmas Punch Recipe
Christmas Punch is a delicious blend of fruit juices with just a little kick of alcohol from the rum and delightful fizz from ginger ale. You will love the combination of sweet fruit flavors with the perfect bit of holiday spice.
This winter punch recipe makes preparing drinks for any holiday gathering easy. While homemade cocktails are fun, if you’re serving a big group, making a large punch bowl is much easier than mixing drinks individually. Instead, you can just mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, and let your guests serve themselves. It’s quick, easy, and delicious.
Ingredients
- Fruit juices: This recipe calls for three different fruit juice varieties to create the perfect balance of sweet, tart, and fruity flavors. The combination of orange juice and cranberry juice makes the drink festive, and the pineapple juice lightens up the flavor with something tangy and slightly tropical.
- Cinnamon stick: Stirring in one cinnamon stick is the perfect way to add the right amount of holiday spice to the sweet drink. The warmth makes the drink cozy, perfect for enjoying in the winter.
- Rum: I used rum as the base spirit for this recipe. Light rum has a sweet, fairly mild flavor, so it adds a boozy kick without overpowering the fruit and spice. But if you prefer, you could swap out the rum for vodka, gin, or another spirit.
- Ginger ale: The carbonation in ginger ale gives the punch a zingy fizz. You could use other sodas, like 7 Up or Sprite, but I prefer ginger ale because the ginger flavor complements the cinnamon in the holiday punch.
How to Make
Time needed: 5 minutes.
- Combine base ingredients
Add ice to a large punch bowl or pitcher. Then pour cranberry juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, and rum over the top. Add the cinnamon stick and stir the ingredients well.
- Garnish
Add orange and lime slices along with cranberries to the Christmas Punch. You can slice extra fruit to garnish the drink glasses later.
- Serve
When you’re ready to serve the Holiday Punch, pour the ginger ale over the top to make it fizzy. Then, put a ladle in the punch bowl and leave out glasses and extra garnishes for your guests to serve themselves.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 3 cups cranberry juice
- 3 cups orange juice
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 cup light rum
- 2 oranges , sliced
- 1 lime , sliced
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 4 cups ginger-ale
Instructions
- In a large bowl with ice add cranberry juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, cinnamon stick, and rum, stirring well.
- Add in orange slices, lime slices and cranberries.
- Just before serving add in ginger-ale and serve in glasses with sliced oranges, limes and cranberries for a festive twist.
Nutrition
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Chef’s Note: A Perfect Party Drink!
Although Christmas is a favorite time of year, it can be stressful, especially if you are hosting. I love recipes like this one that make things quick and easy. Plus, the bright color of the fruit makes a festive centerpiece for your holiday buffet table. When I’m making it for bigger gatherings, I like to double the base and make one pitcher non-alcoholic. Instead of the rum, I’ll add apple cider, white grape juice, or sparkling cider for the kid-friendly version.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes and no. You can start this recipe by combining cranberry juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, and rum. But, if you add the ginger ale in advance, the fizzy beverage will go flat before you serve it. So, you’ll want to wait on that final step. Fortunately, that’s really easy to do right as you are serving, and it only takes a second.
Nutritional Facts
What to Serve with Christmas Punch
This festive punch is going to go great at your holiday gatherings this winter! While it goes great with practically all your favorite appetizers, I love to keep the holiday theme going with recipes like my Cranberry Pecan Cheeseball and Baked Brie. You can also keep it simple with an easy Classic Cheese Board.
How to Store
- Serve: Do not leave the punch out at room temperature for more than a few hours, as the ice will melt and water down the drink.
- Store: If you want to make this recipe in advance and store it to serve later, wait to add the ginger ale. The soda’s carbonation won’t last after you pour it into the punch. It’s better to combine the fruit juices and rum and leave the ginger ale until later. Without the ginger ale, you can keep the drink mix in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Frequent Questions
To give this recipe the beautiful layered look, you’ll need to make the glasses of Christmas punch individually. Instead of mixing everything in a large bowl, add ice to your serving glass, then pour the ingredients in slowly to avoid disturbing the layers. For the perfect layers, pour in cranberry juice, followed by orange juice, pineapple juice, ginger ale, and finish with the rum. Layer orange slices, lime slices, cranberries, and a cinnamon stick over the top to garnish.
The only alcoholic ingredient in this punch recipe is the rum. While rum is quite strong, it makes up a very small percentage of the overall drink mix. Because most of the drink is just fruit juice and ginger ale, it’s still fairly low in alcohol content. However, you can make it stronger or reduce the alcohol content depending on how much rum you add.
Variations
- Alcohol-free Christmas Punch: If you want to make a non-alcoholic version of this Christmas Punch, it’s an easy change to make. Simply leave the rum out of the recipe. You can add extra fruit juice or ginger ale to make up for the missing ingredient. Then garnish and serve the non-alcoholic beverage as usual. If you want to double up the recipe for a big party, you can always have an adult version and a non-alcoholic drink option available. Make sure they’re labeled, so your guests know which is which.
- Apple Holiday Punch: To give this drink a festive, spiced apple flavor, swap out the pineapple juice for apple cider or apple juice. Garnish with apple slices.
- Juice Options: Depending on your taste, there are plenty of different juice options. Pomegranate, white grape, or grapefruit juice would all taste delicious.
- Ginger Beer: Instead of the ginger ale, you can swap in ginger beer, almost like a Moscow mule. Like ginger ale, ginger beer is non-alcoholic but it is a bit less sweet and has a punchier, spicier ginger flavor.
- Sherbet Punch: A delicious blend you’ll often see at parties is fruit punch with sherbet. This recipe is the perfect combination of a dessert and a drink. To create this version, scoop Rainbow Sherbet over the fruit punch before serving.
More Delicious, Easy Holiday Drinks
