I want to serve Christmas punch to our gathering on Christmas Eve. Not only does it look pretty, but it is nice and easy to have with appetizers as we wait for dinner because it saves a lot of time with getting drinks for a relatively large group. Make it look pretty, set it up, and guests can serve themselves.
I have read every punch recipe I can find but they all seem way too sweet and/or have at least one and maybe even 3 alcohols.
We will have some who drink alcohol and some who do not. I like a little sparkle in the punch -- which I know can be done by adding some kind of pop. (Yes, I am from Ohio and that is what we call the stuff.) But I do not want to add pop directly because not only could it make the punch too sweet, but after a while, it goes flat.
Here is what I have been thinking:
Make pretty pitchers full of cranberry juice (the 100% juice kind, but not the really tart kind.) and maybe some orange juice. Add some orange slices and fresh cranberries. I could then put bottles of bubbles on the side so guests could either make a mimosa-like concoction for themselves or have their bubbles straight, or just have the basic stuff in the pitchers.
If I do it this way, I would probably have sides of cold ginger ale and a cava or some other kind of sparkle, and I am thinking of vinho verde. (Yes. I know. I might have just horrified someone who thinks this Portuguese fizzy wine with the screw top, and at a very reasonable price, is just for summer. I do not pretend to know anything about wine, but what I do know is that my book club loves the light and fizzy vinho verde and I bet some of my guests will, too. I do. And with that screw top, I can always swill down leftovers later.
So how an I doing? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to navigate the booze/no-booze Christmas punch quandary. Does the cranberry juice - orange juice base make sense? Help! (I am not Martha Stewart and need all the help I can get.)