7 Cosy Non-Alcoholic Christmas Drinks Everyone Can Share

It’s the week before Christmas, the house is full, and the drinks table has a problem: the grown-ups’ drinks are alcoholic, the kids’ drinks are an afterthought, and the driver is nursing a glass of water like it’s a punishment. These seven drinks fix the whole table at once. Every one is non-alcoholic, every one looks properly festive — a bright green Grinch punch for the middle of the table, a proper cranberry spritz, hot chocolate with peppermint, mulled cider warming on the stove — and every one is built from supermarket ingredients in 5 to 30 minutes. The honest bit: they cost about $0.85 to $1.90 a glass, the cold ones scale to a jug without any maths headaches, and nobody at your table can tell who is and isn’t drinking. Same glasses, same garnishes, same first sip.

Quick Facts

• Prep time: 5–10 minutes per drink (plus gentle warming time for the two hot drinks)
• Cook time: None for the cold drinks; 15–20 minutes of gentle simmering for the mulled cider and hot chocolate
• Total time: 5–30 minutes per drink (prep included — that’s the whole time)
• Servings: Cold drinks make 2 glasses each with jug notes to scale to 8; the Grinch punch and white cranberry punch are written as full bowls/jugs; hot drinks make 4–8 mugs as stated
• Cost per serving: About $0.85–$1.90 per glass or mug depending on the recipe — based on standard supermarket prices, October 2026; yours will vary
• Equipment: One large jug or punch bowl does almost everything in this post, and a medium saucepan covers the two warm drinks — no cocktail kit, no special gadgets. That’s the one equipment angle for the whole post
• Best for: Christmas parties, Christmas Eve, and any table where drivers, kids and non-drinkers deserve a proper drink too

Why This Works on a Weeknight

• One table, one set of drinks. No separate “kids’ option” — these are mixed for everyone, so nobody is left holding the water jug.
• The two drinks everyone searches for are here. The green Grinch punch and the cranberry spritz lead the list — they’re the centrepiece and the first glass poured, not an afterthought.
• Warm and cold covered. Two drinks warm on the stove and make the house smell like Christmas; five are cold, fizzy and poured in minutes when guests arrive.
• Big-batch friendly. The punches are written for a crowd from the start, and every 2-glass recipe carries a jug note to scale it to 8.

Pouring drinks is only half of a Christmas table — the other half is something hands-off cooking while you host. Our 12 Easy 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Dinners are what we put on earlier in the day so dinner looks after itself while these drinks do the rounds.

The 7 Christmas Drinks

1. Grinch Punch — 10 mins · about $0.85 per glass · punch bowl for 12
2. Cranberry Spritz Mocktail — 5 mins · about $1.40 per glass
3. Peppermint Hot Chocolate — 15 mins · about $1.25 per mug
4. Warm Mulled Apple Cider — 30 mins · about $1.10 per mug
5. Pomegranate & Rosemary Sparkler — 5 mins · about $1.70 per glass
6. Sparkling White Cranberry Punch — 10 mins · about $1.05 per glass · jug for 8
7. Gingerbread Fizz — 10 mins · about $1.15 per glass

1. Grinch Punch

Ready in: 10 mins · About $0.85 per glass · Makes a punch bowl of about 12 glasses

Ingredients

• 2 litres (about 8½ cups) lemon-lime soda, well chilled
• 4 cups (960 ml) pineapple juice, chilled
• ½ gallon (about 1.9 litres) lime sherbet — roughly 8 scoops
• 12 maraschino cherries, to garnish (one per glass)
• Ice, for serving glasses (not the bowl — see the method)

Pantry staples you probably have: none needed.

Method

1. Pour the chilled pineapple juice into a large punch bowl, then pour in the lemon-lime soda slowly down the side — pouring slowly keeps the fizz.
2. Add the lime sherbet in scoops across the surface. Don’t stir it smooth: the scoops melt slowly into a frothy green top, and that froth is the whole look.
3. Ladle into glasses over a little ice, making sure every glass gets some of the sherbet froth, and finish each glass with a maraschino cherry — the red cherry on green is the Grinch signal.
4. Top the bowl up with extra soda and a fresh scoop or two of sherbet as it runs down; it refreshes in about a minute.

Make it ahead: mix the juice and soda base up to 2 hours ahead and keep it chilled without the sherbet. Add the sherbet only when guests are in the room — melted flat punch helps nobody.

2. Cranberry Spritz Mocktail

Ready in: 5 mins · About $1.40 per glass · Makes 2 tall glasses

Ingredients

• 1 cup (240 ml) cranberry juice drink, chilled
• ¼ cup (60 ml) orange juice, chilled
• 1 cup (240 ml) soda water or sparkling water, chilled
• Ice cubes
• A small handful of fresh or frozen cranberries, 2 small sprigs of rosemary and 2 orange slices, to garnish

Pantry staples you probably have: none needed.

Method

1. Fill two tall 12 oz (350 ml) glasses right up with ice — a spritz needs to be properly cold.
2. Divide the cranberry juice and orange juice between the glasses.
3. Top each glass slowly with sparkling water for the spritz fizz, and stir once, gently.
4. Drop in a few cranberries (frozen ones double as extra ice), tuck in a rosemary sprig, add an orange slice to the rim, and serve straight away.

For a jug of 8: multiply everything by four and build it in the jug, sparkling water last, at the table. This is the red partner to our everyday Cranberry Orange Sparkler from the mocktails list — same idea, dressed for Christmas.

3. Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Ready in: 15 mins · About $1.25 per mug · Makes 4 mugs

Ingredients

• 4 cups (960 ml) whole milk (or your usual milk)
• ¼ cup (25 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• ⅓ cup (65 g) granulated sugar
• ½ cup (85 g) dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ½ tsp peppermint extract
• Whipped cream, 2 small candy canes crushed, plus 4 small candy canes to serve, to finish

Pantry staples you probably have: a pinch of salt — it makes the chocolate taste more like chocolate. It doesn’t count as an ingredient here.

Method

1. Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until steaming and small bubbles appear at the edges — about 5 minutes. Don’t let it boil.
2. Whisk in the cocoa powder, sugar and the pinch of salt until smooth, then add the chocolate chips and whisk for 2–3 minutes until they have fully melted and the drink looks glossy.
3. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the peppermint extract. Taste here: peppermint extract varies, so add a drop more only if you can’t taste it at all.
4. Pour into 4 mugs, top with whipped cream, sprinkle with crushed candy cane, and hook a whole candy cane over each rim.

Food safety / serving note: serve warm, not boiling, especially for kids — let filled mugs sit for a minute before handing them over.

4. Warm Mulled Apple Cider

Ready in: 30 mins (5 mins prep, 25 mins gentle simmering) · About $1.10 per mug · Makes 8 mugs

Ingredients

• 8 cups (1.9 litres) apple cider or cloudy apple juice
• 1 orange, sliced into rounds
• 3 cinnamon sticks, plus extra to serve
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 star anise
• 1 tbsp honey or brown sugar (optional — taste first; many ciders are sweet enough)

Pantry staples you probably have: nothing extra — the spices are counted above because they are the drink.

Method

1. Pour the cider into a large saucepan and add the orange slices, cinnamon sticks, cloves and star anise.
2. Warm over medium heat until steaming and just at a gentle simmer — about 5 minutes — then turn the heat to the lowest setting.
3. Simmer very gently for 20 minutes, never boiling. Boiling makes the spices taste harsh; a lazy steam is what you want. The house will smell like Christmas long before it’s ready.
4. Taste, stir in the honey or sugar only if it needs it, then ladle into mugs through a strainer, adding a fresh cinnamon stick to each mug.

Food safety / serving note: serve warm, not boiling, especially for kids. Keep the pan on the lowest heat for top-ups, and take it off the heat entirely once everyone has had their fill.

Keeping it warm: once mulled, it holds happily on the stove’s lowest setting for up to 2 hours, topped up with a splash of fresh cider as it reduces.

5. Pomegranate & Rosemary Sparkler

Ready in: 5 mins · About $1.70 per glass · Makes 2 glasses

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (180 ml) pomegranate juice, chilled
• 1 cup (240 ml) soda water or sparkling water, chilled
• Juice of ½ lime (about 1 tbsp / 15 ml)
• Ice cubes
• 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds and 2 small sprigs of rosemary, to garnish

Pantry staples you probably have: none needed.

Method

1. Fill two stemless wine glasses or tumblers (about 12 oz / 350 ml) with ice.
2. Divide the pomegranate juice and lime juice between them.
3. Top slowly with sparkling water, stir once, and scatter the pomegranate seeds over the top — they sink slowly through the drink, which is half the fun.
4. Add a rosemary sprig to each glass and serve. This is the deepest red drink on the list, and the one that photographs like a cocktail.

For a jug of 8: multiply by four, seeds and rosemary in the jug, fizz last at the table.

6. Sparkling White Cranberry Punch

Ready in: 10 mins · About $1.05 per glass · Makes a jug of 8 glasses

Ingredients

• 4 cups (960 ml) white cranberry juice drink, chilled
• 2 cups (480 ml) lemon-lime soda or soda water, chilled
• 1 cup (240 ml) white grape juice, chilled
• Ice cubes
• A handful of fresh or frozen cranberries and a few mint leaves, to garnish — the red and green against the pale punch is the point

Pantry staples you probably have: none needed.

Method

1. Half-fill a large jug with ice, then pour in the white cranberry juice and white grape juice and stir once.
2. Add the cranberries and mint — frozen cranberries keep the jug cold without watering it down as fast.
3. Pour in the lemon-lime soda slowly just before serving, stir once gently, and pour into glasses over fresh ice.
4. This is the snow-day punch: pale, sparkling and deliberately different from the two red drinks, so a drinks table with all three covers every colour of Christmas.

Smaller batch: halve everything for 4 glasses — same order, same fizz-last rule.

7. Gingerbread Fizz

Ready in: 10 mins · About $1.15 per glass · Makes 2 tall glasses

Ingredients

• 1½ cups (360 ml) ginger ale, well chilled
• ½ cup (120 ml) apple juice, chilled
• 2 tsp molasses (or dark brown sugar dissolved in 1 tbsp warm water)
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon, plus a pinch more to dust
• Ice cubes
• 2 cinnamon sticks, to serve, and gingerbread biscuits on the side if you have them

Pantry staples you probably have: nothing extra — the molasses and cinnamon are counted above because they carry the gingerbread flavour.

Method

1. Stir the molasses and ground cinnamon into the apple juice in your jug until the molasses has fully dissolved — this takes a minute of patient stirring, and doing it now (not in the fizzy drink) is what keeps the spice smooth instead of gritty.
2. Fill two tall 12 oz (350 ml) glasses with ice and divide the spiced apple juice between them.
3. Top each glass slowly with ginger ale, stir once with the cinnamon stick, and leave the stick in as the stirrer.
4. Dust the tiniest pinch of cinnamon over the foam and serve with a gingerbread biscuit for dipping — it tastes like the biscuit tin and a drinks party had a meeting.

For a jug of 8: multiply by four; dissolve the molasses in the full amount of apple juice first, then add the ginger ale at the table.

What It Costs

Every drink on this list lands between about $0.85 and $1.90 per glass or mug. The Grinch Punch is the cheapest way to fill a table — a whole bowl for 12 works out at roughly $10 all-in, because soda and sherbet stretch a long way — while the Pomegranate Sparkler is the priciest per glass because pomegranate juice does the heavy lifting. The hot drinks sit in the middle at about $1.10–$1.25 a mug. A table with one punch, one spritz and one hot drink covers a party of 8–12 for roughly $25–$35 in drinks, total. Based on prices checked in October 2026 at a large US supermarket. Your cost will vary by store and season — the point is the ballpark, not the penny.

Storage & Reheating

• Fridge: Still bases keep well for up to 24 hours in a sealed jug — the cranberry-orange base, the pomegranate base and the white cranberry and grape juices (without soda). The mulled cider keeps 3 days in the fridge and actually deepens in flavour.
• Reheating: Reheat mulled cider and hot chocolate gently in a saucepan over low heat until steaming — do not boil either one. Hot chocolate thickens in the fridge; whisk in a splash of milk as it warms. Serve warm, not boiling, especially for kids.
• Make fresh: Anything fizzy must be finished at serving time. Soda water, sparkling water and ginger ale go flat once poured, sherbet froth melts within the hour, and ice dilutes a built drink — never store a finished, iced Christmas drink.
• Freezer: Mulled cider freezes well for up to 1 month and reheats from thawed. The fizzy drinks and punches do not freeze as finished drinks.
• Garnishes: Rosemary sprigs keep 2–3 days wrapped in damp kitchen paper in the fridge. Crushed candy cane is same-day only — it goes sticky overnight.

Easy Swaps & Variations

• No lime sherbet for the Grinch punch? Lemon sherbet plus a handful of frozen limeade concentrate stirred through gets you close in colour and flavour. Rainbow sherbet changes the colour entirely — fine drink, not a Grinch.
• Make it less sweet: Swap half the lemon-lime soda in any punch for soda water, and halve the sugar in the hot chocolate — the peppermint carries the flavour so you won’t miss it.
• No fresh cranberries or rosemary? Frozen cranberries work in every garnish here (and keep drinks colder). Skip the rosemary rather than using dried — dried herbs in a drink help nobody.
• Dairy-free hot chocolate: Oat milk is the swap that works best here — use it cup-for-cup and warm it a touch more gently, as it splits if it boils.
• A drinks table for a crowd: Make ONE punch (Grinch or white cranberry), ONE 2-glass recipe as a jug (cranberry spritz), and ONE hot drink on the stove. Three drinks, three temperatures, every guest covered — that’s the whole formula from this list.

FAQs

Can I make these Christmas drinks ahead of time?

Partly, yes. Make every still base up to 24 hours ahead and keep it sealed in the fridge, mull the cider fully (it improves overnight), and make the hot chocolate base the morning of. What you cannot do ahead is the fizz, the sherbet froth or the ice — those three things are the last five minutes, every time.

What makes the Grinch punch green without food colouring in the list?

The lime sherbet does it. As the scoops melt into the pineapple juice and lemon-lime soda, they turn the whole bowl a frothy, unmistakably green. If your bowl looks pale, the answer is one more scoop of sherbet, not a longer stir — stirring just knocks the fizz out.

Are these drinks suitable for kids?

Yes — there is no alcohol in anything here and nothing that mimics alcohol either. The flavours are festive rather than sweet-tooth plain, which is the point: one drinks table for the whole family. For the hot drinks, serve them warm rather than boiling for younger children, and skip the whole cloves garnish risk by always straining the cider as you ladle it.

Can I keep the mulled cider warm for a whole party?

Yes — hold it on the stove’s lowest setting for up to 2 hours, with the lid half on, and top it up with a splash of fresh cider if it starts to reduce and taste too spiced. After 2 hours the spices begin to dominate, so for a long party it’s better to mull a second, smaller batch than to keep the first one going all night.

What should I serve alongside these drinks?

Something hands-off, so you can actually host. The slow cooker dinners linked at the top of this post are our default Christmas-week move, and for a second dinner lane the 5-Ingredient Chicken Dinners cover the nights either side of the party itself. Drinks this organised deserve food that doesn’t need you in the kitchen.

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You might also like:

• 12 Easy 5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Dinners That Actually Feed a Family — dinner that cooks itself while you pour
• 9 Easy Non-Alcoholic Mocktails That Taste Like the Real Thing — the year-round version of this list
• 11 5-Ingredient Chicken Dinners for Nights You Can’t Be Bothered — for the nights either side of the party
• 5 Big-Batch Party Punches for a Crowd (All Non-Alcoholic) — the big-bowl version, for when the crowd is bigger than the table