Drinks at Christmas Party: please share your top tipples with Lidl #SchoolofChristmas: chance to win one of 5 £50 vouchers NOW CLOSED!

[ZaneMumsnet]

Ahead of the festive season the Lidl team at #SchoolofChristmas would love to hear your top tips for tipples at Christmas (either on the day, at a party or for friend/ relations visits etc).

VDd28

Do you make a mean cocktail? Get the advocat out or create fun mocktails for the drivers? How about special twists on coffees or a warming hot chocolate after a long walk with family?

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where 5 Mumsnetters will each win a £50 Lidl voucher.

thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Don't waste posh wine. After the first drink no one can tell the difference so switch to the 'more economical' bottles.

A little brandy added to hot chocolate is our favourite with squirty cream on top.

Last year I made my own liqueur - it was vodka with orange peel, and I think coriander and brandy. I wish I'd recorded the recipe. Any ideas?

My tip is: get yourself a big jug of water and ice and mix it with your wine while on the christmas parties! Not only is it cheaper to buy a bottle of wine and share it, but if you mix it with iced water it lasts a lot longer and you dont get, well, too merry! Instead you have a good time! and no big thumping hangover the next morning! For the drivers its nice if big jugs of non alcoholic fruit cocktails are on standby! We do the same at home if anyone is coming to dinner we always have jugs of iced water - and if you put them out nearly everyone ends up drinking it. For the kids we always have a stock of sugar free pop - even a shandy so they feel like they are not missing out! haha

Lots of wine plus soft drinks

It has to be Baileys, it's a Christmas tradition in my house.

Mulled wine for xmas eve and Christmas night, Asti for Christmas Dinner as no-one likes champagne, alcohol free punch for those driving

prosecco is a must

Everything base on dark rum, that is easy to find in England but at a very high price. Having said that, I would not buy any other.

mine are all alcohol free, but very fruity. i keep syrups handy and mix with soda water or tonic water (strawberry, blackcurrant, grenadine, frambose, passion fruit, lime)

frozen grapes for ice cubes as to not dilute drinks but still chill them :)

I buy cheap gin and vodka and add my own fruit/sugar to make some delicious flavoured drinks - at the moment I've got raspberry gin and cherry vodka nearly ready. Sweets are good for making weird and wonderful flavours too, parma violets, skittles, pear drops etc. all can be dissolved in spirits to give a fun twist.

Make two large bowls of punch-one alcoholic,one non-alcoholic to please everyone :D

Got to be classic champagne cocktail in this house at Christmas. Brown sugar cube soaked in angostura bitters in a flute, add brandy to the top of the sugar cube, top up with champagne. Mmmmmm.

I shall have a large slow cooker full of mulled wine. It's lovely that its always warm and ready to serve and makes the house smell festive.

Lidl's version of Baileys is just as good, and a lot cheaper!

We always have tequilla (a bit strange :)) Since we had the kids I tend to stick to alcohol free wine so Shloer or an equivalent and you can get the kids involved too - I even have some plastic wine glasses.

Tequila, disaronno and cola...yum yum

Mulled wine all the way to Christmas Day! Smells as good as it tastes!

Lidl's Cava Brut with orange juice on xmas morning and without orange juice from about eleven am onwards :)

im quite traditional over Christmas and like Bucks Fizz Christmas morning with a nice Snowball after dinner. We always make sure we have champagne, orange juice, Advocat, lemonade and maraschino cherries in the house for December. For me its part of Christmas.

Only ever seem to drink Baileys, Advocaat and Port at Christmas, not sure why.

a BMW baileys malibu and whiskey ...lush

We always make mulled wine & have it in front of the fire with panettone

When I'm having guests I always get a pan of highly spiced mulled wine on. I look for the lower alcohol wines as most people I know don't want to drink too much and the smell makes the house really festive. I also get a selection of fresh juices in - pineapple, cranberry, etc as well as the usual orange which when mixed half and half with a sparkling white make lovely drinks, again without too much alcohol and a bit more interesting than a traditional spritzer.