Christmas Mocktails: 5 Festive Non-Alcoholic Drinks

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Christmas Mocktails: 5 Festive Non-Alcoholic Drinks, from the Platinum Sass Kitchen

There is a moment at every Christmas party where somebody looks at the gorgeous cocktail in somebody else's hand, looks down at their plain soda, and quietly decides the drink situation was not designed with them in mind. The drivers. The friends who just don't. The ones who are pacing themselves, expecting, or simply done with waking up fuzzy in December. They deserve a beautiful glass too — not a consolation soda, a beautiful glass.

These five mocktails are my answer, and I built them the way I build everything on my holiday table: by color first. A snowy white mojito. A bright Grinch-green fizz with actual sparkle in it. A deep red cherry blush. A crimson cosmopolitan with a sugared rim that photographs like a magazine cover. And a pale pink candy cane spritz with a crushed-candy-cane rim that tastes like December decided to be charming. Red, green and white, the whole classic Christmas palette, in five very different glasses — every one of them non-alcoholic, and every one of them built on a proper non-alcoholic spirit or syrup so it drinks like a cocktail, not like juice with ambitions.

Set them out on a tray together and nobody at your party is holding the afterthought drink. That is the whole sermon. Now let's make them pretty.

All five Christmas mocktails on a festive table: white mojito, green Grinch fizz, red cherry blush, crimson cosmopolitan and pink candy cane spritz

Pick your pour

  • White Christmas Mojito — the snowy one. Coconut, lime and mint under a little soda sparkle, with pomegranate seeds doing the Christmas decorating.
  • Grinch Glow Fizz — the bright green show-off. Green apple and lemon with edible glitter swirling in the glass. Yes, it actually glows.
  • Santa's Cherry Blush — the deep red one. Cherry and apple with a whisper of almond — the most elegant glass on the tray.
  • Crimson Cosmocktail — the classic, gone crimson. Cranberry, lime and orange with a sugared rim. The one that gets photographed first.
  • Candy Cane Christmas Spritz — the pink peppermint one. White cranberry and peppermint under lemon-lime sparkle, with a crushed-candy-cane rim. Pure December.

The glassware and gear that make the tray: each drink has a natural home — stemless glasses for the mojito, tall champagne flutes for the fizz, coupe glasses for the blush and the cosmo, and big wine glasses for the spritz. One cocktail shaker, a jigger for honest measuring, and a muddler for the mint are the whole tool kit. The secret shelf is the spirits-that-aren't: a good non-alcoholic rum and non-alcoholic gin give these drinks their grown-up backbone — that botanical, warming note that tells your palate this is a cocktail. Keep both on the bar all season.

Glow-Up Tip: Chill everything — glasses, juices, sodas, all of it — and add the fizzy topper last, per glass, never in advance. Fizz is a perishable garnish. A mocktail built cold and finished with fresh bubbles drinks like it came off a cocktail menu; the same drink built warm and flat is just juice in a fancy glass, and we are not serving that at this house.

A stemless glass of creamy white Christmas mojito with mint leaves and pomegranate seeds

1. White Christmas Mojito

The snowy one, and the prettiest argument I know for coconut milk in a cocktail glass. A classic mojito build — mint muddled with lime — goes white and wintry on coconut milk and a non-alcoholic rum, then gets its sparkle from club soda and its Christmas from a scatter of pomegranate seeds that look like little rubies sitting on snow.

Makes 1 mocktail

For the drink:

To garnish:

How to make it:

  1. Put the mint leaves and lime juice in the bottom of a stemless glass and muddle gently — press and twist just until the mint smells bright. You are waking the mint up, not shredding it; torn mint turns bitter and speckly.
  2. Add the coconut milk and the non-alcoholic rum and stir until the coconut milk is completely smooth.
  3. Fill the glass with ice, all the way to the top.
  4. Top with club soda and stir once, gently, from the bottom up.
  5. Crown it with the mint sprig — give the sprig a little clap between your palms first to wake up the scent — and scatter the pomegranate seeds over the top. Serve right away, while the bubbles are still lively.

Make it yours: want it a touch sweeter, add 1/4 oz of simple syrup with the coconut milk. Want it lighter, swap half the coconut milk for coconut water and keep every other thing the same.

A champagne flute of bright green Grinch glow fizz with edible glitter and a candy cane on the rim

2. Grinch Glow Fizz

Bright green, sweet-tart, and glittering — this is the one with main-character energy. Green apple syrup brings the true Grinch green and a tart snap, non-alcoholic gin brings the botanical backbone, and a pinch of green edible glitter swirls through the bubbles like the drink is lit from inside. The heart grew three sizes; so did the garnish budget.

Makes 1 mocktail

For the drink:

To garnish:

How to make it:

  1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the green apple syrup, lemon juice and non-alcoholic gin. Shake for about 10 seconds, until the shaker is frosty — this chills the base so the flute stays sparkling instead of going flat on warm ingredients.
  2. Strain into a tall champagne flute.
  3. Top slowly with the sparkling water, pouring down the side so the bubbles survive.
  4. Drop in the pinch of green edible glitter and give the glass one slow swirl. Watch it catch the light — that little shimmer show is the entire point of this drink, so do not skip the swirl.
  5. Hook the candy cane over the rim and serve immediately, while the glitter is still dancing.

Make it yours: for a sweeter, more candy-apple version, swap the sparkling water for lemon-lime soda. For extra Grinch, rim the flute with green sanding sugar before you pour.

A coupe of deep red Santa's cherry blush mocktail with mint, rosemary and a cherry

3. Santa's Cherry Blush

The elegant one. Deep ruby red, silky, and quietly sophisticated — cherry syrup and apple juice do the fruit work, lime keeps it bright instead of jammy, and one small almond note underneath everything makes people pause mid-sip and say what is that? That, friend, is the amaretto-style secret: a drop of almond, felt more than tasted.

Makes 1 mocktail

For the drink:

To garnish:

How to make it:

  1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the cherry syrup, apple juice, lime juice and almond extract.
  2. Shake well for about 12 seconds, until cold and lightly frothy — cherry drinks love a proper shake; it wakes the color up to its full ruby.
  3. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
  4. Top with the sparkling water and stir once, gently.
  5. Rest the mint sprig and the cherry on top and serve straight away. This is the glass to hand the guest who says they do not usually like sweet drinks — the lime and almond keep it grown-up.

Make it yours: a rosemary sprig alongside the mint looks beautiful against the red and adds a faint piney scent. For a deeper cherry note, muddle two cherries in the shaker before the ice goes in.

A sugared-rim coupe of crimson cosmopolitan mocktail with cranberries on a pick

4. Crimson Cosmocktail

The classic cosmopolitan, gone crimson and gone completely non-alcoholic — and losing nothing in the translation. Cranberry brings the jewel color and the tart backbone, a non-alcoholic orange liqueur brings the citrus depth a cosmo is supposed to have, and a whisper of vanilla rounds the whole glass out. The sugared rim is not optional. The sugared rim is the outfit.

Makes 1 mocktail

For the drink:

For the sugared rim and garnish:

  • A lime wedge and a small plate of granulated sugar, for the rim
  • Fresh cranberries, on a cocktail pick

How to make it:

  1. Rim the coupe first: run the lime wedge around the rim of a chilled coupe, dip the rim into the sugar so it coats evenly, and set the glass aside. Cold glass, sugared rim — now it is a cosmo.
  2. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add the cranberry juice, lime juice, non-alcoholic orange liqueur and vanilla syrup.
  3. Shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds, until the shaker is properly frosty. A cosmo wants a vigorous shake — you are after that deep crimson-pink color and a fine, cold froth.
  4. Strain into the sugared coupe and finish with the splash of sparkling water for lift.
  5. Lay the cranberry pick across the top and serve immediately. Tart, cold, crimson, gone in happy sips.

Make it yours: swap the vanilla syrup for a second splash of orange and a pinch of lime zest on top if your crowd leans tart. A frozen cranberry pick — cranberries threaded and frozen for an hour — keeps the glass cold and looks like jewelry.

A large wine glass of pale pink candy cane spritz with a crushed candy cane rim, mini candy cane and rosemary

5. Candy Cane Christmas Spritz

The December charmer, and the drink that inspired this whole set getting a fifth seat at the table. White cranberry keeps it pale and delicate, peppermint syrup brings the candy cane soul, and lemon-lime soda brings a snowfall of bubbles — all of it in a big wine glass with a crushed-candy-cane rim that tastes like the best part of the candy dish. It is pink, it is sparkling, and it disappears faster than anything else I put on a holiday tray.

Makes 1 mocktail

For the drink:

For the crushed-candy-cane rim and garnish:

  • 2 candy canes, crushed fine, on a small plate — plus a little peppermint syrup or lime juice on a second small plate to wet the rim
  • One mini candy cane, hooked over the rim
  • A sprig of fresh rosemary

How to make it:

  1. Rim the glass first: dip the rim of a large wine glass in the syrup or lime juice, then into the crushed candy cane, pressing gently so the pieces stick all the way around. Set it aside for a minute to set — a rushed rim sheds, and we are not doing shedding.
  2. Fill the rimmed glass generously with ice.
  3. Pour in the white cranberry juice, peppermint syrup and the splash of lime juice.
  4. Top with the lemon-lime soda, pouring slowly so the bubbles build instead of foaming over that pretty rim.
  5. Stir once, gently, hook the mini candy cane over the rim, stand the rosemary sprig in the glass like a tiny Christmas tree, and serve right away.

Make it yours: for a frostier, snow-globe version, add a spoonful of crushed ice on top before the garnish. For a batch, multiply everything by the number of glasses, rim and ice each glass individually, and add the soda per glass at the last second — spritz fizz waits for no one.

Set the tray, then join the party

Batching notes. These are single-glass drinks, but the bases travel well: the mojito's coconut-lime-rum base, the blush's cherry-apple base and the cosmo's cranberry base can each be mixed in a pitcher in the morning, kept cold, and shaken or poured to order. The fizzy toppers — club soda, sparkling water, lemon-lime soda — always go in per glass, at the last second, or you are pouring very elegant flat juice at your own party. Rims can be done an hour ahead: sugar on the cosmo coupes, crushed candy cane on the spritz glasses, lined up and waiting.

The garnish tray. Put the garnishes out in little bowls like you mean it: pomegranate seeds, fresh cranberries, cherries, candy canes, mint and rosemary. Guests will garnish like artists, somebody will photograph the tray, and you will be standing there holding your own beautiful glass instead of a dish towel. That is the entire business model of this post.

Keep them cold. Chill the glasses if you can — even twenty minutes in the fridge makes a shaken mocktail taste like it came from a real bar. Freeze a few cranberries and pomegranate seeds into ice cubes for the spritz and the mojito if you are feeling extra; they keep the drinks cold and drop little jewels into the glass as they melt.

More sips for your season

This set is the classic red-green-and-white chapter of my holiday drinks series. For the icy-blue chapter, my Winter Wonderland Mocktails are four frosty blue drinks built the same way — color first, fizz last. For the pink chapter, the Pink Christmas Mocktails are four pretty Girl-Mas sips in every shade of blush. When the party is bigger than a tray, my 6 Holiday Punches are the big-batch, alcohol-free bowls that serve the whole room from one dispenser — and for the grown-ups who want the spirited version of the evening, the Christmas Dirty Bar lineup is six holiday cocktails on one very merry bar cart. Every taste, every guest, every glass accounted for.

Pick the white one first if you are a coconut person, the green one if you were born for a little drama, and the candy cane spritz if December is your love language. Tell me in the comments which color claimed you — I already know mine changes with the night, and I have made my peace with that.

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