13 Easy & Delicious Gin Christmas Cocktails to Deck the Halls
November 24, 2022 by Anna-Bet Stemmet
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me… a gorgeous spin on the classic G&T! Here are 13 Christmas gin cocktails that will get you in the, ahem, holiday spirit in no time at all. Happy clinking, holidaymakers!
1. French 75
If a gin prosecco Christmas cocktail sounds like your kind of drink, may we please introduce you to the iconic French 75? Named for a field gun used in WWII, this pretty cocktail has a fair amount of kick but goes down a treat. It combines Bulldog Gin, prosecco, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup to create a tasty Prohibition-era drink that never seems to go out of style.
Roaring 20s inspo: 12 Prohibition-Era Cocktail Recipes from the Roaring Twenties
2. Cranberry Gin cocktail
The Cranberry Gin Christmas cocktail is a beautifully cheery mixed drink that casts everyone’s favourite holiday berry in the leading role. It’s also very easy to make, which makes it a great choice for festive get-togethers with plenty of friends and family in the mix.
You simply combine 45ml Bulldog Gin, 15ml fresh lemon juice, and 150ml cranberry juice. The drink is built straight in a rocks glass with ice and garnished with fresh cranberries and mint (optional).
3. Gin Espresso Martini
Typically, an Espresso Martini is made with SKYY vodka, but we also like to stir things up now and again by making it with gin. Add some coffee liqueur, and a shot of fresh espresso, and you’ve got the perfect after-dinner drink that’s still one of our favourite types of Martinis today.
4. White Lady cocktail
This 1920s gin-laced sour is a tour de force that combines the zesty tartness of good gin, bitter orange botanicals and lemon juice, which are beautifully tamed by rich egg white that adds a silken texture for sophisticated sipping.
5. Gin & Tonic
Christmas cocktails with gin don’t have to be complicated to be amazing – you can also keep it really simple and stick with the classic gin and tonic—especially if you’re on a holiday budget. Simply add a measure or two of gin to a Collins glass with ice, top it off with 150ml of your favorite tonic water, add a squeeze of lime or lemon juice, and you are good to go. If you’re feeling fancy, you can play around with garnishes like blueberries, strawberry slices, gooseberries, and even spices like pink peppercorns.
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6. Rosemary Gimlet
Ostensibly prescribed as a daily tonic to prevent disease among sailors and officers in the British Navy in the 19th century, the Classic Gimlet is said to be the brainchild of Surgeon Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette. It combines gin, lime juice, simple syrup, and an optional splash of soda water.
To take it into a more wintery space, we like to switch out the sugar syrup for rosemary-infused syrup and add a sprig of rosemary as garnish. It’s a small substitution but makes for a fun flavour shift.
7. Sloe Gin Fizz
Sloe gin Christmas cocktails are synonymous with silly season, and with good reason – they are utterly delicious. Sloes are sour berries that grow on blackthorn bushes, and are infused with gin to create a typically English, purplish-red gin-based liqueur that has become a winter staple around the globe.
To make a Sloe Gin Fizz, you simply add some lemon juice and sugar syrup, shake it up, decant it into a glass with fresh ice, and then top it up it with soda water.
8. Hot Gin Old Fashioned
The OG Old Fashioned combines Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, sugar syrup and bitters, but we are also rather partial to its cousin, the Hot Gin Old Fashioned. As far as old-school Christmas gin cocktail recipes go, this one hits all the high notes.
It combines 45ml gin, 15ml sugar syrup, 2 dashes of orange bitter, and 45ml of boiling water with a twist of orange. You gently heat the gin, syrup, and bitters in a saucepan, add the boiling water, and serve it in a heat-proof serving container like a teacup or a tankard, with an orange twist as garnish.
9. Christmas Negroni
If you like gin-based Christmas cocktails that challenge you to take your drink-making skills to the next level, we highly recommend the Christmas Negroni. It’s rather simple to pull off but does require a bit of effort beforehand.
To make it, you first need to infuse gin with baking spices for up to three days. Once this is done, it’s as simple as adding Campari, Cinzano Vermouth Rosso, and garnishing it with orange peel, a cinnamon stick, and star anise. Pretty and festive!
10. Gibson Martini
Arguably one of the most discussed cocktails of the last year or so thanks to its appearance in The Queen’s Gambit as Beth Harmon’s drink of choice, the Gibson Martini combines gin, Cinzano Vermouth Bianco, and ice. Strained and served in a chilled martini glass and garnished with a pickled cocktail onion, this drink is about as classic as it gets.
11. Winter Mimosa
The best Christmas gin cocktails are often a festive riff on much-loved drinks, and this is indeed the case with the Winter Mimosa. To usher it into the holiday space, the classic orange juice-and-prosecco recipe is given a bit of an upgrade.
It combines 60ml gin, 120ml blood orange syrup, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice, which is shaken up, poured into a Champagne flute or tumbler, charged with Prosecco, and garnished with sliced blood oranges.
12. Hot Toddy
The Hot Toddy has been around in some shape or form for centuries. It’s completely soothing, and a drink that can also be customised to feature your favourite base spirit and steeping ingredients. We like to make it using Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, fresh lemon juice, brown sugar, cloves, and sliced lemon.
More cosiness this way: 13 of the Best Warm Winter Cocktails to Stave Off the Cold This Season
13. Cranberry Martini
The standard recipe for a Cranberry Martini calls for vodka, but we also like to shake things up by switching the base spirit to gin. This, combined with Grand Marnier, lemon juice, and sugar syrup, makes a very twinkly drink that’s great to share with loved ones over the festive season.
