Boozy Christmas Traditions From Around The World

As a holiday celebrated by varied diverse peoples all over the world, Christmas has a frankly absurd amount of traditions and rituals associated with it. Luckily, a great many of them involve socially acceptable drinking, adapting from centuries of having to spend time with extended family.

Let’s take a look at some boozy Christmas traditions that are all about getting drunk on Jesus’ birthday.

Make Hot Wine Punch with a Flaming Hunk of Sugar on Top (Feuerzangenbowle – Germany)

As an advocate for both punch bowl drinks and hot spiced winter cocktails, this first one is right up my alley.

Feuerzangenbowle (“fire-tongs punch” in German) starts as a fairly basic mulled wine. Wine and spices are warmed up in a large glorified fondue pot. You could stop there and have a delicious holiday beverage, but Feuerzangenbowlers know a better way.

They then soak a 9oz brick of sugar in high-proof rum, set it on a metal tray that sits over the punch bowl (originally tongs were used, hence the name), and then they set that rummy sugar ablaze.

Set that rummy sugar ablaze

The fire melts and caramelizes the sugar, which then drips down sweetening the punch and adding more depth of flavor.

The Feuerzangenbowle has cult status in Germany, especially on college campuses, due to a 1944 comedy film of the same name. The film and cocktail are part of an interactive audience experience that has the participation of a Rocky Horror Picture screening mixed with the cult cocktail drinking of The Big Lebowski.

Read more about Feuerzangenbowle here

Get Santa Drunk (various)

Kids all over the world leave little snacks and treats out for Santa in the panicked hopes that a last-minute bribe will push them over into the really good present category.

What kids leave out varies depends on where you are in the world, as local customs, foods, and traditions dictate. For many kids, they hope that getting Santa tipsy will put him in the good spirits needed to maybe leave a couple of extra presents behind.

Beer is a fairly common Santa gift. Irish children will leave Guinness (no surprise there, the Irish try to get all their good bribing done with Guinness). In Australia Christmas takes place during the summer, so a large cold beer is left for the Jolly Elf. And while it’s not Santa, Scandanavian children need to worry about bribing a mischievous Christmas goblin, Nisse, with a jug of beer.

British children will take it a step farther and leave something higher octane in the form of a glass of brandy or sherry, and Italian children will, of course, leave wine.

Make Hibiscus Tea and Add Some Razzle Dazzle (Sorrel, Caribbean)

Made from the Roselle Hibiscus (known as sorrel in the Caribbean, not to be confused with the herb sorrel), this Hibiscus tea is served in the Caribbean all year round, but around Christmas more ‘wintery’ spices such as clove and cinnamon are used instead of the year-round ginger-spiced variety.

While Sorrel is served as a refreshing soft drink just as much as it is a spiked cocktail, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t spike their holiday drinks with booze. I’m therefore assuming the spiked version becomes much more popular around Christmas. The Jamaicans especially seem to like to put some rum in their holiday Sorrel.

The bright crimson red color of the drink adds extra festiveness. The mix of spices and the bright citrus of the hibiscus meld in a drink that evokes a Christmas in the tropics.

You can find a recipe for Sorrel here https://www.uncommoncaribbean.com/caribbean/sorrel/ and be sure to check out my recipe for a Hibiscus Mojito.

Read more about Sorrel here: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/12/23/678201636/sorrel-the-ruby-red-caribbean-christmas-drink-flavored-with-black-history

Soak Toast in Cider and Hang It In Trees (Wassailing, England)

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a bunch of boozy bread hanging from a tree.

Is how it should go, according to the cider-producing regions of England. Cider in this case being the fermented variety commonly called “hard” cider in the United States.

Twelfth Night is the holiday traditionally celebrated as the end to the “12 days of Christmas” season and is the traditional time for Wassailing. The term “wassailing” has different connotations depending on where you are. The most famous is the “going door to door and bothering your neighbor for booze” variation celebrated in the famous Christmas Carol.

But the more interesting one has cider-producers performing an elaborate ceremony out in the orchards to appeal to the tree spirits. Toast is soaked in the cider made from the previous year’s harvest and hung in the trees.

The toast is either to appeal directly to the tree spirit or to appeal to the orchard’s birds, which are seen as a kind of protector spirit. The idea of an orchard full of birds all drunk off a feast of boozy bread sounds horrifying to me, but apparently it goes well.

An orchard full of birds drunk off a feast of boozy bread

Cider is also poured on the roots of the tree to encourage another good harvest. After the ceremony, I heard that the revelers might then drink their own weight in cider, but I can’t really confirm that.