Getting Your Jingle On – The Safe Way

My family isn’t too far away, so when we can get together for Christmas, it’s a wonderful thing. When we can’t, and we must put off until January… well, that’s okay too. We’re not sticklers for the actual dates of the celebrations. What counts is that we celebrate together.

Fortunately, where we live, we’ve fashioned a family-like tribe of people, with whom we celebrate, via afternoon open houses, or evening soirees. Or dreidel-spinning fun times. More than anything? I love a party.

The thing is, at many of our get-togethers, the invitees live but a few houses away – no one is getting behind the wheel of a car to drive home. I like to keep tabs during the evening of the ones who do need to get home at the end of the night – the people I know tend to keep their liquor consumption tres light if they’ve brought their cars to my house – but if the music is bumpin’, and people are dancing and having a good time, gets harder to keep track of how people are faring, when it comes to over indulging.

Next thing you know, everything around you begins to look and feel a bit like this:

And that’s not the feeling you need to have as a host, nor as a guest.

LCBO’s Deflate The Elephant is a great resource for responsible hosting, especially during the busy holiday season.

The site has all kinds of tips and ideas on how to help indulge responsibly your party guests and get themselves home safely.

For instance, one tip is to include lots of non-alcoholic beverages to serve all guests, not just the teetotallers and the designated drivers at your house. Besides ensuring there are enough drinks like sodas, juices, and water on hand, it’s a good idea to also offer a mocktail.

This is definitely a good way to go. Especially if your party is mostly adult. But, if you have a family-inspired gathering, with kids of all ages, it’s nice to offer the same thing to all. Which brings me to punch. (No, not your guests.) I mean, serve one as an option, and make it really fizzy, which feels festive and all, I can totally wet my face holding it over this cup! Good times.

An easy one to remember is made of equal parts cranberry cocktail, orange juice, and ginger ale. Or, mix half a litre of raspberry sorbet, a litre of pineapple juice, and two litres of ginger ale and/or soda. Throw some thinly sliced lemon rounds in it all, and you’ve got yourself a special party beverage. Go here for some choice non-alcoholic drink ideas. Punch is tres sweet, so make sure your punchbowl is filled with lots of ice for dilution.

For a special touch, make this ice in advance: boil a kettle of water and once cooled, pour ice-cube trays till about a third of the way, drop in a raspberry, or a cranberry, or a curl of lemon rind, and freeze. When solid, top up with your previously boiled water. What you should have in the end, are quite clear cubes of ice, with a festive little doo-dad in the middle. But you’ll need lots of them… so get cracking ahead of time.* (Boiling the water first will eliminate a lot of air bubbles, which makes the cubes cloudy. And cranberries are your least expensive and least labour-intensive additive for this project.)

Holiday parties are all about seeing the faces of people you care about. Spirits are usually high, and people are in the mood for spreading the good cheer. You want to see your friends and family live to see another day. The tagline of Deflate the Elephant is Drinking and driving should never be the elephant in the room. Speak up. You could save a life. Make sure your friends get home safely – it’s part of being a good host or hostess.

Enjoy the holiday season, people! It comes but once a year… be safe, and have fun!!

*Though pretty to look at, no cares about whether your ice cubes are glamourous or not – go buy a bag of ice from the store. Just put lots in the punch. And if you don’t have a punch bowl, just put it in a pitcher. Voila – non-alcoholic deliciousness for your friends who are staying straight for the evening. Do it.

This post was supported by the LCBO’s Deflate the Elephant Campaign. All opinions and experiences are my own.