Name: Spiced Cranberry Mimosa for Christmas Morning
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups cranberry cocktail juice; 2 cinnamon sticks; 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar; ½ teaspoon freshly grated orange zest; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (preferably freshly grated); ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger; Pinch of ground cloves; 1 Champagne bottle

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Pop the bubbly and sip on this spiced cranberry mimosa for Christmas morning! The holidays are here, and we need a jolly mimosa to celebrate in style. With its vibrant hue and bundle of holiday flavors, this cranberry-spice Christmas mimosa is the perfect cocktail for a festive brunch.

Two cranberry-spice Christmas mimosas with a bottle of Champagne in the background with lights and fresh cranberries.

Straight cranberry or pomegranate mimosas are always popular during the holidays. While both plain juices make for a tasty mimosa, we can make a cranberry or pomegranate mimosa any time of year. The holidays call for an extra special sipper that’s unlike any mimosa you’ve ever tried.

My secret to upping your Christmas mimosa game? Add warm spices and fresh orange zest and you instantly taste an explosion of holiday flavors.

A close-up view of the top of a Christmas mimosa with lights in the background.

Ingredients

And now to gather our ingredients for the perfect holiday mimosa, so we can start celebrating ASAP. Here’s everything we need.

Cranberry juice
Dark brown sugar
Cinnamon sticks
Nutmeg
Cloves
Ginger
Fresh orange zest

For the cranberry juice, I used the cranberry cocktail variety rather than 100 percent pure cranberry juice. Think Ocean Spray or something like that.

Two cranberry-spice Christmas mimosas with pine needles and cranberries.

Best Wine for Mimosas

Please don’t feel like you need to get overly fancy here with pricey Champagne. In fact, I advise against it. The good stuff is meant for sipping unadorned. A $10 bottle of Champagne works perfectly.

As far as wine varieties, go with something dry. I typically use a brut Champagne, though you can’t go wrong with a prosecco and cava either. Just avoid the sweet sparkling wines and you’re good to go.

How to Make

To get those festive flavors, we create an infused cranberry juice. This is as simple as adding cranberry juice, orange zest, dark brown sugar and spices to a small saucepan and bringing the mixture to a boil. Once it boils, we turn off the heat, steep the mixture, strain and chill in the refrigerator.

Because this cranberry mixture needs to chill, I recommend making it the night before serving. That way, you don’t have to worry about lukewarm mimosas, and your hosting duties will be a breeze. How’s that for a win-win?

After chilling, we simply pour our Champagne into flutes and top with our spiced cranberry juice, clink and sip away.

Related: For more Christmas cocktails, try my peppermint-chocolate martini, cranberry bourbon smash and cranberry old fashioned.

Looking down into a Christmas mimosa with lights in the background.

Can You Serve at Night?

Totally! Honestly, I served this cranberry-spice Christmas mimosa for some friends at our annual “Elf” watch party, and everyone gushed over them.

If you feel weird about serving mimosas for an evening holiday party, you can always rebrand them and call them cranberry-spice holiday sparklers or something like that.

These Christmas mimosas were such a hit that I plan on bringing them back for our New Year’s Eve party. For someone who loves to constantly try new recipes, you know it’s a seriously delicious cocktail when I plan on serving it back to back like that.

Looking straight onto two cranberry-spice mimosas with a bottle of Champagne.

Can You Make Nonalcoholic Mimosas?

Absolutely! Simply substitute your favorite fizzy drink for the Champagne.

Ginger ale is a delicious option, and you can even pick up a cranberry version this time of year. A lemon-lime soda also works. Sprite recently released a spiced cranberry variety that would be perfect, though the traditional soda is also tasty. Of course, your favorite sparkling seltzer water or club soda both work well.

A close-up view of a cranberry-spice Christmas mimosa with lights in the background.

Best Glassware

Champagne flutes are the obvious choice. That slender shape maintains those fizzy bubbles we all love. Besides, sipping out of Champagne flutes always makes me feel extra fancy. ?

However, if you don’t have Champagne flutes, you can always use white wine glasses.

Perfect Pairing

You need my gingerbread waffles with this festive mimosa. The spices all play perfectly together while the acidity from the cranberry and bubbles keep your palate refreshed from those rich waffles and syrup.

To help celebrate the holidays, I hope you try this spiced cranberry mimosa. I have no doubt it will become your new favorite cocktail for Christmas morning.

Cheers!

Two Christmas mimosas with pine leaves and fresh cranberries and fake snow.

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