Cranberry Mimosas (Poinsettia Cocktails) for Christmas

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With its vibrant color, this cranberry mimosa recipe is the perfect holiday cocktail for all your festivities from Thanksgiving dinner to Christmas brunch to ringing in the New Year.

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Ingredients
How to Make a Cranberry Mimosa
The Garnish is Everything
Make it a Poinsettia Cocktail
How to Create a Batch of Cranberry Mimosas
Recipe Tips
Looking for more Sparkling Cocktail Recipes?
FAQs and Substitutions
More Delicious Recipes You’ll Love
Print the Recipe Card

Nothing spreads holiday cheer like a Christmas mimosa! It’s a Christmas morning tradition in our house to have a bubbly drink with breakfast, and these festive cranberry mimosas are a perfect cocktail choice. They’re slightly tart, making them great to pair with a savory brunch menu.

Champagne cocktails are a great way to celebrate the holiday season and delicious mimosas are a super easy cocktail recipe. All you need for this drink are two simple ingredients - cranberry juice and a bottle of champagne!

Ingredients

Prosecco or champagne - Opt for a dry or semi-dry sparking wine. Skip the mascato or spumante.
Cranberry juice - Choose 100% juice for these cocktails, not cranberry juice cocktail that has extra sugar in it.
Fresh cranberries (garnish) - Fresh or frozen cranberries work well for garnishing this drink.
Fresh rosemary (garnish) - Rosemary pairs well with the cranberries for a super festive garnish.
White sugar sprinkles (garnish) - I used these white sugar sprinkles on the rims of the glasses in these photos. If you can't find these, you can use any kind of decorating sugar you like or traditional white sugar.

How to Make a Cranberry Mimosa

Dip the top of your champagne flute into a few tablespoons of water in a shallow dish.

Dip the glass rim directly into a shallow dish of white sugar sprinkles. Set aside.

A hand dipping a champagne flute into a dish of decorating sugar.

Pour cranberry juice into a champagne flute or coupe glass.

Cranberry juice bring poured in to a champagne flute.

Top with prosecco, champagne or other dry sparkling wine.

A bottle pouring prosecco into a champagne glass.

Garnish with fresh cranberries, sprigs of rosemary, and/or white sugar sprinkle rim.

A hand placing a piece of rosemary garnish into a Cranberry mimosa.

Enjoy!

The Garnish is Everything

This is a super simple, two ingredient recipe so spend some effort on the garnish! Add whole cranberries and top with a sprig of fresh rosemary.

You can also dip the rim of your champagne flutes in a little water, then in sparkly white sugar sprinkles for an extra festive touch. Sipping through the sugar will help balance out the tart cranberry juice for those who like a sweeter sip.

Note: I love the Wilton white sugar sprinkles that I used in these photos. It’s so sparkly and has granules about the size of raw sugar. Look for it in the holiday baking section of your favorite craft store or grocery store.

Make it a Poinsettia Cocktail

As written, these cranberry mimosas are only 1 ingredient away from being a poinsettia cocktail - orange liqueur! Add 0.5 ounces of your favorite orange liqueur (I like Cointreau) along with the cranberry juice when making these mimosas.

Want orange flavor without adding any more liquor to your drink? Make it a Cranberry Orange Mimosa by adding in 0.5 ounces of fresh orange juice or my cranberry orange simple syrup.

Cranberry Orange Syrup — Cranberry Orange Simple Syrup for Cocktails and Mocktails

How to Create a Batch of Cranberry Mimosas

Want to serve these cranberry mimosas at a cocktail bar or in a large amount of guests:

Fill each glass with juice and garnish with cranberries and a sprig of rosemary.
Set the glasses out of a tray or side table, with open bottles of well-chilled prosecco next to them for guests to help themselves.

Recipe Tips

If this drink is too tart for your tastes, add 0.25 ounces of simple syrup to your glass along with the cranberry juice or make it a Poinsettia Cocktail by adding 0.25 oz of orange liqueur.
Change up your glassware! This cocktail should be served in a stemmed glass, but don’t worry if you have more guests than champagne glasses. Coupe glasses or white wine glasses work great for serving this cocktail.
Create a signature drink for your holiday brunch or holiday parties. (Hint: Use this recipe!) Having a signature cocktail lets you serve a festive drink without needing to stock a full bar for your guests.

Looking for more Sparkling Cocktail Recipes?

If you want to offer your guests more than one champagne cocktail option, try a classic French 75 cocktail with gin, simple syrup, and fresh lemon juice. Or a sparkling Strawberry Elderflower cocktail with strawberry syrup and elderflower liqueur.

You can also make these cranberry mimosas part of a larger mimosa bar! Check out my How to Create an Easy Mimosa Bar page for ways to great a fun and engaging mimosa bar for your holiday guests.

Champagne being poured into a glass with juice. — How to set up a Mimosa Bar

FAQs and Substitutions

What kind of sparkling wine should I use?

Look for dry or semi-dry sparkling wine, prosecco, or brut champagne for mimosas.

How can I make this non-alcoholic?

Easy making this recipe into a mocktail by swapping out the sparkling wine for 2 ounces of club soda and 2 ounces of sparkling white grape juice.

What other kinds of juice can I use?

Lots of fruit juices are delicious in mimosas! Besides cranberry juice or orange juice, try pineapple juice, peach nectar, mango nectar, or grapefruit juice. Create an easy mimosa bar by setting out small bottles of each juice alongside well-chilled champagne. Guests will have fun mixing their own mimosa cocktails.

What kind of cranberry juice should I use?

I like 100% pure cranberry juice in this drink, but if you find that too tart, feel free to use Cranberry Juice Cocktail. You could also use a Cranberry Orange juice blend or Cranberry Raspberry blend in this holiday mimosa.

Cranberries being dropped into a glass of cranberry mimosa.

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