Three easy Christmas cocktails

If you have tiresome relatives around making a nuisance of themselves give them a job to do and let them run up one of these simple cocktails:

Santa Fizz
A festive spin on Buck's Fizz
Makes 6-8 glasses
1 well chilled bottle of Cava or other inexpensive sparkling wine
1 well-chilled carton of blood orange juice
Pour the blood orange juice just over a third of the way up each glass and slowly top up with the fizz
* if the blood orange juice is very sweet you might also want a few drops of lemon juice

Pere Noel
A simple party punch
Makes two large jugs - about 14 glasses
A bottle of Dubonnet
A carton of cranberry juice
Strained juice of a freshly squeezed lemon
2 bottles of Cava or other inexpensive sparkling wine
Chill all the ingredients well. Fill a large jug a quarter full with Dubonnet, add another quarter of cranberry juice and a good dash of lemon juice and slowly top up with Cava.

Christmas Martini
A great looking blood red martini.
Makes 2/3 glasses
3 shots (90ml/6 tbsp) vodka
1 shot (30ml/2 tbsp) cherry brandy, preferably Cherry Heering
4 shots (120ml/8 tbsp) chilled cranberry juice
A few fresh cranberries (optional)
Fill a large cocktail shaker full of ice. Pour in the vodka, cherry brandy and cranberry juice and shake well. Strain into chilled or frosted martini glasses. Float a couple of fresh cranberries on top if you have some

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