Happy almost Christmas Eve!

Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

I’m sharing my last Christmas Drink Saturday post a day early. I wanted to give you guys time to fully prepare and plan for these cocktails tomorrow, because trust me, you NEED them in your life this Christmas Eve.

These are basically a very um, well, naughty Chai tea spiked with a good amount of bourbon, cinnamon, and ginger. This is the perfect nightcap for Santa to warm up to after his very busy night…or for the rest of us “normal” people to drink while relaxing by the tree, sitting by the fire playing board games, or just watching a good Christmas movie with a warm cocktail in hand. Pretty sure the family is already looking forward to this moment.

Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Before I dive into the details of this drink, can we just talk holiday stuff for a quick second. As I’m sitting here writing this post, I realized that we have yet to chat about holiday traditions. I’m a HUGE sucker for traditions and love them all. It would not be Christmas without my cousins here, snow on the ground, lots of cookies, the brothers snowboarding in the backyard (technically my front yard), friends around, chaos galore, Dad being the real life Grinch of the family, gingerbread house making, and plenty of Christmas movies.

We do other things as well, but those up there are guaranteed to happen every year. Our traditions are pretty simple and nothing crazy creative, but they are fun and we love them. That said, I think we could always use some new ideas. I’m dying to know what you guys are going to be up to this holiday weekend? What does your family do? What do you eat? Do you play games? Play in the snow? Go on family hikes? Like what!? Tell me please! My curiosity is killing me. 🙂

Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Alright, so back to Santa’s Nightcap. First of all, how cute is that name? I am in love with it. In fact, I had the name down before I even had the recipe concept down…but that came pretty quickly afterwards. To me, nothing screams more “Santa” like than this nightcap. I feel like it’s full of everything he loves.

Chai tea, milk, cinnamon, ginger, honey, and a good splash of bourbon. I feel like Santa would be a bourbon guy, I mean, right? Seems fitting, not sure why, but it does!

Here is how this nightcap goes down, it’s pretty easy! Just brew up some chai tea, add some milk, honey, fresh cinnamon, ginger and then a little bourbon. Simple as that, but oh so good. I made a pretty giant batch because my family is all about a good nightcap and we have some major Chai and bourbon drinkers in the house at the moment. The great news is that this is perfect to make ahead and keep in the fridge. You can warm it up before drinking or serve it over ice. Either way it’s delicious.

I made a batch on Wednesday and it was gone by the time everyone went to bed. Told you, we have some serious chai and bourbon drinkers in the house…plus there are about twelve people (with more on the way) currently sleeping at my parent’s house, so getting rid of food and cocktails is a pretty easy thing to do right now.

Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

In other, somewhat random news, I’ve started planning out healthy January, I’m kind of excited about it! No boring eats here! In other not so random news, I still have a couple posts I need to get moving on for next week…oooops. What do you guys want to see for New Years?!? Tell me what you’re looking for and I will try to make it!

OK and guys, that’s it from me until after Christmas. No Saturday or Sunday post because tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I am going to be busy making this beef tenderloin, these potatoes, this bread, this cocktail, and my mom’s Death By Chocolate.

What are you guys making?!?

OH and then obviously I will be capping off the night with this nightcap…what do you think my chances are of getting Santa to join the Gerard family for a drink?

Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

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4.49 from 33 votes

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

The Recipe

Santa's Nightcap.

By halfbakedharvest

Course: Drinks
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cocktail

Chai tea, milk, cinnamon, ginger, honey, and a good splash of bourbon. I feel like Santa would be a bourbon guy!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 8
Calories 224 kcal

Ingredients

  • 8 chai tea bags
  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 inch piece of fresh ginger
  • 1 1/2 cups bourbon

Instructions

  1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large pot. Remove from the heat, add the tea bags, cover and let steep for 15-30 minutes. Remove the tea bags and stir in the milk, and honey. Place the pot over medium heat. Add the cinnamon sticks and ginger, cook stirring often until the mixture is steaming. Stir in the bourbon.
  2. Ladle the drink into mugs. Dust with cinnamon if desired. Drink up!
  3. Alternately, you can chill the cocktail and serve cold over ice.
Santa's Nightcap | halfbakedharvest.com @hbharvest

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone! See you next week!

PS. be sure to follow along on Instagram as I will be posting many Insta stories of my family’s Christmas craziness.