This Christmas punch is a blend of pomegranate, lime and cranberry, all mixed together into a fizzy beverage that’s perfect for any holiday party. A festive and refreshing drink that can easily be turned into a cocktail for the adults!
I like to serve some fun drinks when I entertaining during the holidays – for a hot drink, I opt for slow cooker apple cider or homemade hot chocolate. For a cold drink, I serve this easy Christmas punch, and it always gets rave reviews. If you’re entertaining adults, don’t forget to also offer some festive Jello shots!
Every holiday party could benefit from some seasonal drink offerings! This super simple Christmas punch is cheery, refreshing and the perfect balance of sweet and tart. It takes about 5 minutes to put together and looks so pretty on your table.
Move over eggnog, this punch is one of my favorite drink recipes for Christmas parties. While you enjoy this cool beverage, why not snack on some appetizers like cheese ball bites, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers or pigs in a blanket.
Table of Contents
Christmas Punch Ingredients
To make Christmas punch, make sure you have pomegranate-cranberry juice, frozen limeade concentrate, lime flavored sparkling water, fresh cranberries, lime slices and mint sprigs.
How Do You Make Christmas Punch?
To make this Christmas punch recipe, first place the pomegranate-cranberry juice in a large pitcher along with a can of frozen limeade concentrate. Stir the mixture until well combined. Pour in some sparkling water and stir. Garnish the pitcher with sliced limes, fresh cranberries and mint. Serve right away, or refrigerate for later use.
Tips For The Perfect Drink
- I use a pomegranate-cranberry juice blend. This drink contains sugar and other fruit juices which makes it sweet and pleasant to drink. Do not try to use plain unsweetened cranberry or pomegranate juices, they’ll be much too tart.
- I use a lime flavored sparkling water with no added sugar.
- You can serve this drink either in a pitcher, drink dispenser or a punch bowl, whichever is more convenient.
- Freeze your cranberries before you add them to the drink. They will serve as ice cubes – the drink will stay cold but won’t get watered down! You can also make ice cubes with cranberries or lime wedges in them, or even a festive ice ring if you’re using a punch bowl.
- You can double this recipe to make a big-batch of punch for all your guests. Just make sure you have a big container. You can also make multiple batches during the holiday season.
Quick Tip
Can’t find a pomegranate-cranberry juice blend? Try a cranberry juice cocktail instead.
Recipe FAQs
Christmas punch is typically made with a blend of fruit juice, citrus and a sparkling drink. Champagne or liquor can also be added for an alcoholic offering.
This drink is best served right after it’s made, as the carbonated water will start to go flat within a few hours of being added to the punch. Luckily this punch takes just minutes to make, so it’s easy to whip up at the last second. If you run out of time, you can mix the pomegranate-cranberry juice and limeade together up to 8 hours in advance. Store the mixture in the fridge, and add the sparkling water at the last minute.
The top contenders for the most Christmassy drink are eggnog, apple cider, hot chocolate and cool and refreshing Christmas punch. When you try this punch, you may have a new favorite.
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Flavor Variations
This non-alcoholic Christmas punch is light and refreshing as-is; however, you can modify this holiday punch recipe to suit your own taste:
- Sparkling Water: Instead of lime flavored sparking water you could use plain sparkling water, or the lemon or orange flavors. My store even has a seasonal cranberry orange flavor which would be delicious!
- Garnish: Fresh pomegranate seeds make a nice garnish if cranberries aren’t available. You could also use blackberries or cherries.
- Orange: You could make an orange version of this drink with orange juice concentrate instead of lime juice concentrate and a few orange slices.
- Spiced: Try a winter spice version of this punch by adding a half teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a quarter teaspoon of allspice and a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves.
- Sweeter: If you want a sweeter taste you can add a little ginger ale, lemon-lime soda, white grape juice or pineapple juice to the holiday punch.
AlcoholIc Christmas Punch
You can turn this Christmas punch into an alcoholic beverage with the addition of any of the following
- Champagne (add 2 cups)
- Prosecco (add 2 cups)
- Red Wine (add 2 cups)
- Rum (add 1 cup)
- Brandy (add 1 cup)
- Vodka (add 1 cup)
I’ve listed my recommended alcohol amounts above, but you can always add a bit more for a stronger drink.
I make Christmas punch for every winter gathering, and I always make a big pitcher of it on Christmas Day for everyone to enjoy while we’re relaxing around the house. It’s pleasantly sweet, but not overly so, and you can never go wrong with a little bit of fizz!
More Holiday Entertaining Recipes
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Stained Glass Cookies
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Christmas Punch Video
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Christmas Punch
Ingredients
- 6 cups pomegranate-cranberry juice
- 1 can frozen limeade concentrate
- 6 cups lime flavored sparkling water
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 2 limes sliced
- 4 sprigs mint
- Optional addition: rum, champagne or vodka in quantity of your choice.
Instructions
- Place the pomegranate-cranberry juice and limeade concentrate in a pitcher. Stir until combined.
- Add the sparkling water and stir until well combined.
- Garnish with cranberries, limes and mint, then serve.
Notes
- I use a pomegranate-cranberry juice blend. This drink contains sugar and other fruit juices which makes it sweet and pleasant to drink. Do not try to use plain unsweetened cranberry or pomegranate juices, they’ll be much too tart.
- Can’t find a pomegranate-cranberry juice blend? Try a cranberry juice cocktail instead.
- Use a lime flavored sparkling water with no added sugar.
You mention using in a drink dispenser. Do you have a breakdown for a large dispenser (would love this at my winter wedding reception with 80guests)
I recommend buying one on amazon, they have a lot of different styles and sizes.
Could this be made with Gin?
Yes that should be fine!
What size can of limeade, please. 😊
12 ounce!
Does the recipe call for a 6 oz or 12 oz can of frozen limeade? I want to make it for Christmas. It sounds delicious!
The best holiday punch I’ve made. I added asti Spumante & cranberry vodka. I didn’t have mint so I left that out. So good that I’m making it again Christmas Day. Thank you!
Very festive and refreshing. Like the that you use limes with the cranberries. I can see needing to make several batches of this at my Holiday party.
This is great! I love making holiday sangria, but the kiddos always feel left out. This is such a nice option for kids and those who don’t want alcohol!
Ups! I had to try it out before Xmas to decide if I was making it part of the menu, and the answer is a big YES! It was so good!
This always comes out when we have guests over Christmas. It goes down very well.
This recipe is easy, festive and so pretty! Almost too pretty to drink – almost 😉
Last Christmas season, I made this for my mother in laws birthday as a taste test for our annual Flannels and Favorites Christmas party. It passed with flying colors and, after our Christmas party, I had over 40 people message me for the recipe. It’s been requested by everyone since. We have our Christmas party this Saturday, but I’ve already made this twice since the middle of November. It’s now a staple for any cool-weather holiday gatherings we have. This year I’ve not been able to find sparkling lime, but our Kroger had a sparkling cranberry-lime, and it tasted just as good! I also used cranberry flavored vodka from the first time I made it. Only once have I made it with regular vodka, and my friends & family say the cranberry vodka makes it go from a 10 to a 20 on a scale of 1-10!
Basically, I just wanted to come and let you know that this recipe is my favorite drink recipe I’ve ever found. I use it constantly and wanted to give you a huge shout out for it! Merry Christmas! ☺️
Can I ask how many cups of cranberry vodka you added? Thanks!
Can I add vodka and champagne? 1/2 quantities of each maybe?
Yes that works!
I will be trying this for the holidays this year thanks
What would you suggest for a lunch bowl and ice ring? Place the fruit and leaves in the ring or nothing in bowl or some in ice and some Olin bowl.
that all would work well!
I don’t like sparkling water.. could I use Sprite instead? would the limeade mess that up though if i did??
You can use sprite the drink will just be sweeter!
About how much of the spiced rum would you add?
I’d start with one cup, then taste it and see if you need to make it stronger for your personal preference!
How much champagne would you add ?
2 cups!
I did spike it with vodka! Wow is this a great recipe!
If you are adding alcohol, do you leave out the sparkling water?
You would still use the sparkling water!
Will lime flavored tonic water suffice,or one of those fancy flavored waters?
Tonic water tends to be more bitter, so I’m not sure how it would work in this recipe! I just use bottled lime sparkling water, it’s about $1 a bottle. Hope this helps.
Is the sparkling lime water the sweetened or unsweetened ? Thanks!
Unsweetened water!