Mom's Holiday Champagne Punch

Vintage pic found on Google

I've made Mom's holiday recipe for a champagne sherbet punch just once before. Mom would make it each December for her annual holiday open house through the late 70s and 80s. She just loved decorating the house for the holidays. As my household was a dual religious home, she would decorate for Christmas for Dad and Hanukkah for herself and us kids.

My family always celebrated both holidays. It was natural in my home! We'd have garland and white and blue lights, a small Christmas tree and our Menorah, stockings hung on the banister and dreidels spinning on the coffee table, candy canes and Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins), sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies and potato latkes. Mom would mix our home-made holiday ornaments with her collection of delicate Scandinavian wooden ornaments. It was a season of celebration and she just reveled in it.

By the way, my friends would always ask if we got gifts on both Hanukkah and Christmas and YES ... we did make out like bandits and got DOUBLE THE GIFTS. #bestofbothworlds #jealousmuch?

People say every thing old becomes new again and after my research on the sherbet punch, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many variations of recipes for it circulating on Google, food websites, and Pinterest. It definitely has a vintage feel to it. I surveyed a bunch of friends and each one had a memory of it being served at any number of holiday parties including birthday and cocktail parties or during Halloween, Christmas, or New Years parties. It's nice to see it has come back.

I think I'll be serving it for my family over Christmas Eve. The nice thing about it is you can make a non-alcoholic version of it and then one with as much Champagne as you want. I will do the latter of course. Use the cheapy sparkling wine though. You don't want to use your Dom Perignon or even Veuve Clicquot for the sherbet punch. LOL


Holiday Champagne Sherbet Punch 



Holiday Orange Champagne Sherbert Punch -Pinterest

by Abby Deeds

-Champagne or a sweet sparking wine (I think we used Cold Duck or Andre, the cheap stuff!)

-Ginger ale 

-Sherbet

Add sherbet last in scoops.

That's it, no more directions. Okaaay. I am kinda guessing my Mom eye-balled it. LOL At the time, Mom would've used a cheap sparkling wine like Andre or Cold Duck. Cold Duck was a sweet red sparkling wine I remember from the 70s. It should be a sweeter sparkling wine though. There is no flavor of sherbet specified but I remember Mom using orange. Hence, the pic to the right for illustrative purposes. :)

Now for those that just cannot stand having a vague recipe based on tasting as you go, here is one for a New Year's Champagne Punch that I found online from Food.com.

Raspberry Champagne Sherbet Punch

Prep time: 10 minutes

Serves: 8

-750 ml bottle of Champagne

-1 quart raspberry sherbet

-2 liters ginger ale

-1 pint thawed frozen raspberries

Mix all except for sherbet, then add it to the top (in scoops).

You could use strawberry sherbet and add strawberries, orange sherbet and add sliced oranges, or make it with rainbow sherbet! Some people add orange juice as well. As I stated before, you can make it non-alcoholic with just ginger ale or Sprite for a sweeter flavor.

Bloggers NOTE:  I did search for some family photos of the holiday open houses that Mom and Dad had but alas, have not found any yet. The pics above are not owned by me and I am using them for purely illustrative purposes.