Cranberry Christmas Morning Mimosas

Last updated October 5, 2021. Published January 1, 2018.

These simple Cranberry Mimosas are a delicious, low-key cocktail to celebrate the holidays with. Sweet and tart cranberry is the perfect counterpoint to dry sparkling wine, and a pop of lime oils ties everything together with its bright, citrusy flavor.

The difference between a Mimosa and Buck’s Fizz

The Mimosa is a classic two-ingredient cocktail that’s made with dry sparkling wine and orange juice. This refreshing mix was first created in the 1920s, most likely at a London restaurant called Buck’s Club.

The drink was known as a Buck’s Fizz, and it was a blend of roughly two parts champagne to one part orange juice. A few years later, the Mimosa was invented in Paris, France.

While the two drinks were very similar, the Mimosa was made with a slightly lighter ratio of equal parts champagne and orange juice. And if you’re wondering, the Bellini is a similar, Italian cocktail that’s made with a mix of sparkling wine (typically prosecco) and peach puree.

When to serve these bubbly brunch cocktails

Today, the Mimosa has become the better known of the two orange juice and champagne cocktails, being served at brunches and at special occasions the whole world over. This incredibly simple drink is festive, effervescent, and very easy to customize depending on the season or holiday.

While the classic Mimosa is made with freshly squeezed orange juice, variations can be made with just about any sweet and tart fruit juice. The Mimosa template works with grapefruit juice, mandarin orange juice, blood orange juice, citrus juice blends, lemonade, and even other juices like cranberry or apple cider!

As long as the juice component is both sweet and sour, and the sparkling wine is dry, the drink will be balanced and refreshing.

Mimosas are a fairly low-abv cocktail and they’re one of the few alcoholic drinks that are classically served in the morning. When made with orange juice, the Mimosa is best enjoyed before mid-afternoon. Think fancy breakfasts, brunch, or early celebrations like morning weddings or bridal showers.

If using lemonade, cranberry, apple, pomegranate, pineapple, or other juices, this cocktail transitions more easily into the late afternoon. But if hosting an event that carries on to happy hour or into the evening, switch to serving glasses of bubbly as is, or more sophisticated sparkling wine cocktails such as the French 75, classic Champagne Cocktail, or the bittersweet Negroni Sbagliato.

What you’ll need to make it

• Cranberry juice
• Dry sparkling wine
• Lime or orange peel, for garnish
• Fresh or frozen cranberries, for garnish (optional)

What kind of cranberry juice to use

I recommend using a sweetened cranberry juice cocktail. I like to use Ocean Spray’s 100% juice Cranberry for this recipe. You want a juice that has a strong cranberry flavor and is both sweet and tart. Pure, unsweetened cranberry juice is super sour, so you could use it here, but the recipe will need to be modified and a sweetener added.

If you want to use unsweetened cranberry juice, try mixing just one ounce (two tablespoons) cranberry and use freshly squeezed orange or grapefruit for the rest of the juice component. This will still give the drink the festive cranberry flavor, but without the overly sour, astringent bite. You can also add a splash of simple syrup if the drink is still too tart.

Sparkling wine options

Although a traditional Mimosa is made with champagne, it’s not a requirement for this recipe. In fact, other dry sparkling wines that are less expensive are the best option.

Think prosecco, like LaMarca or Mionetto, or cava, like Freixenet. Just be sure that you’re using a dry wine and not a sweet one. A Mimosa made with sweet sparkling wine will lean too sweet overall and not taste very balanced.

How to garnish a Mimosa

Before serving your holiday Mimosas, express the peel of a lime or orange over the surface of the drink and then run the peel along the lip of the glass. This seemingly small touch adds a ton of zesty citrus flavor to the drink, so don’t skip it! Citrus peel oils offset the sweet flavors in cocktails, making them taste even better and more harmonious.

Learn all the garnish basics in How to Garnish Cocktails (for Beginners).

After you’ve expressed your citrus peel, you can drop it in the glass, adorn the rim of the glass, or discard it. You can also garnish each glass with a fresh or frozen cranberry, an orange slice, even a sprig of fresh rosemary or mint! Your garnish will add visual appeal as well as aromatics, enhancing and elevating an otherwise simple cocktail.

Choose the right glassware

A Mimosa should always be served in a champagne flute, and it should be chilled in advance if possible. If serving a group, make sure that you know the volume of your glasses ahead of time so that you know how much sparkling wine to buy!

The size of champagne flutes can vary, but most hold between 6 and 8 ounces. A standard serving of champagne is 4 ounces, which fills most glasses about half way. For a Mimosa, you’ll fill the glass half way with juice, then top with bubbly. A typical serving is 3-4 ounces of juice to 3-4 ounces of sparkling wine.

Mimosa variations and how to make a Mimosa Mocktail

This simple drink is so easy to riff on and make it your own. You can create your own blend of juices such as the Sea Breeze-inspired cranberry and grapefruit, or the wintery blood orange and pomegranate! With a few tweaks, you can make an elevated Mimosa at home that’s uniquely delicious and perfect for your family’s celebrations.

To make a non-alcoholic Mimosa, don’t just water down your cranberry or orange juice with seltzer! Instead, substitute the wine with a premium booze-free mixer that’s made for celebrating, like Töst, or a high quality, low sugar soda like Fever-Tree Ginger Ale. Cranberry and ginger is a great holiday combination. 

Sparkling cranberry juice or sparkling apple cider are other great options, but they tend to be very sweet, so you may need to do some tweaking, like adding a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice.

How to make a Christmas morning Mimosa bar

It’s easy to set up a fun holiday Mimosa bar for Christmas morning! And the best part is that the buffet-style of serving means less work for the host, and more time for everyone to relax and celebrate together.

1. Choose an area with plenty of counter space to set up your Mimosa bar. You’ll set out glasses, juices, wines, and garnishes in that order. You’ll need three serving platters and an ice bucket.
2. Depending on the size of your group, select 3 to 6 fresh juice options and pour each into carafes. Set out your champagne flutes on a platter to the left, and place your carafes of chilled juices on a large platter just to their right.
3. Next to your juices, place a large ice bucket. Fill the bucket with plenty of ice, open your sparkling wines, and sit the bottles in the bucket to keep them cold.
4. Finally, place your third serving platter to the right of the wines. Here you can arrange various garnishes, from citrus twists to berries and herbs.

Tip: include the whole family in the fun by adding non-alcoholic mixers and stemless flutes or plastic flutes. Kids have a ton of fun making their own juice blend which can be topped with ginger ale and garnished with a skewer of fresh fruit.

You may also enjoy my Cranberry Campari Spritzes, Christmas Margaritas, Winter White Cosmopolitan, or Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas) Tiki Cocktail.