Skip The Milk And Pair Your Cookies With A Festive Martini This Holiday Season

Milk and cookies are a tired pairing. Martinis and cookies are not. The holiday season is rooted in routine: listening to the same songs, adorning a tree with the same beloved ornaments, watching the same festive movies. While traditions have their charm, a minor switch-up is all you need to reinvigorate a time defined by convention and custom. Yes, milk and cookies are a godsend — the two consumed together seem to manifest holiday magic in a snack-beverage pairing. But, if you feel like a change, why not try dunking your cookies in something cold, creamy, and boozy instead? A Snickerdoodle Martini is a perfect 21-and-up accompaniment to Christmas cookies.

To make this cocktail, begin by decorating a martini glass with a tasty rim. Dip the glass in caramel syrup or melted caramel, and then dust the rim with cinnamon sugar. Pour a ½ cup of heavy cream into a cocktail shaker over ice. Top the cream with a shot of caramel-flavored vodka (if you don't have caramel vodka at the ready, add about an ounce of caramel syrup to the mix). Sprinkle in a dash of cinnamon, and shake your cocktail until the entire shaker is cold with condensation. Strain the shaken cocktail into your garnished martini glass. Top it off with a dollop of whipped cream and a cinnamon stick or a dash of cinnamon powder.

To double down on the booze in the Snickerdoodle Martini, you can either entirely replace the heavy cream with Baileys Irish Cream or use a combination of the two. If you're looking to incorporate some more festive flavors to your cookies-and-cocktail tray, you can also use eggnog as a base to craft a range of holiday beverages. Eggnog (make it at home or get the store-bought kind) can play a starring role in creamy peppermint cocktails, Eggnog Old Fashioneds, or an Eggnog Latte Martini (a festive twist on the espresso martini). The beauty of eggnog cocktails lies in their simplicity. Because the seasonal beverage is already jam-packed with an interesting texture and layers of flavor, simply adding a few spirits to it results in a beautiful, rich quaff.

You don't have to keep these festive cocktails to yourself — leave one out for Santa along with these other treats. Doing all of his work for the year in one night, we think the guy deserves some more filling snacks and a subtle buzz.