The gold standard for party success

For those of us who don’t have working fireplaces, the punch bowl is the friendly center of the holiday party. Here happy – and happier and happier – guests cluster while sipping festively colored punch from cute little cups, discussing the events of the day and generally getting acquainted before they eventually, and inevitably, hijack the iPod to play I Want Your Sex on an endless loop while groping their new found friends. Nothing spells party success like guests dancing on the table, vomiting into the rubber plant or warbling along with George Michael into the half-peeled cucumber ends they fished out of the garbage can. And for that, there’s nothing like a quart or so of inhibition-busting rocket fuel in the form of fruit-flavored strong drink freely ladled from a large bowl.

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