Make Festive Cocktail Swizzle Sticks

New Year’s Eve is upon us and it’s time to close the year with friends and festivities.  Cocktails (and “mocktails”– drinks without alcohol) are a popular addition to New Year’s Eve celebrations.  For those who celebrate with cocktails, swizzle sticks are a festive touch for the drinks you are serving.

Cocktail swizzle sticks are used to stir your drink and you can easily make your own. Post Christmas is a perfect time to purchase the materials you need to make these swizzle sticks because all the items are at the lowest cost.  However, chances are you already have the materials on hand.  Before heading out the door to buy any of these materials look over your holiday decorating and wrapping items to see if you can save yourself a trip to the store.

Materials needed to make swizzle sticks:

• Wooden skewers
• Wire cutters
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Sparkly ribbons, gift toppers, thin garlands, miniature ornament-style balls

Directions to make swizzle sticks:

1. Use the wire cutters to trim the skewers to size.  The size will depend on your cocktail glasses.  To figure out the size needed, place a skewer in the glass and then trim the skewer about 1 1/2″ – 2″ above the glass rim.
2. Wrap a small piece of garland around the tip of the skewer.
3. Use a small amount of hot glue to attach the garland to the skewer. This will ensure that the garland does not slip down the skewer into someone’s drink.
4. You can leave the swizzle stick “as is” or you can add a topper.  A topper can be added to the swizzle stick a couple of ways.  You can attach a small gift topper to the tip of the swizzle stick; you can cut a circle out of decorative ribbon and glue that to the tip; or you can remove the wire hanger from the top of an ornament ball and the insert the ball upside side down onto the stick.
5. No matter how you design your swizzle sticks make sure you use a small amount of hot glue to hold decorations in place.

   

Simply add the swizzle stick to your drinks as you serve them.  Remember, with any celebration involving alcohol, make sure your friends have sober designated drivers or a safe way to get back home.  Have a safe and happy new year!