This "Red Holiday Party Punch" is brilliantly colored and makes the perfect non-alcoholic drink to begin your holiday gathering.  It is also an excellent compliment to any birthday party. 

For little ones, however, you may want to provide drippless sippy cups, disposable straw cups or serve outside, unless the possibility of having brightly colored, red punch stains on your carpet doesn't bother you.

If you prefer using sippy cups or straw cups, but worry about the colors or artwork not coordinating, you can customize them by doing the following...

• Begin by copying and pasting a photo, picture, stickers or clip art, related to your theme, onto a strip of medium-weight paper, which has been measured to fit around the outside of the cup.  Because most cups are not straight up and down, you will need to overlap the corners toward the bottom of the cup and trim the edges, in order to achieve a tight fit
• Wrap the paper around the outside of the cup
• Use double-stick tape to adhere the paper securely to the surface of the cup
• To help children identify which cup belongs to them, throughout the remainder of the party, you may want to use different colored strips of paper for the background or vary the pictures
• Print out a name label or write out their names on each cup

If you are the type of person who enjoys planning parties and creatively incorporating your food and drinks into your theme and/or printed menu, then here are a few ideas to get your brainstorming started...

• "Blood Red Punch"... for a Scary Halloween Party
• "Twilight Red Rose Punch"... for a "Twilight" Themed Party
• "Ruby Red Passion Punch"... for a Valentine's Party
• "Clifford's 'Ruff' Red Punch"... for a "Clifford The Big Red Dog" Birthday Party
• "Lightening Red Racing Punch"... for a "Cars" Birthday Party

These are just a few suggestions, but I think you get the idea, right?  Just take your punch and add a name to it.  It always makes everything seem a little more fun and festive for the smaller children, during a party, if you bring the party "to life", somewhat. 
 


                                               
                                                                            Courtesy of Flickr.com

PUNCH INGREDIENTS

1-package cherry flavored Kool-Aid
1-cup granulated sugar
1-large bottle ginger ale
1/2-large bottle cran-raspberry juice
1/2-large can pineapple juice

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PUNCH DIRECTIONS

Mix all ingredients together and chill in refrigerator until ready to use.  Serve cold or over ice.

Note:  If you desire a darker shade of red, simply add a few drops of red food coloring.