Extremely Happy Holidays: Wildly Creative New Cocktails to Uplift and Enchant Through a Full Year of Holiday Chaos

McEwan, a home bartender and debut author, teams up with his mother, bestselling children’s book author Boynton (Barnyard Dance), to whip up a charmingly silly collection of holiday-themed drinks. The pair take an irreverent tone, never passing up an opportunity for a linguistic or visual pun. The recipes themselves take some entertaining risks: there’s a blue cheese rim on a michelada for Super Bowl Sunday, freeze-dried astronaut ice cream in a New Year’s Day quaff, and jelly beans as a garnish for a tiki cocktail that pays homage to both Easter the holiday and Easter Island. Some of the more theatrical propositions include a tiered red, white, and blue slushy of frozen negroni, margarita, and mai tai for July 4; and a Halloween drink finished with an orange peel garnish in the shape of a jack-o’-lantern and a rum flight that gets set on fire. For the less daring, there’s a straightforward jalapeño-infused margarita to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and a Mother’s Day play on a whiskey sour inspired by the flavors of breakfast in bed, with Earl Grey honey, grapefruit juice, and sausage-washed bourbon. Every recipe is followed by a zero ABV version. Festive, fun, and fanciful, this will make a great gift. (Oct.)