The only fancy drink my girls have had is The Shirley Temple. They always request it at every special event or holiday. At this point, I should probably consider getting a BYO kit for the cherry red drink, just in case the party host or restaurant doesn’t have Grenadine (it’s happened, and it’s not as good without it). While a Shirley Temple is a great option for Christmas, I wanted to get a little more creative for Thanksgiving and play with some other bubbly and fruit. I personally love champagne with berries, so I just made the kid version to give my girls something just as elegant to toast with.

My middle daughter was having a Thanksgiving feast at school and we were in charge of a fruit salad of assorted berries. I just bought extra of each fruit so I could save for breakfast, snacks, or whatever came up (i.e. a blog post). I also had a few bottles of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider leftover from a small bridal shower for one of my networking group friends. I had all the supplies handy to make a festive drink for the girls–and all kids–to enjoy on Thanksgiving.

The drink is extremely easy to make. You can either make the drinks ahead of time and have them sitting on a tray as company arrives, or, take things a step further and set up a bubbly bar for all of your guests to enjoy. Prepare small bowls of berries and fruit at room temperature (room temp gives the fruit a fresh and juicy taste) and allow the kids & adults to fill a glass about an inch high with whatever combination of fruit they like.

Next, add cider so that the fruit is now floating at the top. (Grown-ups, you can use champagne, wine, vodka, or whatever you like!)

Finish off with a splash of juice from strawberries and raspberries that have been sitting in a container at room temperature so that their natural juices come out. You can also sprinkle some sugar to speed up the process.

Send the kids back over to their seat or to the kid table and prepare for the Thanksgiving Toast. My girls decided to practice their “Cheers!” a few times, but very gently. Note: it probably makes sense to give kids plastic glasses for their drinks so that their enthusiast toasts don’t break any glasses. Just an idea.

In addition to having their own “Cheers!” drinks, the girls like to say the Grace that they learned in preschool at most family dinners. I thought it would be fun to come up with a short and easy toast for them to say too. It goes like this:

“We’re thankful for everything, from A to Z,
For food, and friends, and family. Cheers!”

Easy right? And then they can raise their sparkling cider and say Cheers! And then eat… and eat… and eat. 🙂