The season of weird and wonderful drinks

THIS is, among other things, the season of weird drinks, isn’t it?

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Throughout the year, I only trouble the alcohol aisle at Sainsbury's for our regular bottle of Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc, one glass each to be consumed with dinner. But come late December, the gloves are off.

We ingest everything from buck’s fizz for breakfast to mulled wine mid-morning. Sherry, Baileys, port, “that special liqueur we brought back from Tenerife”... anything goes.

Not only are we suddenly allowed to drink all day, we are also allowed to drink absolutely anything. Until we collapse in a heap of toxins and tannins, of course.

The trouble is, here in our family we boldly buy all this stuff but only rarely do we ever manage to finish a whole bottle of it.

And so the more unusual Christmas spirits sit and gather dust stickily from year to year.