Most of us believed in Father Christmas at some stage of our lives. He is the best of all the child-belief figures; better than the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy combined.
Sadly time goes by; you grow up and notice Mum has been using the same wrapping paper as Father Christmas and it just doesn’t add up. A logical 10-year-old with an already incisive mind, you put two and two together and lose all innocence.
The food and drink that I plough through at this time of year is but a paltry compensation for Father Christmas being a no-show for the 15th year in a row. I have yet to achieve a gastronomic high that compares to the consuming belief that a kindly man in a red suit delivers gifts by sleigh once a year.
I found myself watching Elf last week and crying my eyes out as some not particularly gifted child actors wailed ‘look, it’s Santa’. My only comfort as I started making uncontrollable snorting noises was the thought that I would be sipping on a large drink the minute the credits rolled. I may not believe in Father Christmas anymore but at least there will be a strong martini waiting for me on Christmas morning.
Ingredients
2 parts gin
1 part syrup from a tin of lychees
1 part lychee juice
2 lychees from a tin
Directions
Shake up the first 3 ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. If you do not have a cocktail shaker then fear not, any receptacle will do.
Fill your martini glass with ice and tap water to chill. Empty, and then place the whole lychees in the glass before topping up with the strained cocktail. Enjoy one for breakfast on Christmas morning and don’t look back.