Set Up a Mimosa Bar for the Holidays + Sugared Cranberries Recipe

A mimosa bar makes a perfect addition to breakfast or brunch, and makes it easy on the hostess as guests can happily serve themselves. Just a small tweak makes it family-friendly, plus incredibly simple 2-ingredient sparkling sugared cranberries make a beautiful topper – and perfect for holiday snacking or beautiful on desserts! We’re sharing our favorite mimosa recipes, and mimosa bar how to in this post sponsored by SheSpeaks, Inc and the Simply Beverage Company.

With Christmas in sight, I mean it’s actually on THIS MONTH’S calendar, I’ve been testing a couple of recipes for our Christmas morning breakfast. For us, Christmas morning means waking up in the pajamas we opened on Christmas eve, stretching our way to the tree and basically not moving too much after that, save the trips to the kitchen and back to refill our plates… and drinks. Presents will be unwrapped, stories will be told, the fire will be crackling (well, ours is electric, so it will look like it’s crackling), while toys are strewn about and our favorite Christmas movies play in the background. 

Here’s the thing, we like to eat too. Okay, I actually kind of love it. I want to prepare as much ahead of time and make it as easy as possible for Christmas morning, because I kind of want to play with my kids and all of their toys instead of spend all the wee hours in the kitchen. 😉

Typically we like a sweet dish, like cinnamon rolls (these coffee cream cheese cinnamon rolls are AMAZE), as well as an egg/savory dish. So while I’m playing with quiche recipes over here, I’d LOVE to hear your ideas and favorite (simple) recipes in the comments!

And also, while we’re on the subject of breakfast and brunch, let’s talk drinks too! Something I know we’ll be doing is setting up a delicious mimosa bar that the entire family can enjoy! 

As you can imagine, there are many variations to this cocktail, so setting up a Mimosa Bar is a fun way for everyone to play with different fun flavor combinations to find the one they love. Ultimately though, the steps for creating a mimosa are simple and if you’ll be having guests, I’d recommend adding a little menu to your bar: Pick a juice. Add some bubbly. Top with fruit. Enjoy!

I took a quick trip to Sam’s Club (there is one about a mile from our new home, and I’m loving it!) to pick up everything I needed for our Mimosa Bar, and even gathered up the goods for making our quiche, and of course, had to add in some nuts to nibble on. With all of those trips to the kitchen for refills (and really any time I’m inviting people over), I like to set out some snacks as well. I stocked up on Simply Orange® and Simply Lemonade®, because these 100% juices and juice drinks actually are deliciously simple, which makes them the perfect ingredient for a cocktail/mocktail as the true flavor shines through (and it’s been our orange juice of choice for years, though I just recently began saving while purchasing the 2-pack at Sam’s Club!). Member’s Mark chocolate covered almonds and Member’s Mark roasted cashew halves with sea salt are both choices my whole family likes, and always a popular option for parties, or any great cheese board. For our family-friendly affair, we made sure to pick up some sparkling apple cider while at Sam’s Club as well! I’m sharing a few of our favorite mimosa recipes for your own mimosa bar below:

Cranberry Orange Mimosa:

1 part Simply Orange® juice + 1 part Cranberry juice + 2 parts champagne or sparkling cider. Top with sugared cranberries for garnish.

Sunrise Mimosa:

1 part Simply Orange®  juice + 2 parts bubbly red moscato + splash cranberry pomegranate juice
Top with sugared cranberries and orange slices, for garnish.

Lemonade Mimosa:

1 part Simply Lemonade®  + 1 part Simply Orange®  juice or blood orange juice + 2 parts champagne or sparkling cider. Top with sliced blood orange for garnish.

Grapefruit Mimosa:

1 part Simply Grapefruit®  juice + 3 parts champagne or sparkling cider +  rosemary and grapefruit chunks to garnish.