White Christmas Sangria
This white Christmas sangria sparkles with seasonal colors, is splashed with bubbly apple cider, and turns your favorite white wine into the best holiday drink.
There’s nothing like a pitcher of red sangria to gather all your wine lovers together during the holidays. It’s easy to make and can easily become a part of your dinner table centerpiece. But if you prefer a lighter, white sangria you’ll love this fun, festive white Christmas sangria!
With delicate slices of green apple and pear, handfuls of ruby red cranberries, and fresh rosemary sprigs, it’s the perfect accompaniment to Christmas dinner with beautiful red and green hues. All you need to do is slice the fruit, add it to a pitcher, and give it some time to chill.
What’s In This Sangria?
Just a handful of simple, easy-to-find holiday ingredients.
- White Wine: the best wine for this sangria is one you thoroughly enjoy drinking on its own. So choose your favorite, from sauvignon blancs, to pinot grigios, chardonnays, or rieslings.
- Sparkling Apple Cider: while there’s different ways to turn your sangria into a delightfully fizzy one, I’m using sparkling apple cider. It adds just the right amount of sweetness with delicious apple notes.
- Fruits: to make the best of seasonal fruits, I’m using green apples, winter pears, and of course cranberries. Not only is this a refreshing combination, but the colors are bright and merry.
- Rosemary & Star Anise: I love a sprig of rosemary along with star anise for the ultimate holiday touch.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below
How To Make This White Christmas Sangria
Making a pitcher (or bowl) of sangria couldn’t be any easier. Just slice, mix, and let it chill to perfection.
- Slice the fruits. You can slice with either a knife or a mandoline. The mandoline will give you those perfectly thin, even slices.
- Add to a pitcher or bowl. Pour the wine and apple cider into a pitcher first, then layer in the fruits. If you have time to spare, layering the fruits makes for a beautiful presentation. But you can simply just mix it all together.
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. This is a crucial step! You want to give your sangria time to let the flavors meld together. Otherwise all you’ll taste is just straight wine.
- Serve it up right! While you can pour sangria into a glass and call it a day, dressing it up with garnishes makes it much more fun to drink. Keep on reading for a few more ways to spruce up your glass.
Ingredient Variations
The beauty of a sangria is how adaptable it is, letting your creativity play a part in the process. The best sangria is made up of your favorite ingredients. So here’s a few ways to switch things up to your liking.
- Add different fruits. Since this is a Christmas drink, red fruit is a must. But feel free to add in red apples, strawberries, or blood oranges instead.
- Remove the fizz. If you don’t fancy bubbles in your drink, just omit the apple cider. You can also add a cup of cranberry juice instead to keep the sweetness level the same.
- Add a different garnish. You can always swap the rosemary for thyme, and you can add a cinnamon stick to each glass to boost that festive touch.
Make This Sangria Ahead Of Time
Giving the sangria time to let the fruit infuse with the wine will give the best results. Which makes it perfect for making it ahead of time and saves you time Christmas day to prep the rest of your dinner menu.
If you have leftovers by the end of the night, this will last for 3-4 days in the fridge. Just make sure to keep an eye on the fruit as that will start to go bad before the wine does!
Yes To More Holiday Cocktails
There’s nothing like a delicious cocktail to make the holidays a bit more merrier. Cozy up with a creamy eggnog or make a festive margarita if you love tequila – you’ve got plenty of options to enjoy this season.
If you make this recipe, let me know how it turned out! I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.
White Christmas Sangria
Ingredients
- 1 750ml bottle of white wine
- 1 cup sparkling apple cider, plus more for topping off
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 green apple, sliced
- 1 green pear, sliced
- rosemary sprigs and star anise, for garnishing
Instructions
- Thinly slice the apple and pear. You can use a knife or mandoline. Then pour the wine, sparkling apple cider, cranberries, apple slices, and pear slices into a large pitcher. You can layer them or simply mix them all in. Refrigerate the sangria for at least 4 hours, or overnight to let the flavors meld together.
- Serve the sangria in individual glasses over ice and top off with fresh sparkling apple cider.
- Garnish with rosemary sprigs, and star anise before serving.
Lisa's Tips
- Because there's sparkling apple cider in this recipe, which is typically sweetened, I don't think you need any additional sweetener. But if you like a very sweet sangria, you can always add a little honey or maple syrup.
Hi, Thinking of making this for the holiday. Question? When using the sparkling cider, how does the fizz hold up overnight? Won’t it go flat?
I would recommend not adding the sparkling cider until right before serving. :)
This is just so pretty and I love the idea of sparkling cider – very festive!
Glad you love this one Amanda!
Yes! This is a lovely drink recipe for our holiday party tomorrow!
Hope everyone loves this sangria Jesse!
Such a great drink for the Holidays and it looks so pretty.
Can’t beat the festive colors happening in this recipe!
What a fabulous Christmas cocktail and cheers to you! The styling, the light bright beautiful photos, I am loving everything about this. Also love the ingredients shot as I know exactly what to get for it. Thanks!
Thanks so much Adrianne! :)
What a beautiful and festive take on sangria!
It’s the perfect holiday presentation :)