Toast the Season

Come the holidays, many people engage in various customs and rituals that make the season even more special. One person may bake dozens of cookies to share with friends and family, while another may go caroling with the church choir.

Reading familiar stories and watching classic Christmas movies also are part and parcel of many celebrations. For example, “A Christmas Carol,” a novella by Charles Dickens that was published in 1843, is a must-read and must-see for many people each holiday season. The story is the tale of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by various ghosts, each of whom teaches Scrooge an important lesson about living life to its fullest. Many local theater companies put on productions of the classic Dickens tale around the holiday season.

Holiday celebrants and fans of “A Christmas Carol” can raise a toast to Charles Dickens by enjoying one of his favorite cocktails, the “Sherry Cobbler,” courtesy of Margaret Kaplan’s “How to Drink Like a Writer: Recipes for the Cocktails and Libations that Inspired 100 Literary Greats” (Apollo Publishing). While Dickens did not mention the Sherry Cobbler in “A Christmas Carol,” the beverage does make an appearance in another of his works, “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit.”

Charles Dickens’s Sherry Cobbler

Serves 1

2 orange slices

1 tablespoon sugar

4 ounces amontillado sherry

Berries (in season) for garnishing

Maraschino cherries for garnishing

1 lemon wheel for garnishing

Muddle orange slices and sugar at the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add sherry and ice and shake. Strain ingredients into a Collins glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with seasonal berries, maraschino cherries and a lemon wheel. Serve with a generosity of spirit.