How to throw an amazing Christmas drinks and nibbles party

It is perfectly acceptable to ask guests to bring a bottle, but ensure you have a good selection of spirits – gin, vodka and rum are most popular – plus some soft drinks and mixers such as fruit juice, tonic, lemonade and cola. A few bottles of fizz plus red and white wine would also get the party going - supermarkets offer some very good deals by the case in December.

Cocktails are another hit at parties, but can be time consuming to make. Either ask someone to be “bartender” for the night, or make up larger batches and keep them in the fridge ready.

Rich Woods, aka The Cocktail guy has put his own twist on two classic cocktails using Kikkoman soy sauce! It really works. Why not play a “guess the secret ingredient” game with your guests?

If you are going to be serving drinks then you’ll need food to soak up the alcohol! Canapes are good as it means you can socialise round the room, or set up a buffet table for people to help themselves.