Mix up a delicious beginning to the Christmas holiday with our Christmas Cheese Balls and Christmas Punch recipes. These recipes take only minutes to prepare. Keep the ingredients on stock to whip up something special for those unexpected holiday drop-in guests.

Christmas Cheese Ball

1 large pkg. Philly cream cheese
Green tops of 8-10 green onions
1 pkg. dried beef garlic powder
Worcestershire sauce 3-4 tablespoons
1 cup cracker crumbs

Set your cream cheese out to soften. Chop the green tops of 8-10 green onions and pitch it in with the cream cheese. Now cut up the dried beef into small pieces and add to the cream cheese mixture. Add a tablespoon of garlic powder and 3-4 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (add little more if it is too stiff to mix). Mix it all together well, then form it into a large ball. Roll it in the crushed cracker crumbs to coat the outside of the cheese ball. Refrigerate overnight and serve it with your favorite crackers.

Christmas Punch

3 pkgs. Black Cherry Kool-Aid
1 can unsweetened pineapple juice
1 cup lemon juice
3 cups sugar
2 liter bottles of ginger ale

Combine the Kool-Aid, pineapple juice, lemon juice and sugar in a large pitcher. Stir until all ingredients are blended and sugar fully dissolved. Pour the punch base into a punch bowl and slowly add the ginger ale.

I mix up the concentrate and refrigerate it then add the ginger ale just before serving so it has a lot of fizz. Be careful when stirring as it will foam up and overflow your container if you stir it to fast or add the ginger ale too quickly - just like any soda. If you want to mix it up per glass it is 1/3 concentrate and 2/3 ginger ale to a single serving. Warning: Black Cherry Kool-Aid can leave a mean stain so don’t let small children carry it around the house.