I got this idea in my head watching The Bishop's Wife (1947), the story of an angel played by Cary Grant who's trying to save a self-imporant young bishop from losing sight of what's important. In the movie, there's rag-tag children's choir at the little inner-city parish of St. Timothy's (the bishop's former post); given that sherbet punch is thoroughly postwar, I thought the kids in the choir would appreciate this one, and so might the kids in your world! I also made it balanced to please those adults who aren't partaking.

During the part of It’s a Wonderful Life when George Bailey is seeing what the world would be like if he’d never been born. They’re in the town’s bar, which, without George, has turned into a rough and depressing rather than convivial spot. Clarence tries to order a flaming rum punch, then asks instead for “mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon and light on the cloves.” I decided to combine the two and made sure to use ingredients popular during Clarence’s day, including a mulled wine recipe from Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book.

One of the most famous tropical drinks of all time, the Piña Colada as we know it emerged in the late 1950s and early '60s in Puerto Rico, though close antecedents had existed before. This is Molly Gajdosik's excellent recipe, which they say was inspired by Garret Richard's spec. It's complicated but so worth it!

The only drink this month that comes from the continental United States, the Rum Runner is a 1970s classic hailing from the Florida Keys. This drink is basically a tropical fruit punch with usual suspects like pineapple, banana, grenadine, and lime, but the wildcard here (and what distinguishes it from other similar drinks) is the berry liqueur (blackberry or [black] raspberry). Some versions are frozen, while others our shaken; ours is flash blended!

Drinks traveling under the "Bahama Mama" name have existed since at least the early 1960s, but known formulas date to the 1970s. Usually a combination of rums, lemon or lime, pineapple or and/or orange, grenadine, coconut in some form, and coffee liqueur, the drink in various forms has been popular from Caribbean resorts to chain restaurants for over fifty years.

The only thing that’s French about a French Martini is Chambord. The black raspberry liqueur produced in the Loire Valley for centuries. The French Martini combines it with a vodka base and pineapple juice and it originated at Pravda in the mid-nineties, introduced to the world by famous bartender Dale DeGroff. It tastes like grandma candy that features unidentifiable flavors but is actually really delicious.