Holiday Entertaining & Spreading Joy with Coca-Cola

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There is something about Coca-Cola and entertaining that go together, especially during the holidays. It’s such a versatile drink that can even be used in cooking to give additional flavor to foods. 

This is the drink that made our holiday home every year in my childhood home. Christmas was not Christmas without a good twenty-four pack of glass bottle Coca-Cola. And it could not be any other type of Coke, it had to be these exact ones! They are perfect for holiday entertaining with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and the ones who mean most to you during the holidays. From drinking, to cooking, to crafting, to gifting you name it.

I can remember my dad going to the store and bringing home a case (like we called it) or two of this drink for Christmas. It made everyone happy. If these drinks were not home by the eve of Christmas eve then we were all worried. But we were never disappointed though, because somehow, we always ended up having a case (24 pack) of Coca-Cola by Christmas day. Coke de Mexico 355ml bottles, 24 pack at Sam’s Club is made with no high fructose corn syrup, only with real sugar, making them an even better choice for holiday entertaining. Not to mention, Sam’s Club is also running a special sale of $3.98 for 4-pack, 2-liter Coke and Diet Coke during the holiday season.

So this Christmas, when my husband told me he was having a Christmas party at work, I thought it would be a great idea to spread some joy to his co-workers using Coca-Cola as my main compliment.

I first decided to make some Coca-Cola brownie stars. My original intent was to bake up a delicious Coca-Cola holiday ham (one of our favorites) but my husband said he was supposed to bring in a dessert. So I settled on brownie squares instead. And who does not like brownies?! It is such a great treat that really compliments any party, too.

To make the brownies, I mixed the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls (see recipe below).

Then I combined both mixtures and added a tablespoon of Coca-Cola to the mix for flavoring.

I then spread the mixture unto a cookie sheet and baked it at 350 degrees about 18-20 minutes. I used a cookie sheet because I was not going for chunky brownies – it’s easier to use a cookie cutter with flatter brownies. Also, immediately after the pan of brownie was removed from the oven I sprinkled it with some more Coca-Cola. This is another practice we did with fruit cake in the Caribbean. It is supposed to keep the cake moist.

Then once the brownie was cooled, I cut it into stars using a large and a small cookie cutter. 

Don’t sweat it if some of them don’t turn out exactly as equally as the others. Because they are a bit moist, this will happen. 

A dusting of powdered sugar really gave the brownie stars a festive look, too.

These little Coca-Cola brownie stars are sure to entertain any holiday crowd. And like we did growing up, don’t just serve these brownies alone. Serve them with a bottle of Coca-Cola and your testers will be happy. 

On that note, I also decided that a Coca-Cola for every one in the party would be appropriate. So I wrapped the box the bottles came in with pretty gold and white snowflake wrapping paper and placed the filled bottles back into the box. 

I also added a little mini-snow flake ornament to each one and included some gold and white straws. Yes, I am keeping a consistent color scheme going here.

I just could not throw away these empty Coca-Cola glass bottles. In my original home town they would take them back to the stores where they would be sent off for recycling. Instead, I decided to do something fun and creative with them to make centerpieces for our holiday entertaining table decor. I was so pleased with how these turned out that I wanted to use them everywhere in our home.

They are really simple to make. Here are the materials I used:

• Empty washed & dried Coca-Cola glass bottles
• A roll of burlap
• Decorative flowers
• Ribbon (thin)
• A hot glue gun
• A pair of scissors
• A measuring tape
• A Sharpie

First, I used the tape measure to determine the length of each piece of burlap. I did this by measuring the red & white space of the Coca-Cola bottle. It was a little under 2 inches so I rounded it up to 2 inches for each piece of burlap. Then I lightly marked the spot with a Sharpie.

Then I went ahead and cut them out.

Second, I added hot glue to one end of the bottle in the red area, then hot glued a piece of burlap onto the spot. I added more glue and sealed the burlap all the way around the area.

It should look like this. Really, it only takes a few minutes to create these centerpieces.

Third, I cut out lengths of ribbon to fit around the bottles, then hot glued each one around the center of the burlap.

Note: It is best to keep the ends of the burlap and the ribbon in the same spot. It will look neater.

Once I had the ribbon in place, I hot glued a decorative flower on each bottle. I glued them just a tad slanted. Again, I added the flower where the ends of the burlap and ribbon meet. It really made it look much neater. 

I was amazed at the final product. These decorative flowers with the glitter really helped the piece to pop. I used longer flowers with stems but short petals with no stems will work well, too. 

Here is a closer look at what both sides look like in this next image.

And as you may have already noticed, I was going for a  coordinated look. I chose green, gold, & silver because that is part of my decorating color scheme this season. I filled each bottle with Epsom salt (just the bottom, until it reached the burlap). 

Truly, I could not be more pleased with how these glass bottled Coca-Cola work well for holiday entertaining and spreading joy to others. My husband was truly pleased with how everything turned out. 

Have you used Coca-Cola during your holiday entertaining? I would love to know of your favorite holiday Coca-Cola recipe or craft ideas. And be sure to check out Coke de Mexico at Sam’s Club to help spread joy to those who mean most to you during the holidays.