Champagne Holiday Punch - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
4 whole cloves
2 cups cranberry juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 (750 ml) bottle champagne (Korbel Brut works great)
1 small amount Grand Marnier (or any orange liqueur you prefer)
red sugar
green sugar

Preparation

In a saucepan, bring water, sugar, cinnamon sticks and cloves to boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Discard cinnamon and cloves.
Cool to room temperature and pour into a large pitcher.
Add cranberry juice and pineapple juice, stirring well to combine.
Chill in fridge until ready to serve.
At serving time, add 1 bottle of chilled champagne.
When you get ready to serve this punch, just pour a little Grand Marnier or any orange liqueur into a shallow dish. Pour some colored sugar (or nonpareils) into a bowl.
Dip the rim of the champagne glass into the Grand Marnier, then into the bowl of colored sugar or nonpareils. Then pour the punch into the glass.
Helpful Tip: You can serve the punch from a punch bowl and ladle it into the glass, but since the opening of a champagne glass is so small this can be pretty messy with the punch ending up running down the sides of the glass. I found it's much easier to just pour it from a pitcher. Or, if you have a beverage server with a spout, that will work well, too.