‘A Booze & Vinyl Christmas’ Pairs Beloved Holiday LPs with Cocktails

Author Andre Darlington laughs when asked if his successful “Booze & Vinyl” book series can now be officially categorized as a franchise. “I think so, fortunately or unfortunately!” says Darlington. The lifelong record collector, music historian and food and drink writer launched the series with his co-author sister Tenaya Darlington in 2018 with “Booze & Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music and Mixed Drinks.” The tome paired 70 classic records with 140 cocktail recipes created for each side of an album, along with a party theme for each. The cocktail/classic LP mashup inspired a successful book tour and a 2022 sequel. Now, just in time for the 2023 holiday season Darlington has released the third book in the series, “A Booze & Vinyl Christmas” via Running Press.

“It’s been a real blessing to be able to do a holiday version,” explains Darlington. “Not only do I love Christmas music but this was my chance to do a holiday cocktail book. This is my 10^th book so I’ve dabbled with holiday drinks before but this was my chance to really dive into a genre of drinks I haven’t been able to do before. Plus, this is the time of year where you can go a little over the top. You can do shredded coconut on the rim. You can use cocktail glitter or Goldschlager. There’s Fireball and all kinds of liqueurs in this book.”

In addition to 92 handcrafted holiday cocktail recipes, Darlington has expertly curated 75 years of Christmas records, from Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” (an album that helped to introduce the long-playing record in 1949 ) to Justin Bieber’s 2011 seasonal offering “Under the Mistletoe” and Dolly Parton’s latest Christmas album “Holly Dolly Christmas” released in 2020. Bing is paired with an era-appropriate applejack brandy fueled cocktail while Bieber creates the audio backdrop for a boozy holiday brunch, featuring a Midori and Cointreau spiked mimosa. Dolly’s down home holiday record is paired with a warm apple cider and whiskey cocktail, inspired by her song “Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas.”

Excerpt and recipe from “A Booze & Vinyl Christmas,” courtesy of Running Press

Darlington spoke to Eldredge ATL between book tour stops where “Booze & Vinyl” fans aren’t shy about discussing their own favorite seasonal platters. “I’ve learned that people have very specific memories tied to certain albums,” says Darlington. “In my house, it was Nat King Cole, ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ and John Denver and the Muppets. What was interesting in researching and writing this book, I really fell in love with albums I hadn’t really grown up with. For example, the Carpenters [‘Christmas Portrait’] album. We didn’t have that album. It’s really this sonic experience. There’s a lot going on. There’s this crazy overture. It sounds more like an over the top 1990s record that somehow came out in 1978. This Christmas, after writing this book, I’m definitely throwing that on too. I’m hoping like me, readers discover records they might not have heard before or grown up with.”

Thanks to gorgeous photography by Jason Varney and an enticing retro interior design by Joshua McDonnell, “A Booze & Vinyl Christmas” is a visual wonder. But don’t let its good looks fool you — the book is also painstakingly researched by Darlington, filled with factoids even die-hard Christmas record crate diggers may not know. “You’ve discovered my secret,” cracks Darlington. “I have no life! These are a lot of work but I love it. If I have any super power as a writer, it’s research. I love doing deep dives.”

When Darlington started digging into the history of Crosby’s iconic “White Christmas” (the crooner debuted the song on Christmas Day 1941, just days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II),  he discovered it debuted as a 78 single. Booming sales of that 78 soon inspired the subsequent album (back then packaged as a series of five 78 records) and ultimately, it spawned the entire annual Christmas music industry. The singer’s label, Decca, then repackaged the effort on two long-playing sides. Says Darlington: “It was such a huge hit, that LP specifically drove the sales of long playing record players.”

Likewise, Darlington discovered that big screen singing cowboy Gene Autry’s hit 1957 single “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was actually inspired by a 1939 book created for the retailer Montgomery Ward. While Side A of Autry’s LP boasts a London dry gin and Luxardo maraschino liqueur cocktail in honor of Santa’s lead reindeer, the album’s Side B closing track, “What Child is This?” prompted Darlington to put a fresh spin on the old Tom & Jerry eggnog holiday classic with a modern Chai inflected twist. Of his Shepherd’s Watch eggnog, Darlington says readers should not be scared off by the recipe’s spiced batter requiring a dozen separated eggs.

“It’s absolutely delicious,” attests Darlington. “I didn’t grow up in the era of Tom & Jerrys but I have older friends who still have Tom & Jerry bowl sets and I see the mixes in the Kroger. This is one of those Christmas traditions that everyone made until cocktail culture just disappeared somewhere around the Nixon administration. The point of the batter is to create this great texture. It’s like drinking this incredibly frothy, boozy marshmallow.”

As a cocktail/classic Christmas vinyl aficionado, Darlington had a professional obligation to include Dean Martin’s 1966 Reprise holiday collection “The Dean Martin Christmas Album.” After all, Martin’s vocal delivery is so relaxed on the record, it sounds like the crooner had parked a liquor cart next to him in the vocal booth. In the book, Darlington suggests the LP provides the perfect soundtrack for stuffing stockings. One of the recipes calls for using J&B, Dino’s favorite scotch. “I love Dean,” the author says. “I love his movies, the clips of his old TV show and his wink-wink attitude toward everything. He was always the smartest guy in the room, breaking the fourth wall looking at the camera. And in 1966, Dean Martin was so popular he put out five records. He was like the drunk Taylor Swift!”

One of the biggest surprises for Darlington while researching “A Booze & Vinyl Christmas” was dropping the needle on Bob Dylan’s 2009 “Christmas in the Heart.” In his intro to the entry, the author writes: “No one saw this album coming and many still cannot believe it exists.” To create his That Same Star cocktail to sip with the Dylan LP, Darlington delivers an equally unexpected pairing of bourbon, pomegranate juice and toasted cinnamon syrup. “I usually never order a cinnamon drink at a bar,” Darlington concedes. “It’s an easy ingredient to hit someone over the head with. I’m very judicious with cinnamon. But pomegranate and cinnamon love each other.”

Adds Darlington: “The Dylan record has really grown on me. It’s super upbeat. It’s kind of a romp and perfect for a cocktail party.”

Having written 10 cocktail, vinyl and movie-themed books in just seven years (“being trapped at home in a pandemic helped!”), Darlington says it’s always impossible to plan for how a book will land against the backdrop of current events. Still, he’s pleased the Dylan section of the Christmas book feels relevant for the 2023 holiday season.

One of the tunes Dylan interprets on the project is “Do You Hear What I Hear?” first popularized by Bing Crosby. The song served as a late-period hit for the singer in 1962 and was written by Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker “as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

Says Andre Darlington: “Until I wrote this book, I had no idea about the history of the song. Bob Dylan sliding that song into the lineup is Dylan being Dylan. There’s a theme to the album. It’s about nonviolence and peace. He’s not phoning this in. He put a lot of thought into it. It’s a record that really grows on you.”

“A Booze & Vinyl Christmas” is in bookstores now. Booze & Vinyl” volumes one and two by Andre Darlington and Tenaya Darlington are also available as is a Booze & Vinyl card pairing game. Coming in Spring 2024, from the author and Turner Classic Movies is “Forbidden Cocktails: Libations Inspired by the World of Pre-Code Hollywood.”

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