Ultra-Lounge: Christmas Cocktails, Part One
A perfect martini-and-mistletoe combo,Christmas Cocktailswill gaily seduce you with its bevy of nostalgic and occasionally campy holiday fare. Vocal vixensPeggy Lee,Julie London(her "I'd Like You for Christmas" will melt the ice cubes in your fridge),Kay Starr, andNancy Wilsonjoin forces with perennial crooners such asLou Rawls,Dean Martin, and the immortalNat "King" Cole, along with a handful of instrumental big-band numbers and odd, at times cheese-ball-shaped jazz organ pieces fromJimmy McGriffand the flammable Eddie Dundstedter, among others. But the essential item that makes plunking down your pelts for this very chi-chi set is none other thanBilly May's lovably kitschy workout called "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo." It's a scream. The package comes complete with its own cocktail minimanual and the recipes for Hot Toddys and Hot Tom and Jerrys. Garishly retro and naughtily nostalgic, this kind of slinky Christmas gift should probably be illegal in many prudish states.--Martin Keller