The Grinch Ice Cream Float is a delicious holiday drink for everyone!
You can spike it for the adults or serve it without alcohol for the kids!
Despite his grumpiness about Christmas, The Grinch has been a holiday favorite since the 1966 cartoon (and the Dr. Seuss book that preceded it).
So, when I learned about the latest version (known simply as “The Grinch”), I just knew that I needed to make a cocktail of some sort in The Grinch’s honor.
The Grinch Ice Cream Float is perfect for the holidays
But of course, I wanted it to be “kid friendly,” too. That’s how The Grinch Float came to be!
This cocktail ice cream float is delicious and refreshing.
With flavors of lime sherbet and Hawaiian Punch Green Berry Rush, there’s a “tropical” tone to it even though it looks all dressed up for the holidays.
With a little vodka, it’s a festive cocktail to share with friends at your Christmas party.
But you can easily leave out the vodka for the kids without missing out on flavor.
I’ve always thought that The Grinch just needed a really good friend – someone to make him smile.
And when you serve The Grinch Ice Cream Float to your friends and family, you’ll be doing your part to make them smile, too.
After all, there can only be one Grinch!
The Grinch Punch serving ideas
It’s so perfectly green, you may think this float is straight from the movie!
It’s perfect to serve during your annual viewing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas or if you want to watch the new (or older) Grinch movies.
In fact, you can serve it with our recipe for Grinch Sugar Cookies (found on our sister blog, The Awesome Muse) for a fun theme!
So if you’re hosting a Christmas party, throw on an ugly Christmas sweater and get your Grinch on!
Is this fun green float just for Christmas?
Nope!
Now we know that you’ll love our Grinch float for Christmas time, but there’s no reason you can’t bust it out anytime of year.
Especially for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s so delightfully green, after all.
You can get a lot of mileage out of this fun Dr Seuss drink recipe!
Just leave off the candy cane and the red sprinkle rim (and maybe replace it with a fun gold sugar rim!) and you have a perfect St. Paddy’s Day drink too!
You can also use this recipe when you’re making Halloween cocktails too!
There’s just something delightful about spooky green drinks.
Keep the recipe the same, and just change the color of the sprinkles.
We like to use orange, purple, or black sprinkles to serve it like Halloween sherbet punch.
Add a fun Halloween paper straw and maybe a spider ring or a set of vampire teeth over the straw for that added spooky touch.
Ingredients you need to make The Grinch Float Drink
- 2 scoops of lime sherbet
- 1 ounce of vodka, optional
- 2-3 drops of green food coloring
- 1 cup Hawaiian Punch Green Berry Rush
- ½ cup lemon-lime soda
- Red sugar sprinkles
- 1 tbsp corn syrup
To make the Christmas ice cream floats, you will need these items: 2 small plates or shallow bowls, a measuring cup or jigger, a measuring spoon, an ice cream scoop, and beverage glasses.
An alternate way to make it is to top the drink off with champagne rather than lemon-lime soda.
A Grinch punch with champagne takes the recipe to a whole new level!
Can I make the drink like punch?
Yes, we love to refer to this drink as a Grinch punch because it’s perfect to serve in a punch bowl.
If you’ve ever had a wedding shower punch made with sherbet, this is a lot like that.
You’ll multiply the recipe by the number of servings you need and by the capacity of your punch bowl.
Scoop the sherbet into the punch bowl and then add the multiplied quantities to the bowl just like you would if making individual cocktails.
If you’re serving a crowd and need to make some of it ahead of time, you can pre-scoop the sherbet and refreeze it so that the quantities are ready to go as you replenish the punch bowl.
This saves a lot of time.
You can also premix the Hawaiian punch and vodka to save time too if you’re serving it boozy.
Another tip for making the drink ahead of time is to prepare the sprinkles on the beverage glasses ahead of time.
You can do this the day before.
Make it a Mocktail instead
All you need to do to make the Grinch float drink a non-alcoholic float is to leave out the vodka.
It tastes great either way!
If you’re serving a crowd and want to serve both a boozy and a non boozy version, since all you do is leave out the vodka, you can mark which punch bowl has vodka and which one doesn’t.
If you’re pouring drinks to serve by the tray, you can also use red sprinkles on the boozy ones and silver sprinkles on the ones without or vice versa.
How to make The Grinch Ice Cream Float
Begin by decorating the glass before making the drink.
Pour the red sprinkles on a small plate.
On another plate, pour a little bit of corn syrup – about a tablespoon should do it.
Turn the glass(es) upside down and dip them first in the corn syrup and then in the sprinkles.
Then set them aside to dry while making the drink.
Scoop the lime sherbet and add it to the glass.
Then add a little bit of green food coloring.
If you’re serving it boozy, pour the vodka next.
Then add the Hawaiian Punch and top it off with your favorite lemon-lime soda. We used Sprite.
If you want, you can add a candy cane to make it cute!
Serve it and enjoy!
You may also enjoy some other great Christmas and winter drinks!
If you enjoy hot drinks during the winter, our slow cooker mulled wine is delicious all winter long.
You’ll also love our holiday wassail bowl punch.
These will also make your home smell so enticing.
And if you love cold drinks, and we know you do since you’re enjoying our Grinch Float, you may also like our Chocolate Frosty Noggin, our Cinnamon Gingerbread Eggnog, and our Frosted Cranberry Cocktail.
More festive drinks for the Christmas holidays:
Peppermint Hot Chocolate Coffee
Chocolate Covered Cherry Martini
Chocolate Covered Raspberry Martini
Highland Whiskey Hot Chocolate
Christmas Cocktail with Cherry Heering and Hpnotiq
Hot Chocolate Bombs with Malibu Rum
try it and share!
Please let us know how you enjoy our The Grinch Ice Cream Float recipe.
If you make it yourself, please let us know on Pinterest that you tried it and tag us with #champagneandcoconuts on your Instagram photo.
If you haven’t had a chance to make it yet, be sure to save the recipe on Pinterest so you’ll remember where you found it.
You may enjoy following our Pinterest Boards, Ice Cream Float Recipes and Christmas Cocktail and Mocktail Recipes.
The Grinch Ice Cream Float
Equipment
- Small Plate
- Measuring cup or jigger
- Measuring Spoon
- Ice Cream Scoop or Small Scoop
- Beverage Glass
Ingredients
- 2 scoops Lime Sherbet
- 1 oz Vodka
- 2-3 drops Green Food Coloring
- 1 cup Hawaiian Punch Green Berry Rush
- ½ cup Lemon-Lime Soda
- Red Sugar Sprinkles
- 1 tbsp Corn Syrup
Instructions
- Pour a layer of red sugar crystals onto a plate or cutting board.
- Also, pour 1 tbsp corn syrup onto a plate or cutting board.
- Dip the rim of your glass into the corn syrup, coating the entire rim.
- Dip into the sugar sprinkles to rim the glass.
- Add lime sherbet to your glass, followed by the green food coloring.
- Pour in the vodka, Hawaiian Punch, and then top with Sprite.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on November 9, 2018 and was updated on September 1, 2020.
Hi, I’m Jennifer. I love to cook and entertain. I have a lot of fun sharing traditional food and drink recipes as well as putting a new spin on the classics. I strive to provide easy to make recipes that are perfect for the home cook, bartender and entertainer.
My grandkids wanted a Hulk Ice Cream Float. So I made them this “Grinch” float without the alcohol and used green and purple sugar! And voila! The Grinch becomes The Hulk! 🙂