“Eggnog, that other holiday favorite, has a separate lineage as well: technically it is a “flip,” as Jeffrey Morgenthaler notes on his cocktail blog, at www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com. He devised a streamlined version for Bel Ami, a restaurant in Eugene, Ore., and serves it from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. “I really wanted to have eggnog in a bar,” he said. “It’s not something you ever see. People go crazy for it.”

“A serious student of classic drinks, Mr. Morgenthaler happily bucks tradition with his nog, whipping up small batches in that clever anachronism, the blender. He’s convinced that his recipe — which is creamy but not gelatinous, and doesn’t require separating the eggs — improves on the original. There are times, he said, when “it’s O.K. to go against history.””

“Bartender and blogger Jeffrey Morgenthaler has been pushing the idea of a true drinking holiday for 10 years now, and he says this year it took off exponentially. But Morgenthaler says you really need to do it right by drinking American craft beers and cask-aged spirits.

‘Seek out your local microbrewed beer. Seek out your small American distilleries. Seek out your local wineries,” he says. “It’s important that we celebrate the day because it marks the return of those American traditions that were almost lost during Prohibition.’”

“At the Bel Ami Lounge in Eugene, Ore., Jeffrey Morgenthaler serves a gin and tonic made with his own recipe for agave-sweetened quinine syrup. Daniel Shoemaker at the Teardrop Lounge in Portland, Ore., crafts his own vermouth, falernum, blueberry shrub (a kind of cordial) and 15 bitters.”