Fruity "mocktails" make fun drinks for underage party-goers or
        those trying to limit their alcohol intake.

---

How to turn your new year's resolutions
    into excuses for parties!

• Eat right by hosting an organic dinner party

• 
  
  Resolved to get in shape this year? Throw a Wii Fit party
• 
  
  Spend more time with family and friends this year by throwing monthly parties
• 
  
  Low-fat dessert recipes help you stick with your resolution to eat right

The fourth in a series about how to turn your new year's resolutions into an excuse for a party, Make your own mocktails! will give you some recipes for cocktails without the booze. It's a perfect way to cut back on alcohol this year without cutting back on fun!

A "mocktail" is a cocktail minus the alcohol. These drinks are great for any party where you'd like to have a sweet treat available but want to cut out the alcohol consumption. Try hosting a luau or a bring-on-summer party to test out your new mocktail recipes. In the opinion of the Boston Party Planning Page, some of these non-alcoholic drinks (strawberry daiquiri, anyone?) taste better than their booze-filled counterparts!

Mocktails (you may also hear them called "virgin" drinks, meaning that there's no alcohol) are easy to make. Simply cut out the alcohol and replace with a similar tasting juice or soda. Here are a few favorite mocktail recipes to get you started:

Virgin Strawberry Daiquiri
Blend about 3.5 ounces of frozen strawberries, half an ounce of sweet and sour mix, a dash of grenadine syrup, and a few ice cubes in a blender until ingredients are smooth to create a single serving of this fruity favorite. To create a whole batch of daiquiris, simply up the amount of each ingredient.

Shirley Temple
Fun fact: The Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii claims to have invented the Shirley Temple cocktail in the 1930s; they then named the mocktail after famous child actress Shirley Temple, who often visited the hotel.

How do you make a Shirley Temple of your own? Simply combine about a quarter of a cup of lemon-lime soda (like Sprite or 7-Up) with 1.5 tablespoons of grenadine syrup in a glass over ice. Stir the drink well and garnish with a maraschino cherry. Delicious!

Virgin Pina Colada
To make a non-alcoholic pina colada for you and a friend, simply blend about a cup of ice with a cup and a quarter of pineapple juice, half a cup of milk, half a cup of heavy cream, and two table spoons of white sugar.  When the mixture is smoothly blended, serve in two glasses.  (Pina coladas definitely call for coconut-shaped cups, paper umbrellas, or both!)

While the pina colada calls out to be served in a coconut, no mocktail is complete without garnish! Pick up simple food items at the grocery store -- like lemons, maraschino cherries, and limes -- to garnish drinks, or go to one of the many Boston-area party supply stores to stock up on luau party supplies like paper umbrellas and sword-shaped toothpicks with which to decorate your mocktails. 

Popular party supply store iParty, for example, has 11 locations within 20 miles of Boston to meet all your party-planning and mocktail needs. For directions to the iParty stores in Medford, Brighton, Saugus, Quincy, West Roxbury, Burlington, South Weymouth, Peabody, Natick, Walpole, or Avon, visit iParty's online store locator.  You can also check out this article's accompanying slideshow for more of iParty's mocktail supplies.