By DCist Contributor Nathan Wilkinson

The arrival of the holiday season means that bars will be scrambling to come up with recipes that capture our limited attention and dollars. Just about anywhere you go there will be a special drink on the menu or the chalkboard. Hot or cold, sweet or dry, there is a drink for everyone to celebrate the holidays and ring in the new year.

Bar Dupont (1500 New Hampshire Avenue NW) has a few cocktails that will satisfy your cravings for a rich nightcap. The Night Nurse will help you through the night with a helping of espresso, J Wray, and Nephew fat-washed rum. Head bartender Jonathan Yeronick uses an old-world technique to flavor the rum in this hot drink. First he adds melted butter to room temperature rum. After a few hours he chills it and skims the fat off the top, leaving the flavor of butter without the fat.

For whiskey fans, there’s the Fig Old Fashioned. This sweet cocktail starts with Maker’s Mark bourbon, fresh squeezed orange juice and fig, and ends with a drizzle of maple syrup and balsamic vinegar for bitters.

But for drinkers who are on the lookout for something that screams mistletoe and holly, you can’t get more traditional than eggnog. Fortunately lots of bars are sending up their own made-to-order eggnogs with a variety of liquors and spices. Graffiato (707 6th Street NW) has no less than three eggnogs that use one whole egg in each glass. The Feliz Navidad, which features both bourbon and pot-stilled dark rum mixed with cream, cinnamon and nutmeg, is a standout. It’s satisfyingly creamy with an almond-like flavor and spice.

They also offer the All I Want For Christmas, a more traditional spiced rum and aged rum nog with sherry, milk, and spices. This was thicker and more filling, but that didn’t stop me from relishing it to the last drop. Finally, the Jingle Bells comes with rye, Benedictine, milk, vanilla bean, and allspice. Each nog is $12 and makes for a complete dessert and drink in one glass.

A more modern variation of eggnog can be found at Del Frisco’s Grille (11800 Grand Park Avenue in North Bethesda, Md.). The Eggnog Martini isn’t spiced as much as it’s flavored by liquor—Stoli Vanilla and Bailey’s—with the addition of eggnog and nutmeg. Along with the Chocolate Eggnog Martini, which includes Godiva Dark Chocolate Liqueur and chocolate shavings, this pair of cocktails is probably more drinkable than recipes using whole eggs.

There’s another old world drink that’s made its way to D.C. bars this winter: Glogg. Served hot with a combination of ingredients as diverse as wine and plum brandy, glogg is a surefire way to get warm in a hurry. Ceil Habiland, bartender at Eat The Rich (1839 7th Street NW), says “glogg is more like a European or Scandinavian thing, but there’s several bars in D.C. that celebrate the winter with it.” Habiland explains, “This is one of Derek Brown’s recipes, but it is made differently everywhere you go.” Their glogg is wine-based but also spiked with rum and aquavit, and is garnished with almonds, raisins, and a cinnamon stick.

And if you’re looking to create something in your home bar that’s not eggnog, here’s a whiskey drink, because who doesn’t like whiskey (a lot of people, i’m sure, but whatever). The Scotch Holiday Sour keeps with tradition of adding something special to your recipe to make it stand out. In this case, that something special is Heering black cherry liqueur. Heering is hard to find so feel free to substitute with cherry brandy: