Beware of Egg-Nog

From: The American Beacon, Norfolk, December 24, 1817: A Song of the Season, To be sung to any tune that suits the measure. -BEWARE OF EGG-NOG- While the little boys cry ‘merry Christmas is coming,’ Shall I be as dull as a water-drunk log? No! I’ll sing you a song (for we bards must be humming) And the burden shall still be, Beware of Egg-nog. When the bowl mantles over the elegant foam, And the steam rises up in a silvery tog; Put by the potation, keep Reason at home, And think of my warning, Beware of Egg-nog. When Circe, the witch, caught Ulysses’s men, She gave each a dram that soon made him a hog; The identical mixture–’tis now as ’twas then; So attend to the moral, Beware of Egg-nog. When the circle is form’d,...

Eggnog: A Colonial Christmas Tradition

By Jeff Westover Christmas of 1826 was snowy, cold and lonely for the cadets of West Point. Though called “men” they were really teenage boys — some as young as 17 — and they wanted to celebrate Christmas. Young Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederate States of America, was amongst them. But West Point then, as it is now, was a house of order and discipline. The military academy was under the strictest orders of sobriety that Christmas season. And being young men some took it upon themselves to challenge those orders in the name of holiday celebration. They organized, they partied — and then they got caught. During excused absences the men of West Point would visit area taverns and drink grog — a mix of alcoholic...