Day 097: Bev of the Week – Cherry 7-Up

We all have little rituals to make our holidays unique. It’s a totally normal and sane thing to do on an abnormal and insane day. Some holiday traditions are downright weird. For me, it’s not really Christmas if there isn’t lottery scratch-offs in my stocking. It doesn’t feel like Christmas night if I’m not properly drunk, eating a bag of cold ham at 3 in the morning. And on a day that features so many amazing bevs, my go-to has to be Cherry 7-Up.

And I just now realized that Cherry 7-Up is not a Christmas Bev.

I’ve spent the last hour trying to figure out why I consider it a Christmas Bev. There’s really not much to research on the matter. I have no clue if it was released or pushed in December or if that’s when I simply tried it for the first time. Meanwhile 7-Up was highly active in Christmas advertising, but it was only plain ass 7-Up being depicted:

The mascot, Spot, was synonymous with Christmas and overrated Sega Genesis games. But he was hardly ever a shill for Cherry 7-Up or even Diet 7-Up for that matter. But I figured drinking Cherry 7-Up around the holidays was totally normal, as I met some friends in college that felt the same way. On one snowy December night, we stalked supermarkets around the city for that sweet and crisp refreshment. But there’s no official proof that our tradition is valid.

So maybe it was made up on it’s own. Maybe families across the midwest wanted something different for their fridge, so they chose that. It would be the more natural conclusion to buy a cranberry-infused soda. But in the early 90’s, Bev Makers weren’t confident enough to fuck around with cranberry. We were decades away from Claymation Lebron asking us if we want a Sprite Cranberry. So our parents probably figured, “Well, cherries are Christmassy, right? Right?!?”. To which the husband shrugged, not wanting to admit that he hates the chocolate-covered cherries that his in-laws get him every Christmas. But if that was the case, wouldn’t the Coca-Cola Polar Bears be drinking Cherry Coke? That idea sounds preposterous! And I like Cherry Coke!

Or maybe it’s as simple as “Christmas = red. Cherry 7-Up = also red”. And it’s been established that 7-Up is the official uncola of Christmas. With that in mind, some families mix 7-Up with their Hawaiian Punch on Christmas. Other families are lazy or don’t have any good pitchers, so they bought Cherry 7-Up. Either way, drinking a red variant of 7-Up is as Christmassy as falling asleep in church. Which makes me think, the secondary color of Christmas is hardly ever represented. There’s no Christmas food or Bev that’s typically green.

That must be why my secondary Christmas Bev is Mountain Dew. Not because it’s addictive and delicious or anything. Totally because I need to represent the color green. Yup.

So this Christmas, cozy up with an ice cold glass of your favorite lemon-lime bev. Just make sure that it’s green or red, I guess. Or don’t. It’s your holiday.

– TeeCoZee