The Cork & Kerry is dressed up for the holidays

Celebrating the holidays in style

Beer is very much a part of celebrating the holidays, whether we choose to cuddle up with special seasonal brews around the fire at home or to hoist a few pints with strangers about to become friends in a tavern strung with Christmas lights.

For some, the celebrating began early. Chicago's Cork and Kerry (10614 S. Western, 312-445- 2675) unveiled its lighted Christmas displays with great fanfare the day after Thanksgiving. "We've been doing this seven years, and every year it grows," said co-owner Chad Weiler. Lights are strung in and outside the building, but the emphasis is on moving displays.

"We're really into animation," said Weiler, counting more than 80 moving scenes in the bar. He is particularly proud of a ski lift that comes out and moves around the entire bar. Santa stands outside in the beer garden, which, in season, is one of the nicest in the country.

The Cork and Kerry is a neighborhood bar, a gathering spot for those in the Beverly area on Chicago's Far South Side. In December, it serves a larger area, with visitors coming from far western and northern suburbs just to see the lights. Of course, they also can choose from 10 draught beers, including both quality imports and American craft products.

In New Orleans, O'Flaherty's Irish Channel Pub (514 Toulouse St., 504-529-1317) devotes several nights each year to its Celtic Christmas celebration. Storytellers offer tales from all the Celtic nations, and there will be poetry readings, dance and music. O'Flaherty's is a rambling French Quarter pub with an outdoor courtyard, a bar/dining area and a ballad room.

Kalamazoo Brewing Co. in Kalamazoo, Mich., releases Eccentric Ale, an herbal, spiced beer that's aged for a year, annually on the Friday before the Winter Solstice. If you want to try it, you'll have to go to the brewery when it's released, because that's the only place it's sold -- and the parties have become legendary. "People are in the parking lot at 8:30 a.m. waiting for the door to open at 9," said president and brewmaster Larry Bell. Eccentric Ale usually sells out on the first day. This Eccentric Day party at the the Eccentric Cafe (attatched to the brewery at 315 E. Kalamazoo Ave., 616-382-2338) features an Eccentric Buffet. Choices include stinky, exotic food, which in the past has included eel, head cheese, blood sausage with tongue, assorted fishes, hot peppers and pickled onions.

From New York to Portland, Ore., those looking for a post-Christmas party don't have to wait until New Year's Eve. Boxing Day is celebrated on Dec. 26 in British pubs across the United States. This isn't a celebration of pugilism, it's a British holiday that dates back to feudal times. In olden days, the feudal lords would distribute clothes and food to the tenant farmers on this day. The custom evolved and became the traditional day for servants and underlings to receive boxed gifts, hence "boxing." It's also the Feast of St. Stephen.

No pub celebrates Boxing Day better than the North Star Pub in Manhattan (93 South St., 212- 509-6757). The day begins at 10:30 a.m. with the Rev. Larry McCormick conducting St. Stephen's Day Mass using the bar as an altar. That lasts about an hour, and then the silliness starts. Those lucky enough to squeeze their way inside the bar are handed a Christmas cracker, a toy you crack open to receive a small prize and paper hat. You must wear the hat to order a beer.

Visitors to South Street Seaport often stop and press their noses to the windows to see what's going on inside. Revelers cheer those participating in the yard-of-ale contest and munch on free, excellent bangers and mash. Last year, we heard a patron say in a stage whisper, "I hope I don't run into anybody from Yorkshire," as he plowed into a friend obviously from Yorkshire, England. Those who bring clothing and tinned food to be donated to a shelter receive a certificate good for a free pint of one of the eight British draughts that always seem particularly fresh here. The pub also boasts one of the nation's best single-malt whisky menus, with more than 70 to choose from.

Patrons don't get childish during Boxing Day at Portland, Ore.'s Horse Brass Pub, they start that way. "We turn the whole place over to them," said owner Don Younger, whose pub (4534 SE Belmont, 503-232-2202) is at least three times larger than the North Star. "We call it Camp Runamuck."

Kids are served free soda, sandwiches and cakes and are entertained by games and special events such as Irish dancing, clowns and magicians. Parents merely watch. "We shove them in a corner and they cower," Younger said with glee.

A version of this column originally appeared in All About Beer magazine in January 1996.