How to Spread Holiday Cheer Like Usher

Shopping We Should All Aspire to Be as Thoughtful a Gift-Giver as Usher We caught up with Usher to learn his must-haves for spreading holiday cheer—including his favorite drink for toasting. By Wilder Davies December 22, 2025 Welcome to 5 O’Clock Somewhere, our series in which BA’s network of culinary all-stars share their favorite drinks—along with everything you need to serve them in style. During the 2025 run of his Las Vegas residency, Usher became known for a particular bit. Wrapped in a furry overcoat, the singer would descend from the stage with a glass full of ruby red maraschino cherries. He would then hand-feed the fruit to select members of the audience. It’s a flirty, cheeky gesture that spawned numerous viral videos . But it also hints at something essential, but little-known, about Usher: He knows how to give a good gift. I recently had a phone call with the hit-making star to discuss his home bar and how he likes to entertain around the holidays. But as we spoke, the conversation kept drifting toward the subject of gifts and how he finds it important and meaningful to put in time and effort to find something to give someone you care about. Here’s what he had to say. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Bon Appétit: Tell me a little bit more about what you like to drink. Usher: Well, typically I’m an old-fashioned dude, so I love a cherry old-fashioned. I’m a guy who loves bourbon. I love cognac. I drink single malt. Blanton’s is one of my favorites, but I’ll find my way through different bottles that are gifted to me. I love Japanese whisky too. But then other times I’m experimental and I like to try different things. I’m the type of dude who’s going to make five drinks, not one, and sample all of them as opposed to having the one thing that I drink every time. I will try everybody’s old-fashioned. I love when they’re smoked. I love the theatrics of drink-making when you can bring smoke and other things like that into it, like other elements to the drink, I think is cool. Blantons Single Barrel Bourbon $140 Total Bourbon Hibiki Harmony Japanese Whiskey $79 Total Wine Do you have a particular brand of cherries you like? Luxardo. I love those. But then I’m kind of a cheap dude too. I love the classic maraschino cherries, man. It could be anything from what you get at Kroger’s to Signature Select or something like that. Something real simple. Luxardo Maraschino Cherries $24 Amazon A friend wanted me to ask: What drink would you make someone you love? Well, first of all, it all depends on whether they like alcohol or not. My wife is more of a mocktail girl. If I manage to get her to have a tequila or something like that, I try to throw cherries in there and just disguise the alcohol taste. But yeah, it really all depends on who is drinking. Believe it or not, I’m a mocktail guy half the time. Do you have any special drinks for the holidays? I tried something last year that was not necessarily a success, but you take eggnog and freeze it, and then put the eggnog ice in a glass and pour whatever liquor on top of it. It’s really, really cool. And Champagne during the New Years, you know what I’m saying? Cheers to life. W&P Crystal Cocktail Ice Tray $27 Amazon $25 Huckberry Favorite Champagne? Ooh, that’s a hard one. I love Ace. I love Clicquot. I love Krug, Also any type of rosé is good. Krug Grande Cuvee Brut with Gift Box $300 Wine.com Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut $70 Wine.com Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades Brut Rose with Gift Box $545 Wine.com You recently collaborated with Baccarat for a limited edition of its Harmonie tumbler (which is featured in our December issue’s gift guide ). How did that come about? I think they looked up my profile first and foremost, and saw how many tumblers I had bought throughout the entire world [laughs] and also had seen me on stage with them. So the collaboration really started as me being a collector. When asked what I would want to do, I went straight to the thing that was personal to me. It was the tumbler. As I got older, I began to understand that the Harmonie tumbler was a cool staple piece to get people as a gift. It’s $200 to $300, but it’s a grand compliment and it could go a long way. You never know what impression you’ve made and when you’re going to cross someone’s mind. So they’re having a drink there in the privacy of their home, the conversation is gone, but then they look back at that glass and they remember, “Man, this was a nice gift to get someone.” Baccarat Usher Tumbler Shop at Baccarat I’m curious, in addition to Baccarat pieces, do you have any other go-to thank you gifts? No judgment, right? No judgment. I’m a stationery freak. You remember that scene in American Psycho where they’re talking about the color of the fucking card? That’s me inside my mind. I’m always trying to figure out the perfect stationery, because that right there is by far one of the greatest gifts you can get anyone, the gift of time and word, right? Engraved Black Thank You Card Set $24 Paper Source Where do you get your stationery? Paper Source is one. But you know what I do, man? I’m an antiques shopper, and specifically in Paris, I love to go stationery shopping. When you go and you find really, really cool—and they old, really, really great paper. It is super cool. I didn’t know you could buy antique stationery. Well, sometimes you get lucky if an antique shop has managed to come across cool stationery. It might be really, really cool humorous cards. Vintage French Book Sheets $7 Etsy Any final thoughts about entertaining during the holidays? At this period of my life, I’m slowing down. I’m a parent to my kids, and I love to host people in my home. But I miss my grandparents. They were the people that did these very fundamental things that established my aesthetic. It’s analog things. Record players, being able to hear the actual needle dropping on the record. Really incredible books, Polaroid cameras. Like when’s the last time you got together and played dominoes or spades or charades or Cards Against Humanity? Or sat around and played Connect Four, you know what I’m saying? Or chess, if you’re that sophisticated. Those things, those analog things, man, they matter, man. What’s your family’s favorite game to play together? Monopoly Deal is our game. Monopoly Deal Card Game $8 Amazon Find more tips for A-list hosting Nick Offerman shares his favorite whisky (and the best snack to go with it) Why cookbook author Sophia Roe has this sheet pan on auto-ship Tennis stars Frances Tiafoe and Ayan Broomfield on how to throw a Grand Slam party