Where to Get Emergency Ice on Christmas Day

When making my Christmas (shopping) lists and checking them twice, I often forget to consider ice, which makes some amount of sense. Depending on where you are in the world, ice is probably not at the forefront of your mind in the days leading up to Christmas, especially if you’ve been shoveling snow, driving through snow, or just looking at snow.

But you do need ice on Christmas (both day and eve). You need ice for shaking cocktails, making iced tea (or any other iced beverage), chilling champagne, filling coolers, or—if you’re fun and fancy—keeping your caviar or shrimp cocktail at the proper temperature.

Unfortunately, there is no instant ice-making hack, and it takes several hours in the freezer for those water molecules to align themselves into a solid crystal. You could go buy ice, but many stores are closed for most or all of the day. But you know who (probably) isn’t closed? McDonald’s. I say “probably” because nearly all of the restaurants are franchises, so it’s not a guarantee, but I’ve eaten enough McDonald’s sausage biscuits on Christmas morning to be optimistic. (A company rep also told the Pioneer Woman most of the golden arched establishments will be open, and who doesn’t trust a company rep?)

Anyway. Most of these franchises sell bags of ice for under two bucks, so you can breeze on up to the drive-through for your much-needed frozen water, then breeze on home to shake up some icy cocktails, or simply drink some tea. If you want the good ice (pebble ice), hit up your local Sonic, but be sure to go Christmas Eve. Most Sonic drive-throughs are open the evening before the birth of our lord and savior, but not on the blessed day itself.