If everything is better with bacon, then Christmas is nothing without eggnog. In fact, much like the holiday season itself, it’s a shame it’s not celebrated all year long.

I love eggnog. Take away the presents, the pageantry, the onslaught of mushy Christmas-themed TV specials. Forget the anxiety of gift buying. Just give me eggnog and I’m content.

This infatuation came before I realized all the things you can cook with eggnog. If you make something with eggs and milk, you can make it with eggnog. Cookies, bread, cheesecake, pie, pancakes, French toast, eggnog milkshakes, muffins. Eggnog latte, eggnog deviled eggs — maybe not.

Eggnog, my friends, is the gateway food that will create the attitudinal tipping point toward creating joy and goodwill throughout the year.

Scoff if you like. I’ve heard one comment suggesting the season wouldn’t be the same without the somewhat guilty pleasure of eggnog. Others say offering it year-round would somehow diminish its specialness.

Myself and other self-identified closeted noggers would disagree. I’m sure vanilla ice cream was once a novelty. Now you can’t live without it any time of the year. My guess is there’s a vast population of underserved eggnog lovers that rivals that of so many so-called novelty foods. If only eggnog was like Girl Scout cookies and could be frozen more than six months without losing its quality. 

Perhaps resistance to year-round acceptance resides in the amount of calories in a typical eggnog recipe. To that I say, surely agricultural and food science have answers to lowering both the caloric and cholesterol content of a single-serving of eggnog to below that of three Big Macs. It’s not far-fetched to image eggnog product development following the typical cycle of innovation. While eggnog might be expensive to produce now to make it profitable, cycling those profits back into research and development could one day provide a tasty heart-healthy, fat-free everyday product on par with milk.

In parallel with the research, producers could create advocacy surrounding the many benefits of eggnog. The first place I would offer free samples is on airline flights. Irate passengers? Cranky kids? Who wants eggnog?

Advocacy campaign theme: Got eggnog?

Not having eggnog year-round is a sacred chicken whose time has come. Perhaps the only controversy surrounding eggnog is how it’s spelled. Is it one word or two? My answer — it’s delicious.

So let’s all come together and resolve that during the New Year we make the spirit of Christmas, and by Christmas I mean eggnog, last all year long.

Nog if you agree.

(Dave Donley, of Durango, Colorado, is the “It's Not Rocket Science” columnist)