How Christie Brinkley Is Spending the Holidays with Her Family (Hint: Plenty of Prosecco!)

When it comes to celebrating the holidays, Christie Brinkley knows how to do it right.

The model tells PEOPLE she usually heads to her place in the Caribbean with her family, where they soak up the end of the year island-style.

“We all get together and have a bonfire on the beach with fireworks on New Years,” she says. “We go paddle boarding and sailing and snorkeling and just relax so we’re good and ready to start the new year.”

To go along with her holiday in the sun, Brinkley created a prosecco-based drink (recipe below) using her new line, Bellissima.

“Prosecco is like the new champagne,” she says. “For the first time prosecco has surpassed champagne in sales so it’s the drink of the moment and just pouring a glass in a flute already looks like a celebration, so I thought how do you improve on that?”

Brinkley, 62, says the key to adding a festive touch to your usual glass of bubbles, is dropping in a few cranberries.

“It turns it the prettiest color,” she says. “And I also floated a cranberry on it and a mint leaf and a lime on the side so you have the red and green. It tastes a lot like a margarita, which is a drink I always love as well. For me its always between a prosecco and a margarita so it’s the perfect blend of both.”To keep her fit figure while wining and dining during the holidays, Brinkley says her go-to dish is usually a vegetable plate with hummus and guacamole. Instead of corn chips, she often tries chips made out of beans or quinoa.

“And we all know how good avocados are for you,” she says. “You’re really not splurging that much.”