Drink mixes free up time for decorating party spaces or wooing potential attendees with love poems written in hourglass sand. Set time aside for personalized details with today's Groupon: for $20, you get $40 worth of powdered drink mixes from McSteven's Inc. Though shipping is not included with today's Groupon, McSteven's will ship anywhere in the continental United States for a flat rate of $6.95.

The local McSteven's factory has churned out calendar-spanning holiday cheer with cocoa, cider, and other gourmet drink mixes for 30 years, earning a feature in the Columbian. Autumn-inspired flavors flood tins of Snoopy's harvest-spice cocoa mix ($7.95), each of which serves six imbibers or an infinite number of cartoon children with a chocolaty sip endorsed by the Peanuts gang. Breathe new life into floundering bashes with Tiki Drinks lime-margarita mix ($5.95) or a college-themed hot chocolate cloaked in colors to match the uniforms of champion football teams ($7.95 each). Caramel-apple cider ($7.95) warms fingers after jumping through piles of leaves or competing in hide-and-seek matches against scarecrows.