It’s officially Christmas, which means that we must celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus Christ, and also enjoy having a drink or two more than normal.

But there is one alcoholic drink that sits above the rest as one of the main festive choices – this is, of course, Baileys.

The creamy drink is a nice base to have with hot chocolate or coffee around Christmas, and so it is also a common festive gift.

Even if you haven’t been gifted one, you might have one ready for the holiday season, and fair enough.

However, there is something that people keep making a mistake with when it comes to getting rid of the drink, especially once the celebrations are over.

Understandably, once you’re into the New Year and faced with the cold, harsh light of January, it doesn’t seem like a very appropriate drink, and it becomes the thing that remains in your fridge for months on end.

That’s a bit of a problem, though, because Baileys does have an expiration date, and if you are getting rid of it, there’s something you absolutely shouldn’t do.

While the drink company itself says it has a shelf life of two years from the date of bottling, opened or unopened, there are others who warn that you’d better quaff the lot within six months.

As a general rule of thumb, if the bottle is unopened, then it might be alright for two years, but once opened, you should probably finish it off within six months.

The drink contains dairy cream, which goes bad over time, and since you don’t want to chug a rancid drink, you might end up having to chuck it out.

Now, normally you’d think about pouring the expired beverage down the kitchen sink and sticking the bottle in the recycling, but according to the Daily Mirror, that’s not what you should do.

Do not pour it down the sink (Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

They report that tradesmen from MyBuilder.com have warned that Baileys can ‘wreak havoc’ with your plumbing, and even end up blocking your pipes.

Since dairy cream contains a lot of fat, it puts Baileys in the list of things that should never go down your sink.

The big three are fat, oil, and grease; they’re not good for your pipes, and can end up clogging your plumbing up which is really not what you need at this time of year, or any time really.

If you want to get rid of old, rancid Baileys properly, it seems as though the proper method is to pour the liquid contents into a container and then chuck that in your bin.

That’s how you get rid of the stuff that shouldn’t be going down your kitchen sink.