Thanks DU! My cranberry liqueurs are now brewing away!
I took the advice of some of you and went with the Kirkland Vodka.
Three of the large-size bottles. (My husband calls them "handles" but they don't actually have handles).
Anyway, as some were talking about trying this themselves, here are some helpful hints I learned so you don't have to!
Cranberries are very hard and almost impossible to hand-crush, so I had to chop them fine.
This is by far the longest and most laborious part of the process.
If you have a food-processor you could probably save a lot of time & effort that spent.
If you are going to hand-chop the cranberries, like me, the best tool to use this one of these:
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The finer you chop the cranberries (I'm told) the richer the flavor will be.
Turns out: 12 oz of cranberries and 1 &1/2 cups of sugar is a tight fit in a quart mason jar.
After you put the cranberries in, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you add the sugar BEFORE the vodka.
This is best way I found:
Pour in enough sugar to fill the quart jar, then carefully pour just enough vodka to wet the sugar and melt it down enough to add more.
Keep doing this until all the 1 & 1/2 cups of sugar have been added. It helps to have a chopstick or other poking tool to get the sugar and vodka to filter down into the cranberries.
After all the sugar is added, then pour more vodka until the quart is full. Give it a good shake and then add more vodka. Keep doing that until you don't have any more air in the quart.
Congrats!
Now all you have to do is set it aside, and shake it twice a day for six weeks. Keep adding vodka as the sugar dissolves. The goal is to keep any air pockets to a minimum.
Six weeks from now is technically after Christmas, but, if you believe (as I do) that the Christmas season lasts until Jan. 6th, you can still make some for Christmas.
I only needed the quantity of vodka I mentioned because I'm making 8 quarts: 6 for family and friends, one for me, and one extra in case there's someone I've forgotten.
I'm going to decorate each of the mason jars with a handwritten tag tied with red/white twine, a cinnamon stick, and jingle bells.
IMPORTANT EDIT:
When the six weeks are over, strain out the chopped cranberries! You'll need to decant into another container, and then store in the refrigerator! If you want to add more vodka to make it a whole quart, the flavor will be less intense and more like flavored vodka. It's up to you, a personal preference thing.
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Yes, three large bottles were VERY reasonable!!
bet it would be good in a glass of champagne 
