Holiday drinkers in Whitehorse helped break the previous one-day sales record for beer, wine and spirits at the Yukon's central liquor corporation outlet Dec. 23.

Booze purchases totalled $191,000 by day's end, $8,000 more than last season.

For much of the 23rd and on Christmas Eve, lineups for the five cashiers at the Whitehorse outlet stretched to the back of the store.

Across the territory, total December sales of alcohol were up 6.7 per cent compared to December 2008, said Virginia Labelle, the Yukon Liquor Corporation's vice-president, while sales at the Whitehorse Liquor Store this past month rose by 9.4 per cent.

"It's something we plan for every year well in advance to make sure we have enough stock in the warehouse and at the stores,” Labelle said of pre-Christmas preparations.

As beer accounts for nearly half of all alcohol purchases in the Yukon, a two per cent across-the-board increase in suds' prices accounts for much of the dollar spike in sales, Labelle added.

Last year, the liquor corporation added 50 wines to its list of vineyard merchandise, including those from New Zealand, Italy and Canadian VQA products.

Draft beer from the Yukon Brewing Company continues to outsell import draft in the territory, said Labelle.

"And having won the beer of the year award – that certainly helped (sales),” she said, referring to Yukon Red, which won top prize at this year's Canadian Brewing Awards.

This year, the Yukon Liquor Corporation generated $10.5 million in revenue for government coffers.