A Christmas Charcuterie Board is a fun, festive, delightful way to entertain and feed guests this special time of year. You can customize it with your guest's favorite meats, cheeses, vegetables, fruits, crackers, nuts, and dips. It's also a fun food project the kids can help with!
If you love entertaining, and you love celebrating Christmas, then you will absolutely adore this Christmas Charcuterie Board!
Food boards like this are so great for any type of home entertaining. We make a fun Turkey Charcuterie Board for Thanksgiving.
Dessert boards are fun, too! Check out this sweet Valentine's Day Dessert Board, and this patriotic 4th of July Dessert Board.
And of course, a classic grazing table or a Brunch Charcuterie Board is always a crowd pleaser.
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🌟 Why this recipe works
Charcuterie boards are perfect for so many occasions, and they're especially a great way to celebrate Christmas!
- It's an easy yet beautiful way to serve appetizers and finger food.
- You can customize the look of your board to fit your theme.
- Charcuterie boards are versatile: use your favorite meats, cheeses, nuts, fruits, and veggies!
- Perfect for picky eaters: grazing boards like this make it easy for everyone to snack on a food they love and avoid foods they don't!
- They're so simple and easy to make. There really are no hard and fast rules. Get creative, have fun, and make it your own!
🛒 Ingredient notes
In general, a Christmas charcuterie board will have the following ingredients. I've provided some suggestions for foods that I have found to work well on charcuterie boards, but feel free to use this list as inspiration and add your own!
Meat - Try making charcuterie roses out of sliced pepperoni and/or salami. Fill in with strips of prosciutto, bowls of marinated chicken bites.
Cheese - I like to use at least three cheeses on meat and cheese boards: one soft cheese, one hard cheese, and one sliced or cubed cheese. For soft cheeses, try brie, goat cheese, camembert. For hard cheeses, try Parmigiano-Reggiano, Emmenthaler, or aged cheddar. Try sliced Provolone, Havarti, or Colby and cubed Cheddar or marinated Mozzarella or Feta cheeses.
Fruits & Vegetables - To go with the Christmas theme, stick with reds and greens. Think strawberries, cranberries, tomatoes, and red bell peppers for red fruits and vegetables. For green produce, go for green grapes, cucumber slices, green apple slices, and broccoli florets.
Crackers - It's fun to use a variety of shapes and flavors of crackers. Think long thin and tall breadsticks, wide rosemary crackers, and classic round wafer crackers. If you're limited on space, using just one style is fine!
Nuts - Almonds are a classic nut to include in charcuterie boards. But also try pecans and walnuts, which are great for fall and winter. Use a bowl to corral the nuts in one place.
Dips - Fig jam is great for Christmas charcuterie boards. You can also use orange marmalade if you're having a brunch celebration, and then bowls of hummus, onion dip, or veggie dip.
✅ Step-by-step instructions
- Lay out the board and any plates or outer decorations. If creating any cheese greetings using mini alphabet cookie cutters, cut those out now and set them aside. Or, go ahead and place them on the board where you would like them.
2. Start by placing the bottom outer layers first. For me, this was the "wreath" outline: the sprigs of rosemary.
3. Next, place any salami or pepperoni roses in opposite corners to balance the board. Then place any other meat slices next to them.
4. Then start placing the crackers in, and then the cheeses.
5. Work in layers going around in a circular shape, layering cheese, sliced cucumbers, sliced red peppers, broccoli, and other fruits and vegetables.
6. Place a bowl in the center filled with cranberries, then fill in the cherry or grape tomatoes around to resemble holly on the charcuterie wreath.
7. Fill in empty spaces with grapes, nuts, and more meat, cheese, fruit, and vegetables. Feel free to move food around for better placement and distribution of color.
Serve with bowls of jam, veggie dip, hummus or other dips. Try my easy spinach dip recipe! It's perfect for dunking veggies!
👩🏻🍳 Recipe FAQs
The French term "charcuterie" refers to meat. But today people all over the world use the term charcuterie to describe almost any kind of board that includes a variety of food, including meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, nuts, crackers, and jams or jellies.
You can prepare this board and refrigerate it 2-3 hours in advance (up to 24 hours max) of serving. Just leave the crackers out until you are ready to serve, since those can get stale.
In general, charcuterie boards like this one will feed about 10-12 people. Plan for about 1 to 2 ounces of meat and cheese per person, about 5-8 crackers per person, as well as about 1 cup of fruits, vegetables, and nuts per person. You know your guests best; these are very general guidelines. It always helps to have extras of everything ready to fill in blank spots throughout the night.
A board with meats and cheeses like this should not sit out at room temperature for longer than 2 hours, max. At around 90 minutes, you can switch out the meats and cheeses if you like with fresh reserves you have prepared in advance. That way, your charcuterie board will be refreshed and able to sit out for a bit longer.
🎄 Presentation ideas
This Christmas Charcuterie Board can be made in any festive shape you like! In addition to the filled wreath you see here, try one of these fun ideas:
- Create a Christmas tree shaped charcuterie board using a large cheese star cutout for the top of the tree. Use rosemary sprigs for the leaves. Start at the top with a small layer of food, then add a new layer below that is a bit wider, and another, and another, so on. Then use nuts for the base of the tree.
- Outline a Christmas stocking using crackers or nuts. Then create diagonal rows of food to resemble classic striped Christmas fireplace stockings.
- Create a gingerbread man charcuterie board. Outline the gingerbread man shape with nuts or crackers, then fill in with the meats, cheeses, fruits, and veggies. Use broccoli to give the gingerbread man some hair. Use veggie sticks for the gingerbread man's arms and/or legs.
🍽 Serving ideas
This charcuterie board is perfect for serving as an appetizer or starter for Christmas parties and Christmas dinner.
If serving this at a party, serve hearty finger food appetizers like Instant Pot Cranberry Meatballs, Vegan Stuffed Mushrooms, and/or Air Fryer Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp.
Serving this as a starter for Christmas dinner? Follow it up with a French Beef Bourguignon, Air Fryer Lobster Tail, or One-Pan Sirloin Roast with Potatoes for the main course.
For sides, serve this adorable and tasty Christmas Tree Pull-Apart Bread, Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes, or Creamy Confetti Corn.
And for dessert, make this impressive yet easier-to-make-than-you-think Gingerbread Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling. Or try this easy Gingerbread Loaf with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting.
🍷 🥂 Wine pairings
Since this board has a variety of savory food, you can serve both white and red wine with it. Rosé wine and sparkling wine would also be fantastic pairings, especially when this is served as an appetizer before the main meal!
More easy charcuterie board recipes
Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to leave a 5-Star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card, and if you really loved it, please leave a comment further down on the page. Thank you!
Christmas Charcuterie Board
Equipment
- 1 brie cheese
Ingredients
- several fresh rosemary sprigs
- 20 pepperoni slices
- 20 salami slices
- 1 block (8 ounce) cheese, sliced
- 2 cucumbers, sliced
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- Assortment of crackers
- 1 cup green grapes
- ½ cup almonds or other nuts (Pecans, Cashews, Walnuts)
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
Instructions
- Lay out the board and any plates or outer decorations. If creating any cheese greetings using mini alphabet cookie cutters, cut those out now and set them aside. Or, go ahead and place them on the board where you would like them.
- Start by placing the bottom outer layers first. For me, this was the "wreath" outline: the sprigs of rosemary.
- Next, place any salami or pepperoni roses in opposite corners to balance the board. Then place any other meat slices next to them.
- Then start placing the crackers in, and then the cheeses.
- Work in layers going around in a circular shape, layering cheese, sliced cucumbers, sliced red peppers, broccoli, and other fruits and vegetables.
- Place a bowl in the center filled with cranberries, then fill in the cherry or grape tomatoes around to resemble holly on the charcuterie wreath.
- Fill in empty spaces with grapes, nuts, and more meat, cheese, fruit, and vegetables. Feel free to move food around for better placement and distribution of color.
- Serve with bowls of jam, veggie dip, hummus or other dips.
Notes
• Meats: pepperoni, hard salami slices, prosciutto • Cheeses: brie, cheddar, gouda, mozzarella, swiss, havarti, feta crumbles • Fruit: green grapes, pear slices, green apple slices, cranberries, kiwi • Nuts: pecans, almonds, walnuts • Herbs: sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme, or sage Make ahead: you can make this Christmas charcuterie board 2-3 hours ahead and store, wrapped with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator. Just leave the crackers out until you are ready to serve and add those last, as they won't do well in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is a general estimate. Actual nutrition details may vary depending on the exact foods & brands you use to make this recipe. It does not take into account any substitutions, toppings, or optional ingredients.
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