Christmas Charcuterie Board

Try this spectacular Christmas Charcuterie Board as an easy and festive appetizer at your next holiday party or gathering. Made with an assortment of cheese, cured meats, juicy red fruit, crunchy nuts and finished with festive holiday party. Garnish it with fresh rosemary sprigs for the ultimate Christmas vibe.

Can you think of a better and less stressful way to feed a crowd at a Holiday party or family gatherings than a gorgeous charcuterie board?

If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I have a slight obsession with themed charcuterie boards and like to make one for different holidays and occasions. This Fall Charcuterie Board made with Trader Joe’s items is perfect for Thanksgiving and the Easter Grazing Board is the ultimate spring brunch.

Since Christmas is the most magical holiday of all, I wanted the Christmas Board to be unique, festive and full of seasonal ingredients.

Jump to:

• What’s to love about this charcuterie board
• Ingredient Notes
• Step-by-step instructions for assembling a gorgeous Christmas charcuterie board
• Storing leftovers
• Serving suggestions
• Substitutions and variations
• Tips for assembling a spectacular charcuterie board
• Recipe FAQs
• More Holiday ideas
• Recipe
• You may also like
• Meet the Author

What’s to love about this charcuterie board

• It’s a perfect centerpiece, appetizer or finger food for holiday gatherings or Christmas dinner
• The red, white and green color palette makes it festive and fun
• Easy to make but looks spectacular
• It’s a great combination of flavors and textures
• No after party clean up – only one board to clean
• Easily customizable – use your favorite cheese, meat, fruit and crackers

This charcuterie board is featured in this post compiling 20 Best Appetizer Charcuterie Boards. Find some more board ideas there!

Ingredient Notes

If you want your board to look exactly like the one in my photos, here’s what you will need:

Cheese

The big star of this board is brie. Christmas without brie would definitely be incomplete. To make the brie extra special for the Holiday board, cut the top of the cheese off, spread red-colored preserve on the soft part of the cheese and use a Christmas cookie cutter to create a festive peep hole. See next section for a tutorial on how to do it.

My second cheese choice is British cheese I discovered during the Holidays at Costco a couple years ago: Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese. It is wonderfully creamy, crumbly and speckled with red cranberries. If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend you give it a try!

The third choice is plain old cheddar, which is easily accessible and liked by everyone. My favorite brands of cheddar cheese are Trader Joe’s Unexpected Cheddar, Irish Dubliner and Australian Old Crock. You can also use pre-sliced cheddar which works well with crackers.

Meat

You can never go wrong with cured Italian cold cuts. My favorite meats to use are salami (or coppa), soppressata and prosciutto and it just so happens that this set from Sam’s Club includes all three at a great price.

Fruit

For a festive look, I highly recommend to stick with red-colored fruit. I picked fresh strawberries, raspberries and pomegranate seeds. Getting pomegranate seeds out is a bit laborious but I love using pomegranate during the Holidays because it’s in season then and it looks like beautiful, shiny red rubies surrounded by whites and greens on the board.

Nuts

For this board I like light colored nuts so I went with pistachios, mostly because they’re our family’s favorite nut AND they are green inside, which fits the red-white-and-green theme beautifully.

Preserve

Anything red or reddish will work but I especially like the spicy red pepper jelly with brie. The one I used is mango pepper jelly I picked up at my local grocery store. Fig jam will also work.

Crackers

For a festive charcuterie board I decided to use crackers that are holiday-worthy and a bit more unique than Ritz or Wheat Thins.

Artisan Crisps by Rustic Bakery are slightly sweet and look absolutely stunning thanks to visible almonds, cherries and cacao nibs. If they sound like cookies, they’re not! Think more like savory biscotti.

My second choice are rosemary flavored Einkorn crackers by Jovial which are thin, snappy and delicious. The rosemary flavor is perfect for the Holidays.

Sweets

I knew I wanted this board to be white, red and green so when I saw that Cadbury makes these cute Mini Snow Balls, I instantly decided they’d be a perfect candy choice for the Christmas board. They taste similar to Cadbury Mini Easter Eggs, in case your wondering.

Something green

I like everything on my board to be edible so for the touch of green I went with fresh sprigs of rosemary. Not only do they look like mini pine branches but they also smell amazing.

Step-by-step instructions for assembling a gorgeous Christmas charcuterie board

STEP 1: Start with containers. Place pomegranate seeds and chocolate candy in small bowls and arrange on the board. I use the brie (still in packaging) as the focal point to help me plan where the 2 containers should be. You don't want the three items too close to each other.

Note: I like to line my board with parchment paper to make cleaning easy.

STEP 2: Prepare the brie. Using a serated knife, cut the top off the cheese. Smear some jam or preserve on the soft part of the remaing brie. Using a Christmas-themed cookie cutter, cut a snowflake shape in the center of the top part. Reassemble the cheese. See photos below for a visual reference.

Note: If you don't have a snowflake cutter, use a different shape: star, christmas tree or a bell would all work.

STEP3: Add cheese. Place the brie garnished with preserve on the board. Add the other 2 kinds of cubed cheese close to the edge of the board.

STEP 6: Time for meat! The easiest way to serve sliced meat on the board is to fold it in quarters or roll and fan it out. If you're into salami roses, you can certainly make one or two, but I find it awkward to eat. Place the meat around the brie.

STEP 5: Fill the gaps with fresh fruit, nuts and crackers. Then arrange fresh rosemary all around the edge for a festive look.

STEP 6: Add utensils: mini forks, spoons and cheese knives make serving the board easy and convenient. Serve the board as is or with a side of crackers and/or crusty bread.

Storing leftovers

If the board hasn’t been sitting out for too long, you can save some leftovers. I usually keep an eye on the amount of activity around the board. Once it looks like nobody is picking at it anymore, I take out a couple of glass airtight containers and salvage what I can.

Fruit, nuts and candy can always be saved and enjoyed later. When it comes to cheese, it’s up to you. If it still looks ok (not sweaty), you can save it and use it in scrambled eggs or mac and cheese.

Place leftovers in an airtight container or just a plate covered with plastic wrap. Store perishable items in the fridge and shelf-stable ingredients at room temperature.

I don’t recommend saving any meat if it’s been sitting out.

Serving suggestions

This charcuterie board offers a lot of flavors and food groups that go together so you don’t need much to serve with it. Wine, both red and white, is the perfect pairing. If you want more crackers or carbs, serve more on the side. Sliced up baguette on the side won’t hurt, either!

The one thing I always do when serving charcuterie boards is small paper plates and mini forks. It makes clean up a breeze!

Substitutions and variations

The best part about charcuterie boards is that they are completely customizable and you don’t need to stick to the recipe. The board I’ve created is meant to serve as inspiration and I encourage you to use whatever you have available.

Here’s a list of possible substitutions:

• Cheese: a mix of soft and hard cheeses will work best. My favorite choices include fontina, Gruyere, Colby Jack cheese, hvarti, gouda (regular or smoked), camembert and pepper jack. A goat cheese log could work if you don't have brie.
• Meat: different kinds of salami, capocollo, pepperoni, chorizo, summer sausage or fancy ham are all great options.
• Fruit: sliced red apple, fresh or dried cherries, dried cranberries, red grapes, green grapes, blueberries and blackberries.
• Nuts: marcona or regular almonds, walnuts, pecans, raw cashews or macadamia.
• Sweets: chocolate covered almonds, chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, seasonal treats such as Santa shaped chocolates etc.
• Crackers: wheat thins, buttery crackers, pretzel sticks, bread sticks.
• Preserve: fig spread, raspberry or cherry jam, honey.
• Something green: baby arugula or baby spinach, fresh herbs.

How to adjust to dietary restrictions

• Gluten-free: use gluten-free crackers.
• Vegetarian: skip cured meat and add another type of cheese.
• Paleo, keto or low-carb: skip the crackers, go easy on the fruit, use low-carb nuts such as macadamia, add paleo friendly veggies, olives and/or pickles. Cherry tomatoes are a great sub for red fruit.
• Pescatarian: use smoked salmon in place of meat. Check out this Smoked Salmon Charcuterie Board for some inspiration!

Tips for assembling a spectacular charcuterie board

• Make it look full - fill any empty spaces for a full and abundant look
• Offer a variety of cheese and a few different meats. That way your guests will have options, in case they don’t like something.
• Know your guests’ dietary restrictions. If you have someone who can’t have gluten, include at least one kind of gluten-free crackers. If you know at least one of your guests is vegan, add some veggies and plant-based foods to the board.
• Use different flavors and textures. It’s what makes a charcuterie successful. Mix crunchy with creamy, salty and sweet, strong and mellow – you get the idea!
• Invest in small utensils. This is very important! Think ahead and plan how your guests will help themselves to the various items on the board. Mini forks, spoons, tongs and cheese knives will make it easy.

Recipe FAQs

Recipe

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