Christmas Charcuterie Board

Make a beautiful and festive Christmas Charcuterie Board with my easy formula and guide.

This simple Christmas charcuterie board follows an easy formula I created, to help me easily create beautiful boards for every holiday. With pops of red and green, it’s perfect to make for Christmas parties or to snack on while decorating the tree or opening presents.

Need snack boards for other holidays? Don’t miss out on my Halloween board and Thanksgiving board. Small changes can make them perfect for any occasion!

Simple Charcuterie Base Formula

My no-fail charcuterie board formula works for any size board. This recipe serves six, and can be easily doubled or more to feed a crowd.

The simple charcuterie formula is:

• 1 dip or condiment, like jam or mustard
• 2 cheeses
• 2 meats
• 2 styles of crackers
• 1 fresh fruit
• 1 dried fruit
• 1 type of nut

Christmas Charcuterie Ingredients

Once you have the above formula as your guide, it’s easy to pick specific ingredients to match your theme or holiday. For Christmas, green and red are the colors that come to mind, so I wanted those to be the stand out colors for my snack board.

To get some green on my board, I decided to make a cheese ball with pistachio and parsley. The red comes from the fresh raspberries and the condiment I created with cranberry jelly and some hot sauce. Cranberry is a great holiday flavor and I also found some yogurt-covered cranberries to add to the board as my dried fruit.

Other than the goat cheese for the cheese ball, you can pick your favorites for the meat and cheese. I went with Swiss cheese because I wanted something white to not clash with the red and green. I like salami and prosciutto for the meat, but feel free to switch it up.

You can find the festive toothpicks with Christmas trees, reindeer, and snowflakes online or check your local party store for other options.

How To Make A Christmas Charcuterie Board

To make this Christmas themed charcuterie board, first select a 10-inch round board, plate, or platter. If you usually make a rectangular board, then you can take a look at my Charcuterie Board guide for an idea of how to lay it out.

Then, in a small bowl mix together the cranberry sauce and hot sauce. It will take a minute or two for the jelled cranberry sauce to become smooth. So don’t give up, keep stirring! Transfer the mixture into a small ramekin and place this near the corner or edge of the board or platter as a focal point. 

Finely chop a quarter cup of the pistachios and combine them in a small bowl with the minced parsley.  Roll the goat cheese into a ball. I find it helpful to wet my hands to prevent the cheese from sticking to them while rolling. Place the ball of goat cheese into the bowl with the parsley mixture and turn to coat evenly.

Transfer the goat cheese ball to the board or platter, opposite from the cranberry sauce. Then, place the Swiss cheese along the edge of the board or platter, next to the goat cheese ball.

Arrange the crackers around the edge of the board or platter, on either side of the cranberry sauce. Add the meats and raspberries in the middle of the board or platter, and then fill in the spaces with the remaining one cup of pistachios and the yogurt-covered cranberries. Now it’s time to snack and enjoy your Christmas Charcuterie Board!

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