COLORFUL
You can make a beautiful Christmas Tree Charcuterie Board to feed your holiday guests and wow them with your table decor in just a few minutes.
Charcuterie boards are very popular right now and everyone does a lot of the same things, but you can make a beautiful board in the shape of a Christmas Tree with all the traditional ingredients like soft cheese, fresh fruit, deli meat, vegetables, and herbs. The fresh rosemary looks like evergreen stems and the brightly colored ingredients mimic the decorations on a holiday tree. Your holiday gatherings will be the talk of the town with your festive Christmas Charcuterie Board and all the great options it offers for everyone at your party.
Making a Christmas cheese board is great to get a lot of different foods in one place, but it is not the main dish for the night. Needing to feed the people at your holiday party is a bigger commitment, and I like to have quite a few snacks ready when people start to arrive. A family favorite for us is to make homemade pretzels the day before and a delicious beer cheese dip to go with them. I can keep the beer cheese dip in a crockpot for people to serve out in small bowls to go with the soft and chewy pretzels.
Why You’ll Love This Christmas Tree Charcuterie Board
- A beautiful cheese platter with seasonal fruits and vegetables
- Can be tailored to any dietary restrictions necessary easily
- You can make it as big or small as you need to
- Easily add in Christmas Cookies, Christmas Candies, and other sweet items to complement the cheese and meat
- Fun to have out before the main course for people to have as appetizers and finger food
- You can choose ingredients that match any color scheme or your decor choices
Ingredients:
- Fresh Rosemary
- cheddar cheese, cubed
- pepper jack cheese, cubed
- Colby cheese, cubed
- fresh mozzarella balls
- cherry tomatoes (halved)
- black olives, cured and pitted
- green olives, cured and pitted
- pepperoni (sliced)
- salami (sliced)
- green seedless grapes
- red seedless grapes
- pretzel sticks
See the recipe card for quantities.
How to Make a Christmas Charcuterie Board
- Use a large rectangular platter or wooden cutting board.
- Place your pretzels vertically at the bottom of the platter/board to create the trunk of the tree.
- Then lay a row of fresh rosemary horizontally across the bottom of the board to establish the base of your tree.
- After that, just begin placing your ingredients in thin, shorter rows to create a triangle.
- Make sure as you are assembling your tree to plan it out using a mix of colors!
- Continue by laying the pepperoni slices
- Then add a mixture of the pepper jack and Colby cheeses
- Next, a row of black olives
- Then a row of green grapes.
- Next, lay another row of rosemary to create branches throughout the tree.
- Then, add your salami and mozzarella balls. This is important because you want to fold your salmi in half and use the mozzarella balls to prop the slices up.
- Add another row of rosemary, then place your cheddar cheese and green olives.
- Continue adding rows of rosemary throughout the assembly to create the look of tree branches.
- Lastly, add your tomatoes and red grapes
- Use a star-shaped cookie cutter (or a paring knife) to cut out a star from a slice of Colby cheese
- Place the star on top and add little springs of rosemary throughout and you’re all set!
- Serve with club crackers, pretzels, or bread chips
Substitutions
You can use whatever ingredients you like that can sit at room temperature for extended periods of time:
- Hard Cheeses
- Soft Cheeses
- Slices of Meat
- Bell Pepper
- Fig Jam
- Seasonal Produce
- Creamy Dip
- Spreadable Cheeses/ Cream Cheese
- Bread squares
- Pretzels
- Chocolate
- Red Pepper
- Goat Cheese log
- Vegan Charcuterie Board choices
- Sugared Cranberries
- Dried Fruit
- Cranberry Sauce
- A variety of Green Foods and Red Foods
Variations
What you put your charcuterie ingredients on is also something you can have fun creating with:
- Large Wooden Board
- Cutting Board
- Large Platter
- Small Bowls
- Medium Bowls
- Slate board
- Any large flat Surface that can be cleaned
- A countertop with parchment or butcher paper
- A large baking sheet
Equipment
- Large round platter or wooden board
- Star-shaped cookie cutter
- Sharp Knife
Storage
Wrap the tree well in plastic and store it in the fridge.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Recipe:
You could substitute pepperoni, or even just tear up pieces of prosciutto to add to the wreath.
Yes, Havarti, Swiss, Monterey Jack, and gouda are all good choices. Stay away from anything too crumbly as it will be hard to serve these in the wreath.
Those tend to get a little messy. If you can find grape tomatoes, those could be cut in half. Otherwise, you could use slices of red bell peppers, or even baby carrots to get a little more color into your wreath.
It really depends on the temperature of the environment you are serving it in. It should not be left out any more than 2 hours at the most.
Top Tip!
My biggest tip for your holiday snack board is to have fun. Use your favorite things to build your board and if it doesn’t look perfect that is ok, it is going to be torn apart and eaten anyway.
INGREDIENTS
- Fresh Rosemary , sprigs
- 8 oz Cheddar Cheese, cubes
- 8 oz Pepper Jack Cheese, cubes
- 8 oz Colby Cheese, cubes
- 8 oz Fresh Mozzarella, balls
- 1 cup Cherry Tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup Black Olives, cured and pitted
- 1 cup Green Olives, cured and pitted
- 4 oz Pepperoni, sliced
- 4 oz Salami, sliced
- 11/2 cups grapes, purple and green, seedless
- Slice of Colby Jack Cheese, 1 slice for star
- 1/4 cup Pretzel Sticks
INSTRUCTIONS
- Use a large rectangular platter or wooden cutting board.
- Place your pretzels vertically at the bottom of the platter/board to create the trunk of the tree.
- Then lay a row of fresh rosemary horizontally across the bottom of the board to establish the base of your tree.
- After that, just begin placing your ingredients in thin, shorter rows to create a triangle.
- Make sure as you are assembling your tree to plan it out using a mix of colors!
- Continue by laying the pepperoni slices
- Then add a mixture of the pepper jack and colby cheeses
- Next, a row of black olives. Then a row of green grapes.
- Next, lay another row of rosemary to create branches throughout the tree.
- Then, add your salami and mozzarella balls. This is important because you want to fold your salmi in half and use the mozzarella balls to prop the slices up.
- Add another row of rosemary, then place your cheddar cheese and green olives.
- Continue adding rows of rosemary throughout the assembly to create the look of tree branches.
- Lastly, add your tomatoes and red grapes
- Use a star shaped cookie cutter (or a paring knife) to cut out a star from a slice of colby cheese
- Place the star on top and add little springs of rosemary throughout and you're all set!
- Serve with club crackers, pretzels or bread chips!
NOTES
- Know that you can place and choose ingredients to your liking! This takes a little bit of finessing and you may find olives and grapes rolling around on your board a bit but once you start, it’s pretty easy to fill in and create a cute, decorative board!
Food safety
Only use foods that are safe to be at room temperature for a few hours at a time, make sure you are using cured meats and cheeses that can stay “warm” for a while. Don’t use any dips or spreads that have mayonnaise as a base or other ingredients that will spoil quickly at room temperature.
Absolutely love this idea
Thank you! 🙂
This looks so fun and delicious!
Love this fun and festive Charcuterie idea!!!
This is adorable and sou do delicious. I can’t wait to try this.
This was on my to-do list this year. Looks like it’s not happening for me lol but yours is so beautiful!
This looks so beautiful! And I love how you’ve layed it out with the photos!
I appreciate the step by step making the arrangement! Beautiful presentation!