Christmas Charcuterie Board

This festive Christmas charcuterie board is the perfect appetizer idea for holiday parties and family gatherings. Easily customize your board with your favorite meats, cheeses, and crackers!

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We love any excuse to enjoy a good charcuterie board, so we’re taking advantage of the holiday season and eating all the cheese and meat we can! Which means we’ve created the best Christmas charcuterie board to help you gear up for the next few weeks of eating, drinking, and being merry.

If you’re hosting any gatherings this Christmas season, a classic charcuterie board with a variety of cheese, meats, and crackers is the perfect appetizer for your guests to graze on while sipping a holiday cocktail like our Mistletoe Mules (get the recipe here). All you have to do is select your favorite cheese night snacks and arrange them on a beautiful serving board, and your charcuterie will be the talk of the night.

A large wooden charcuterie board topped with festive meats, cheeses, and crackers for Christmas

What To Put On A Christmas Charcuterie Board

So what do you put on a cheese platter or serving board for your Christmas party? Here are a few ideas based on what we used for our festive holiday charcuterie board:

  • Herb goat cheese
  • Aged cheddar cheese
  • Smoked gouda
  • Brie cheese spread and/or slices of brie
  • A variety of meats, such as: pepperoni, chorizo, and soppressata
  • A variety of crackers, such as: everything spice sourdough flatbreads, olive oil and sea salt Tuscan crisps, and Triscuit thin crisps
  • Rosemary roasted almonds
  • Glazed pecans
  • Fresh rosemary sprigs, for a festive holiday garnish

The herb goat cheese, fresh rosemary sprigs, pepperoni, chorizo, and soppressata add Christmas greens and reds to this charcuterie board. These three meats also pair well with the variety of cheeses for some interesting flavors and textures, perfect for grazing. We recommend selecting a few of your favorite meat and cheese pairings for your holiday charcuterie board, and seeing if you can incorporate some festive colors along the way.

Herb goat cheese and soppressata among other meats, cheeses, crackers, and nuts on a charcuterie board

How To Make A Christmas Charcuterie Board

If you’ve never built a charcuterie board, you might be wondering what goes on first! There are a lot of components and it can be daunting figuring out where to start. But don’t be intimidated – we have a simple process that you can follow to help you build the best Christmas charcuterie board for your guests:

  1. Start with items that have defined shapes, like bowls of nuts, fruit, jams, or spreads. In the case of this Christmas charcuterie board, we started by placing the bowl of rosemary roasted almonds, the brie cheese spread, and the herb goat cheese.
  2. Next, place your meats and cheeses – these are the star of the show! You can curve slices of cheese and meat around any bowls or other shapes already on the board for a natural, organic look. Pile up the cheddar cubes in one or multiple spots on the board.
  3. Fill in any larger gaps with crackers, dispersing a variety of textures and colors across the board.
  4. Finally, fill in any smaller remaining gaps with loose ingredients like candied nuts or dried fruit and garnishes such as rosemary sprigs.
An easy Christmas charcuterie board idea with various meats, cheeses, and crackers

Last but not least, don’t forget to include spreaders or cheese knives if you have spreads, jams, or blocks of cheese on the board. You’ll want to give your guests an easy way to serve themselves. Plus, decorative spreader knives are a great way to add some festive cheer to your themed charcuterie board!

Tip: Make sure to use the proper size serving board for your charcuterie, depending on the number of guests you plan to serve. We love this gorgeous Acacia wood charcuterie board for serving larger crowds since it’s 2 feet long – perfect for guests to pick at without getting in each other’s way.

A Christmas charcuterie board with brie spread, pepperoni, chorizo, soppressata, cheddar, and other fixings

Whether you’re hosting Christmas eve at your place or signed up to bring an appetizer to your family holiday party, you really can’t go wrong with a thoughtfully designed charcuterie board. Savory meats, cheeses, nuts, and crackers offer a variety of flavors and textures that will please every guest – and hold them over until dinnertime. Try our Christmas charcuterie board idea following the recipe below and share your beautiful boards with us on Instagram by tagging @candidcooksblog and #thecandidcooks! We can’t wait to see what you create.


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Christmas Charcuterie Board

This festive Christmas charcuterie board is the perfect appetizer idea for holiday parties and family gatherings. Easily customize your board with your favorite meats, cheeses, and crackers!
Servings 8 people
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 4 oz herbed goat cheese
  • 3 oz aged cheddar cubed
  • 3 oz smoked gouda sliced
  • 3.5 oz brie cheese spread
  • 3 oz brie cheese sliced
  • 2 oz uncured chorizo sliced
  • 2 oz soppressata sliced
  • 2 oz pepperoni sliced
  • ½ cup roasted almonds
  • ½ cup glazed pecans
  • Everything spice sourdough flatbreads
  • Olive oil and sea salt Tuscan crisps
  • Triscuit thin crisps
  • 3 to 5 fresh rosemary sprigs for garnishing the board

Instructions

  • First, add the roasted almonds to a small bowl. Arrange the almonds, brie cheese spread, and goat cheese on the serving board.
  • Next, arrange the cheeses and meats on the board, dispersing ingredients evenly.
  • Fill in large gaps with crackers, dispersing different kinds of crackers across the board. Then fill in smaller gaps with glazed pecans and garnish with rosemary sprigs.
  • Serve immediately with spreader knives for the brie cheese spread and goat cheese.

Notes

Rosemary roasted almonds: We love including rosemary roasted almonds on our holiday charcuterie boards for something a little extra special. You can easily make these by roasting almonds tossed in olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary in the oven. We learned how from this MasterClass by Alice Waters.
Charcuterie board ideas: This recipe is just one idea for a holiday themed charcuterie board – you can customize it to fit your tastes and budget however you’d like! We recommend planning at least 4 kinds of cheese, 3 kinds of meat, and a few crunchy snacks so you have enough variety in texture and flavor.
Building a charcuterie board: Charcuterie boards are a blank canvas for you to create whatever spread you can imagine. Start with items that have defined shapes, like bowls or solid blocks of cheese, and then use the other ingredients to slowly fill in around them however you’d like. Don’t be afraid to get creative!
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Author: Nicole
Calories: 370kcal
Course: Appetizer, Appetizers, Snack, Snacks
Cuisine: American, French, Italian
Keyword: almonds, brie cheese, brie cheese spread, charcuterie, cheddar cheese, chorizo, christmas, fresh rosemary, glazed pecans, graham crackers, herb goat cheese, holiday, party, pepperoni, smoked gouda, soppressata

Nutrition

Calories: 370kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 69mg | Sodium: 654mg | Potassium: 174mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 486IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 244mg | Iron: 1mg

If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this post, please refer to our Nutrition Disclaimer here.

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