Christmas Charcuterie Board: 7 Superb Ideas To Try Out This Festive Season!

Holidays are around the corner, and this means a reason for good food and celebration with your friends and family. Christmas is that time of the year when you, your family and friends break bread together, and it is the most joyous time of the year. And it makes perfect sense to celebrate this joyous moment with good food that is easy to make and tasty to eat. With a large group of friends and family, it can get hectic to cook a large batch of food and personally serve it to everyone. So, to make your job easier if you’re hosting, a charcuterie board is a great idea. A charcuterie board is the perfect assimilation of many foods that go well when paired together. Your guests can make their combination of the perfect bite, and you don’t have to worry about portion control or if everyone got their food served. So, let’s take a look at some amazing Christmas charcuterie board ideas that you can easily make!

How to assemble a charcuterie board?

Assembling a charcuterie board requires a few easy but very important steps that you cannot miss out on. For the first step, you need to pick out a theme for your board. It can be meat and cheese based, or completely veg, or a different combination of foods and snacks that you know your guests will like.

The second step is to use a board that will fit all of the food that you have thought of. It can be any wooden board. You can also spread the food out into two different boards. Mix and match your food on the board to give it an aesthetic look. Do not forget to add small portions to help fill the gaps in your board. And do not forget about dipping ingredients.

So, if you follow these steps, you are already close enough to make the perfect charcuterie board. You just need to stick to your vision and let your plan execute smoothly.

Christmas tree charcuterie board

Now, the first Christmas charcuterie board is a very simple yet elegant one. It is a charcuterie board shaped like a Christmas tree. For this board, all you need to do is assemble your food items. You can do a fully cured meat board with cheese and fruits. Or, if you want to be a bit more festive, you can add some dried fruits to it. Just make sure that all of the flavors on the board complement each other. Now, take a board, preferably a triangle in shape, and start arranging it. Start smaller, then increase the items in each row to make the shape of a Christmas tree. It’s an easy board to make and looks festive as well.

1. All meat charcuterie board

An all-meat charcuterie board is the most traditional but the most tricky to assemble. For this board, you need to ask your guests what type of meat they are comfortable with. Go for cured meat because other kinds of meat might cause health complications that you might not want. You can go with salami, prosciutto, ham, sausages, and even a bit of bacon. These types of meats complement each other very well. You can pair it with a couple of cheese options. And if you want to get extra crafty, put some crackers and grapes with honey in the middle as fillers.

2. All cheese charcuterie board

An all-cheese charcuterie board can get boring easily if you don’t pair it correctly. For this board, you need to hand-pick your cheese options. There should be a perfect ratio of hard cheese and soft cheese with a perfect balance of flavors. For hard and flaky cheese, you can never go wrong with parmesan and a well-aged gouda. For soft cheese, you can stick to burrata, mascarpone, or brie, and to give a change of flavors, you can spice your board up with a bit of blue cheese. Keep crackers and syrups to complement the cheese on your board.

3. Veggie Christmas charcuterie board

If you are hosting people who are vegetarian and they obviously cannot have the meat-based platter, it’s nice to have a vegetarian charcuterie board just in case. You can layer it with tomatoes, olives, iceberg lettuce, and various types of nuts and dry fruits. To make the board balanced and not too dry, keep various fruits like watermelon, grapes, etc with honey dips to complete it! This is a great option when you’re sticking to a budget and when meat gets a bit too expensive.

4. Fruit charcuterie board

A fruit charcuterie board might seem too tropical for the Christmas festivities, but if paired with the perfect wine. A fruit charcuterie board can be very refreshing. For this board, you just need to assemble everyone’s favorite fruit. Remember to ask people if they’re allergic to any fruits. You can keep watermelons, apples, grapes, plums, melons, etc. You can pair this with a cheese fondue bowl in the middle so that people can dip their fruit in the cheese. This is a great option if you’re having an afternoon party with a small bunch of people.

5. Christmas candy charcuterie board

A candy charcuterie board might seem way out there in terms of a meal, but if you’re having kids over, then this is the perfect option for them. Assemble a board with all types of candies. The most famous ones used are Twix and Mars bars, M&Ms, jellybeans, bonbons, and wafers of all kinds. You can even add melted chocolate if you want to. It will definitely win you points with the kids.

6. Leftover charcuterie board

If you have any leftover meats and veggies from the last occasion, you can easily put them into a charcuterie board. For example, if you have salamis, mushrooms, and sausages left over from Thanksgiving in the fridge, you can put them on the board with any type of veggies and cheeses that you want. If you also have some cheese left, you can also put it on the board.

7. Keto charcuterie board

A keto charcuterie board is easy to make as the keto diet consists of mainly protein and fats. Assemble the charcuterie board with a lot of high-protein meats. Keep some white meat for a balanced range of options. Now for the cheese, you need to put some options that are high in fat but low in carbs. Goat cheese and blue cheese are the perfect option for this type of board. You can also add cream cheese and parmesan to differentiate the texture a bit. Keep aside the crackers and fruits from this board because it’s not a part of the keto diet.

Conclusive Insights

So, we have come to the end of this blog. I hope that you like all of the Christmas charcuterie board options that we have given here. These are very easy to assemble and we can assure you that it’s going to be a hit with your guests of all ages. So, Merry Christmas, and don’t forget to try out these charcuterie board ideas! 

Frequently Asked Questions Section (F.A.Q.s)

1.     What is a Charcuterie board?

A charcuterie board is a wooden board usually assembled with preserved food like cured meats and cheeses, paired with crackers, dips, and breads. But you can assemble it with any type of food that you want.

2.     How to decorate a Christmas charcuterie board?

You can make the board in the shape of a Christmas tree, or you can color coordinate it according to the Christmas colors.