Festive Christmas tree charcuterie and cheese board

💚Why you'll love it

• Perfect for holiday season - I don't know about you, but for me the month of December is full of holiday parties and family gatherings. And let's be honest, it can be quite challenging to find new creative ideas...but trust me, this board will add the perfect festive touch to your holiday party!
• Really quick and easy to prepare - all you have to do is gather your favorite ingredients and put them on a board, in the shape of a Christmas tree. Couldn't be easier and quicker!
• Customizable - basically, you can put anything you like on it! And there are so many possible options (regarding cheeses, meats, fruit, breads, etc...) that the choice is almost infinite!

🧀 Ingredients

You can find a full list of ingredients and measurements in the recipe card below. Here are my suggestions and variations to make this festive charcuterie board.

Cheeses 

Use an assortment of delicious cheeses with different textures:

• Hard cheeses such as Swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, Gouda cheese, Parmesan cheese or Brie cheese.
• Semi-soft cheeses such as goat cheese, blue cheese or mozzarella balls. 
• Cream cheese in a small container can also be a great addition!

Breads

Don't forget to add ingredients that will allow your guests to enjoy their cheeses or have something hard to put into dips or jams.

• Croutons
• Slices of bread or baguette (that's the French in me!)
• Mini bretzels
• Savory cookies
• Crackers

Charcuterie

Having a variety of meats is important for the best festive Christmas charcuterie board. Here are great options:

• Classic ham or smoked ham
• Prosciutto
• Sausage
• Chorizo
• Salami

Fruits

​I recommend to use a mix of fresh and dried fruits to have a very complete board:

• Fresh fruit - black or green grapes, oranges, clementines,...
• Dried fruits - almonds, cashews, walnuts, etc...
• I've seen some boards with cherry tomatoes, but if you're like me and eat what's in season, they're not really an option.

Other options

I sometimes vary from what you can see in the photos, depending on what I want and what I have in my cupboards. For example, I can add :

• Jams to go with meats: strawberry jam/red berries jam.
• Olives: you can use black or green olives.
• Pickles
• Sweet treats such as candy canes, sugar cookies, cinnamon shortbread cookies, Graham crackers, or chocolate.
• To decorate: rosemary sprigs (use fresh rosemary), pomegranate seeds and Pretzel sticks to form the trunk of the tree.

🍴Utensils

For the board

If you're wondering which board you should use for this Christmas themed-board, I recommend a large cutting board. Mine is 10.6 inch x 14,.5 inch, which is quite large.

But you can use anything that you have at home: wooden board, metal board, stone board, pizza board, etc... And if you have a smaller board or larger one, no problem, just adapt the quantities of ingredients.

And a cheese knife would be a real bonus!

✨How to make this gorgeous Christmas charcuterie board?

Recipe quantities and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

• Place the ingredient of your choice to form the very first line, at the bottom of your "tree". I used cheddar cubes.
• Next, place the second line with fruits, for me it was green grapes.

• Then the 3rd line with meat, here it was sausage.
• The 4th with croutons (or bread, something to spread on cheese, for example).
• And the 5th with clementine wedges (or any other fruit).

• For the 6th line, another meat, I used classic ham.
• For the 7th line, dried fruit or nuts, I used cashew nuts.
• And the 8th line is made with another cheese, here Brie cheese cubes. Each "layer" should be shorter and shorter in length, to form that tree shape.

• For the star that is usually at the top of the Christmas tree, I used a star-shaped cookie cutter in Parmesan cheese. Another option: you can also use a small cold Brie cheese, into which you insert the star-shaped (or Christmas tree) cookie cutter (not all the way through). Then add a little strawberry or red fruit jam. It's as beautiful as it is delicious!
• To decorate, I used fresh rosemary sprigs and pomegranate seeds.
• And to form the tree trunk, add some Pretzels sticks at the bottom of your board. Enjoy!

👩🏻‍🍳Chef's tips

1. Give room to your creativity and adapt according to your tastes - the best part of this board is that there's no strict rules about how you should make it and which ingredients to use.
2. It's Christmas season so feel free to add Christmas decorations and to focus on Christmas colors, such as red, gold or green.
3. Variety is crucial - shape charcuterie in different ways, try to use different textures of ingredients, etc...
4. Using small cookie cutters in Christmas themed shapes is a fun way to make your board even greater! 
5. Cut the cheeses you plan to cut while they're still cold, as they'll cut more easily.
6. Don't forget to place a few knives next to the board, to spread jams or cheeses.

🍸What to drink with it?

If you want a traditional drink, I really recommend white or red wine. It's what goes best with cheese and charcuterie.

And if you want something more Christmassy, you can find 30 cocktails for Christmas just here.

🤔How much food per person?

My motto: better too much than not enough! And if there's too much, we don't throw anything away and enjoy the leftovers the next day. It also depends on whether you want to use this board as an appetizer or as a main course.

I used this recipe as an appetizer for 4 people.

As an appetizer, allow 2-3 oz. cheese per person and 2-3 oz. of charcuterie per person. And don't forget the bread!

If you're eating this board as a main course, go for 5-5.5 oz. cheese per person and 5-5.5 oz. charcuterie per person (or 10-11 oz., divided as you wish). For the rest of the ingredients, adapt according to your preferences (more fruit than bread or vice versa, some dips instead of nuts, a little sweet, etc.).

❄️ Storage

Make ahead - if you want to prepare this board the day before, put most of the ingredients in it, cover it with cling film so the ingredients don't dry out and leave it in the fridge.

Storage - if you have leftovers, put the cheeses in a plastic wrap so they don't dry out, then place everything in a large airtight container and refrigerate. Eat within 2 days.