Christmas Charcuterie

Published OnNovember 24, 2024

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This Christmas Charcuterie is the perfect cheese board recipe to make as an appetizer for a party. It’s the easiest board you’ll ever make and it’s so pretty too!

A festive charcuterie board arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree, featuring a brie with a star-shaped jelly, cheese slices, salami, grape tomatoes, broccoli, grapes, and rosemary sprigs. Surrounded by star-shaped crackers.

This Christmas Tree Charcuterie Board is the perfect recipe to make for Christmas parties! I absolutely love charcuterie boards because you can personalize them and they’re easy to eat. Just put it on the counter and people can grab and go as they please – my favorite way to entertain. This board is super simple to assemble and you can use my ingredients or swap our your own favorite flavors – it’s super festive and perfect for the holiday.

A variety of foods on a white surface, including brie cheese, grapes, crackers, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, sliced cheddar, cured meats, mixed nuts, broccoli, and a small dish of jam.

Ingredients Needed

You can substitute or add anything to this list of ingredients depending on what YOU like!

Cheese: My favorites to use are medium cheddar, white cheddar, and some sort of hard cheese like flavored parmesan, but use your favorite. It’s good to have at least one hard and one soft cheese, and fill in with others that you like. I usually do medium cheddar if there are kids – they prefer it to other cheeses.
Brie: I used a wheel of brie and jam for the star on top but you can just cut a star shape of another cheese if you want.
Vegetables: I chose broccoli and tomatoes for the red and green aspect of Christmas, but carrots are another good one, as are sliced cucumbers or radishes.
Fruit: Grapes are a classic charcuterie ingredient – you could even do a mix of red and green grapes.
Meat: I love salami and used sliced packaged for this board, but I often buy a log of salami and chop it into quarters. You can also use ham or prosciutto or even deli turkey or other meats.
Garnishes: Nuts, jam, honey, and crackers are always good additions. I added rosemary sprigs to add to the Christmas tree theme.

A wooden cutting board with a line of broccoli and sprigs of rosemary arranged neatly along the bottom edge. A few bowls with ingredients are partially visible around the edges.

A wooden cutting board displays a neat row of fresh broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, and sprigs of rosemary against a plain white background. Small portions of other ingredients can be seen in the corners.

How to Make Holiday Charcuterie Board

Cut a star shape out of the wheel of brie.
Place a long row of rosemary on a rectangular cutting board or large platter.
Top with tomatoes and chopped broccoli.
Continue adding layers, getting smaller each row, of cheese slices, salami, nuts, and more vegetables.
Place the brie wheel at the top for the star and fill with jam.
Add crackers as the trunk of the tree and place additional rosemary sprigs around the tree as garnish.

Festive charcuterie board arranged like a Christmas tree with a brie and jam top, crackers shaped as stars, nuts, grapes, cheese, salami, broccoli, tomatoes, and rosemary sprigs on a wooden background.

Storing and Make Ahead

I don’t like to assemble the cheese board until shortly before serving (unless you have space for it in your refrigerator). What I do to prep ahead is slice all my cheeses, meats, and veggies so they’re ready to go.
If you have room, you can make the board and cover it with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 8 hours before serving.
Leftovers are tricky – it depends on how long the board sits out. I do not usually keep leftovers of charcuterie boards because they’ve been out for hours.

Expert Tips

I like to cut my cheeses in different sizes and/or shapes so that you can tell the difference if they’re the same color. Try rectangles and wedges to look pretty, or use a star cookie cutter to fit the holiday theme.
To make this super Christmassy, I put it in a tree shape, you can shape it however you want. You could even make a Christmas charcuterie wreath.