How to Create a Charcuterie Christmas Tree

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Get festive this holiday season with a charcuterie Christmas tree to serve at your next gathering. The beauty of a charcuterie board is that you can use a variety of ingredients and make a board for every occasion. This Christmas charcuterie board is simple, elegant, traditional, and a beautiful addition to an holiday gathering.

This Christmas charcuterie tree is full of mostly Italian ingredients that can all be picked up by hand. Serve this board alongside other Christmas appetizers or on it’s own as the center of your cocktail party. Most of the food can be picked up by hand, but you can also include toothpicks to make it easier to enjoy the food.

Below you can find a Christmas Tree Charcuterie recipe as well as a shopping list, and assembly suggestions. If you are serving a charcuterie board to a group with food sensitivity, it’s easy to substitute ingredients to make this dairy-free or gluten-free.

Why Make a Christmas Tree Charcuterie Board

What makes a Christmas tree charcuterie board such a great idea? It’s fun, delicious, and festive! Below are just a few reasons to make this delicious charcuterie board for Christmas:

• Make it Festive: any charcuterie Christmas board can be festive, but by selecting the right ingredients and assembling them into a Christmas shape, you elevate a normal board to something fun. While you can also create a festive charcuterie wreath, or a Christmas colored charcuterie board, a charcuterie Christmas tree is easy to assemble and sure to be a crowd pleaser.
• Celebrate with Seasonal Food: you can use any food to create a Christmas charcuterie board, but by selecting either red or green foods, or traditional Christmas foods to assemble a holiday tree charcuterie tree. Luckily many traditional foods found on a charcuterie board are also popular at Christmas – cheese, crackers, cured meats, and more. For some extra fun, shape your cheese in stars and add some pomegranate seeds or holiday nuts.
• Let Your Guests Select What to Eat: One of the best things of any charcuterie board is that guests can choose from a wide variety of food based on their preference or even food sensitivities. A charcuterie board is a grazing board at it’s best, and this Christmas tree charcuterie board lets you select exactly what you want to eat.

Ingredients for a Charcuterie Christmas Tree

The best thing about a Christmas tree charcuterie board is that you can use any ingredients to make it. Simply lay our your ingredients in decreasing rows and you will have a fun and beautiful holiday grazing board. If you want to step it up a bit, you can use ingredients that are festive for Christmas, or are red and green. Below you can see a list of all the ingredients we used to create this charcuterie board plus a few additional suggestions. For this board we also kept it mostly savory, but you can also add sweet ingredients and candy.

This Christmas tree charcuterie board shopping list includes:

• Salami
• Cheddar Cheese (cut into slices and stars)
• Pomegranate Seeds
• Feta Cheese
• Olives
• Mozzarella Balls
• Mozzarella Stuffed Peppers
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Crackers
• Rosemary (for garnish)

Other Possible Ingredients includes:

• Strawberries
• Cucumbers
• Peppers
• Kiwi
• Watermelon
• Grapes
• Raspberries

Assembling a Charcuterie Christmas Tree

Once you’ve gathered all your ingredients for a charcuterie board, it’s time to assemble this board. Luckily the assembly is very easy and only takes a few minutes. Alternating with layers of different colors, lay the ingredients out in rows. With each row, make your row a bit smaller to form a tall pyramid.

Use the rosemary to decorate along the edges and form the branches of the tree. You will want to save something for the top of the tree. This Christmas tree charcuterie board uses a rose salami at the top, but you can also use cheese cut into a shape. For decorations, add cheese cut into stars and add pomegranate seeds for garnish.

For the top, create a charcuterie rose or other salami flower for a decoration.

Learn how to create a salami rose.

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Recipe for a Charcuterie Christmas Tree

The charcuterie board Christmas tree recipe below includes all the ingredients you need and the assembly information.