Charcuterie is really popular, but if you want something more whimsical for the Christmas season, check out our Charcuterie Tree For Christmas recipe. It takes a little longer than setting up the charcuterie on a board, but it’s so worth the effort.
For more ways to make this the best holiday season, check out all of our Christmas posts.
Last year, we were heading to my brother’s house to celebrate Christmas Eve. He was making dinner and we were bringing an appetizer.
We always have cheese and crackers as an appetizer. But if you know me, you know I extra. So no, I couldn’t just bring a simple meat and cheese tray. Instead of charcuterie, I brought a charcute-tree. Yes, I made an easy Christmas tree charcuterie board to bring to my brother’s house.
And now, I’ll help you make charcute-trees for all your upcoming holiday parties.
Honestly, it’s a really simple appetizer that doesn’t take much more effort than a regular festive charcuterie board. It’s the same ingredients, just in the shape of a tree rather than on a flat wooden board. It takes a little bit longer to make, but it’s so worth it.
If you like this idea, but would rather a dessert version, check out our Christmas Donut Hole Tree (aka Donut Croquembouche) instead.
Charcuterie Tree For Christmas Recipe
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This Charcuterie Tree is part tutorial, part recipe (since you’re making the tree and then decorating it with food). So, we included the craft and food supplies together in the list below.
Charcuterie Tree Ingredients & Supplies:
- 1 piece white cone shaped craft foam (3.7- x 8.9-inch)
- White cling wrap
- 50 toothpicks
- 10 oz. white cheddar cheese cubes or mozzarella balls
- 8 oz. pepperoni
- 4 oz. Genoa salami
- 4 oz. Abruzzese (spicy salami)
- 6 oz. prosciutto
- Wooden star
- Yellow card stock
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Paint brush
- Mod Podge
- Flat wooden craft pick (3.5 inch)
- Green felt
- 2 sleeves Ritz crackers
How To Make A Charcuterie Tree:
The white cone is going to be your base. Since it’s already the shape of a Christmas tree, you don’t have to worry about actually making a base with a Christmas tree shape.
Wrap it in white cling wrap because a Styrofoam cone isn’t food safe. So you want the meat and cheese to touch the cling wrap rather than the cone itself.
If you don’t have cling wrap, you can use plastic wrap instead.
The cling wrap should stick to itself, however you can use a small piece of tape to hold it to the cone if you need to.
Stick a toothpick near the bottom of the tree. Push a cheese cube onto the toothpick.
Leave some space and put another toothpick and another pieces of cheese. Continue until you get around the entire bottom.
Make another ring above that, continuing until you get to the top of the tree.
Put toothpicks in the gaps.
Fold the pepperoni in half, then half again, to make a small cone shape. Put the pepperoni around to fill in some of the gaps.
When you’re out of pepperoni, fold the salamis in the same way and fill in more gaps.
As you’re putting the pepperoni and salami around, be sure to vary it so there’s not too much of the same color in one spot.
When you’re out of toothpicks, slice the prosciutto.
Roll a piece of the prosciutto and stick it in a gap between the other meat and cheese. Continue until you’re out of prosciutto (or until your tree is full, whichever comes first).
Now it’s time to make the star.
Lay your wooden star on top of a piece of yellow card stock and trace a star shape. Trace a second one.
Cut the star shapes out with a pair of scissors.
Use a paint brush to apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to one side of the star. Stick one of the yellow stars to that side.
Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge to the other side of the star. Put the wooden craft pick on that side. Stick the other side on top.
If your craft pick doesn’t hold, you can tape it down first, then add the Mod Podge and the second yellow star.
When the Mod Podge is dry, stick the star into the top of the Christmas tree.
Cut a large circle from the green felt. Put it on a serving tray.
Put a layer of Ritz crackers on top of the green felt, around the base of the tree.
Charcuterie Christmas Tree: Frequently Asked Questions
We don’t add any fresh herbs to this because, honestly, no one is going to eat them. Fresh rosemary sprigs would look adorable in the tree, but they would just get thrown out.
Since we’re always thinking about making sure our suggestions are as budget-friendly as possible, we don’t want to suggest you purchase anything that will just end up in the trash (because that’s a waste of money). But, if you want to add it, go right ahead. It’s super cute for presentation.
We use a wooden star on top of our charcuterie tree, which is the same star we use on our doughnut tree. I just reuse it multiple times this time of year.
An alternative would be to cut a thick piece of hard cheese into a star shape using a star-shaped cookie cutter. If you don’t have a star cookie cutter, you could just use cheese knives to cut the cheese into a star shape. Then, put it on a wooden dowel and stick it into the top of the foam cone.
The fun part about charcuterie is that you can customize it to your family’s tastes. Choose your favorite meats and your favorite cheeses (or just whatever’s in stock at your local grocery store) instead of our suggestions.
If you want to make this vegetarian, skip the meat and use a variety of different types of cheeses, plus cherry tomatoes. You could add green olives or black olives too. I actually thought about adding olives to this version, but I was taking it to a Christmas party and was a little worried about the brine from the olives dripping all over the rest of the tree.
Fresh fruit, like green grapes or berries, are great options for your tree as well.
A traditional charcuterie board is really easy to transfer because all your meat and cheese is on a large wooden cutting board. So you just cover the wooden board with plastic wrap and put it in the car. This festive Christmas tree charcuterie board needs a little more care.
If you’re not traveling far, you can just ask someone to hold the charcuterie tree in their lap while you’re driving. If you’re going a longer distance, you can place the serving platter in a large brown bag, then put the charcuterie tree on top. When you get to your holiday party, you can grab the charcuterie tree by the serving tray. Then, add the Ritz crackers once you get to your destination.
When your guests are done enjoying the charcuterie tree, pull off all the meats and cheeses and store them in airtight containers in the refrigerator.
Charcuterie Tree For Christmas
Charcuterie is really popular, but if you want something more whimsical for the Christmas season, check out our Charcuterie Tree For Christmas recipe. It takes a little longer than setting up the charcuterie on a board, but it’s so worth the effort.
Ingredients
- 10 oz. white cheddar cheese cubes or mozzarella balls
- 8 oz. pepperoni
- 4 oz. Genoa salami
- 4 oz. spicy salami
- 6 oz. prosciutto
- 2 sleeves Ritz crackers
Instructions
- Wrap a foam cone in white cling wrap.
- Stick a toothpick near the bottom of the tree. Push a cheese cube onto the toothpick.
- Leave some space and put another toothpick and another pieces of cheese. Continue until you get around the entire bottom.
- Make another ring above that, continuing until you get to the top of the tree.
- Put toothpicks in the gaps.
- Fold the pepperoni in half, then half again, to make a small cone shape. Put the pepperoni around to fill in some of the gaps.
- When you’re out of pepperoni, fold the salamis in the same way and fill in more gaps.
- As you’re putting the pepperoni and salami around, be sure to vary it so there’s not too much of the same color in one spot.
- When you’re out of toothpicks, slice the prosciutto.
- Roll a piece of the prosciutto and stick it in a gap between the other meat and cheese.
- Put a layer of Ritz crackers on top of the green felt, around the base of the tree.
Notes
The full post gives you instructions to make the wooden star at the top.
Nutrition Information
Yield
15Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 242Total Fat 20gSaturated Fat 9gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 10gCholesterol 57mgSodium 954mgCarbohydrates 1gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 14g
Would you make this Charcuterie Tree for your Christmas table? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
chickenruby
Sunday 17th of December 2023
That's a novel way of presenting it.
Paula Short
Thursday 14th of December 2023
Lisa, this is a great idea! Love this.
EsmeSalon
Wednesday 13th of December 2023
Perfect, I will have to veganise it but its doable.
Jennifer Wise
Wednesday 13th of December 2023
What a great idea! This is so fun.