Christmas Dessert Board

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Well, friends, it’s that time of year where I pull out all the stops and start entertaining with the best of ’em. Today, I’m sharing my tips and tricks for creating the best Christmas Dessert Board that is completely no-bake! Meaning: I bought literally everything from Walmart and just assembled at home. The beauty of a “board” is 99% of the time, you just buy everything pre-made, arrange everything on a platter and enjoy! They are easy to make ahead and truly are a big showstopper. Special thanks to Walmart for sponsoring this post.

Different Kinds of Holiday Snack Boards

While I went the chocolate and cookie route for this board, you can definitely change it up depending on the party, the crowd you’re feeding or your preferences. And, the best part is you can buy ALL these things at Walmart. Here are some simple ideas:

• Italian Antipasto Board– one of my favorites! Fresh mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, balsamic drizzle, roasted red peppers, baguette, breadsticks, prosciutto, salami, etc.. This is always a crowd pleaser
• Charcuterie Board– a snack board mainly focusing on high quality meats. Head to your deli case for a really nice genoa salami, spicy sopressata, capocollo, mortadella, summer sausage and/or pate. Obviously serve with some nice crackers, pita chips, olives and cornichons.
• Chocolate Board– this is next level delicious, especially for all you chocolate lovers. Have a nice spread of white, dark, milk and semi-sweet chocolates all arranged on a board. It’s stunning.
• Chocolate & Nut Board– like the chocolate board, but with the addition of nuts! Try some honey roasted or smoked varieties. They pair really nicely together with the chocolate.
• Cheese Board– a cheese-focused board with 3-4 varieties. I like to pick a hard cheese (like a good quality cheddar), a soft cheese (double cream brie!), a smellier cheese (really good blue is a favorite) and a cheese I typically don’t buy regularly (like cheese curds, smoked gouda, a goat cheese log or other kind that looks interesting.) Serve with grapes, apple slices, dried fruit, a nice nut mix and simple crackers.
• Veggies and Dip– this is a little plain jane, but try using green and red veggies for a festive touch! Broccoli, cucumber, sugar snap peas, celery, red and green peppers, cherry tomatoes, etc..

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How to Make This Christmas Dessert Board

This is the easiest thing to make in the world! It takes a little practice, but once you get the basic method down, the sky is the limit! I also love being able to go to Walmart, get literally everything I need for this dessert board and head home. It’s a one stop shop for all my holiday needs.

What I Used

This is the list of ingredients I used to create this Christmas Dessert Board. Like I mentioned above, I bought everything at Walmart and assembled everything in about 15 minutes. Yes, its really that simple! I tried to keep things in the white-silver-red color theme, with a few random outliers. Obviously you can pick and choose items that you think would be best for your board. I also picked up this festive table cloth and this round, red platter that I used. Served with Sparkling Cider in Champagne Flutes…for the kids 😉

• Butter Cookies– these are widely available and extremely popular for Christmas! I thought they were an obvious choice. Make your own buttery shortbread cookies here.
• Candy Canes– I actually don’t remember the last time I sat down and enjoyed a candy cane, but my kids love them and thought they were a good option mainly for the kids.
• Pirouette Wafer Cookies– I only buy these around the holidays, but they are so good! Comes in quite a few flavors; I bought the chocolate fudge.
• Strawberry Creme Wafer Cookies-again, bought for the kids! I can eat the whole package and feel like I’ve eaten air. Ha!
• Cherry Cordial Hershey Kisses– only available in December, so I bought a few extra bags! Have you tried these yet?
• Candy Cane Hershey Kisses– Another specialty kiss only available around the holidays. These and the truffle mint kind are my favorite!
• York Thins– These are peppermint patties, but made thinner and wrapped individually. They are my favorite!
• White Reese’s Mini Cups– My husband thinks these are sacrilegious, but I don’t care. I love white chocolate and thought these were a great addition to my Christmas Dessert Board!
• Lindt Milk Chocolate Truffles– who doesn’t love these? Yes, I chose this kind because they are red 🙂
• Christmas Tree Pretzels– available around the bakery section. I also found a Santa Snack Mix which looked pretty stellar.
• Kit Kat Minis– these come unwrapped and ready to add to your board. I love that these are minis!
• Gingerbread Cookies-I don’t personally love gingerbread cookies, but they look so darn cute on this board! Make your own with my recipe here.
• Christmas Bark- I couldn’t find a link to this, but I totally found it at Walmart where the gingerbread cookies were. Of course you can make your own.

Three Easy Tips to Make Beautiful Boards

To make your Holiday Board look amazing, here are the three main guidelines I use to create delicious and appetizing boards.

1. Start with larger items first, then fill in with smaller items. In this case, I started placing my cookies, wafers, christmas bark and candy canes first and then filled in the smaller spaces with the chocolates, kisses and snack mixes.
2. Add Blocks of Items Together. Don’t treat this like a salad where you sprinkle everything on the platter and hope it looks good. I like to block items together to make it look more intentional and ‘fuller’.
3. Separate Similar Colors. This was a little tricky to do since everything was basically red, but the idea is to separate the colors around the board to make it look more appetizing. For example, I have two main ‘piles’ of butter cookies that are across from each other on the board. Same with some of the Hershey kisses and Lindt Truffles. Little piles that I did my best to separate. Try to fill every space so the bottom of the tray isn’t showing.

Love A Dessert Board? Try These Other Recipes:

• Easy Cheese Board
• Simple Snack Board
• My Huge Christmas Cookie Archive of Recipes!

Anyways, that’s it. I hope you love this Dessert Board as much as me and my kids did! It certainly was a hit. If you have any questions about this or any of the Board ideas I listed above, feel free to comment below and I’ll do my best to answer.

Have a great holiday season!