Everybody enjoys a good charcuterie board, and Christmas time is the perfect time to enjoy one with family and friends.

They're super simple and quick to put together, making them a fantastic choice of food when hosting a party.

Charcuteries are super simple. However, they can look super impressive and make for an amazing centre piece.

We had so much fun creating this Christmas Wreath Charcuterie Board - simple, yet very effective at catching people's attention.

What we love about Charcuterie boards is their simplicity and versatility for tweaking the ingredients to suit the party, season, and general food preferences of your guests.

Most Charcuterie's consist of the same 3 basic ingredients;

• Crackers

• Cheeses

• Cured Meats

The rest is up to you. Plus, how you choose to design, layout and present your charcuterie board is entirely up to you.

If you or your guests are vegetarian then you can simply leave out the meats. There really are so many delicious options to choose from.

Here are some of our favourite charcuterie board ingredients;

• A varied selection of crackers

• Cheese Straws or Breadsticks

• Slices of baguette or focaccia

• A selection of our favourite Cheeses, including soft & hard

• Selection of cured meats, such as salami, prosciutto and pepperoni

• Fresh fruits, such as strawberries and grapes

• Dried fruits, such as dates, prunes and cranberries

• Chutneys

• Hummus & Dips

• Selection of nuts, such as walnuts, peanuts and pistachios

• Mini sausage rolls

• Cocktail sausages

• Pretzels

The list really could go on and on. Usually, the more people we're catering for, the more options we provide. Don't even get us started on the food choices for a 'sweet charcuterie board'. We'd be here a while 😂

Check out some of our recipes that also make fantastic accompaniments on a charcuterie board

The key to a successful and impressive charcuterie board not only comes down to the ingredients, but also down to the presentation.

It all starts with your board. Now, this can be anything you like, anything that's an adequate enough size to display your food. Here are some of our recommendations;

• Wooden Chopping Board or Butchers Block

• A slate board

• Porcelain or ceramic platter

• A plastic or melamine tray

• Disposable aluminium platter

Use anything you have to hand in your kitchen, you could even lay out some baking parchment on your table or kitchen worktop, and use that as your charcuterie base.

We tend to opt for a wooden board, because we seem to have accumulated a rather large assortment of them over the years. One of them being a circular cheese board, which was fantastic for our Christmas Wreath Charcuterie Board.

It's also helpful to have some small serving bowls or small ramekins to use and serve on your charcuterie board. Not only can you fill these with delicious chutneys and dips, but they also act as a starting point for designing and decorating your board. Lay some of your cheeses or meats around them, creating circular abstract lines to your board.

How you choose to decorate and arrange your ingredients on your charcuterie board is entirely up to you. There most certainly isn't a right or wrong way to do that. However, if you do need some inspiration there are plenty of resources such as Pinterest and Instagram. We're sure you'll find something that will help inspire you to create a fun and impressive charcuterie board.

With our Wreath design, we decided to add our chosen ingredients to cocktail sticks, and then arranged them upon a bed of freshly picked Rosemary sprigs. We then sprinkled with some dried cranberries for some extra festive colour and sweetness, and served homemade Hummus in the centre. We love how it turned out. We think it's super festive, cute and delicious.

We stacked our cocktail sticks with;

• Olives

• Mini Gherkins

• Cheese

• Salami

• Sweet Drop Peppers

We also served the wreath alongside another board of goodies, which contained the crackers, and extras of everything that we served on our Christmas Wreath.

Some of our other favourite accompaniments for a charcuterie board are our homemade;

• Festive Cheese Balls https://www.thechaihome.com/post/festive-cheese-balls

• Parmesan & Chilli Shortbread https://www.thechaihome.com/post/parmesan-chilli-shortbread-perfect-savoury-gift-this-christmas

• Caramelised Red Onion Chutney https://www.thechaihome.com/post/caramelised-red-onion-chutney-edible-christmas-gift

• Gooey Garlic & Mozzarella Bites https://www.thechaihome.com/post/gooey-garlic-and-mozzarella-bites

• Cheesey Garlic Mozzarella & Rosemary Tear n Share Bread https://www.thechaihome.com/post/cheesy-garlic-rosemary-tear-share-bread

You could add any ingredients to suit your taste buds. Let us know what you'd stack yours with, we'd love to know.

You could comment below or tag us in your pictures over on INSTAGRAM @thechaihome

Hope you have a Merry Christmas!

The Chai Home 🎄