This Christmas Tree Meat & Cheese Board is perfect for your holiday party festivities!
Whether you call it a meat & cheese tray, charcturerie board, or just a fun appetizer platter, we LOVE serving up this kind of tasty dish. In fact, this has come to be a sort of holiday tradition for our family. On Christmas Eve night, we usually have a big meat & cheese tray with a variety of items for our family meal. It’s such a time saver (instead of cooking a big meal that night) and has come to be a family favorite now! A smaller version like this though works perfectly as an appetizer for your holiday parties (or your holiday meal). 
Yum! A festive platter doesn’t take long to put together at all (and can be prepped in advance). So, it really is a perfect appetizer for your holiday entertaining. We love to use Johnsonville summer sausage for our meat & cheese boards. There’s a great variety of flavors since and Johnsonville summer sausage is already smoked over real hardwoods and packed with flavor, it is a great choice to your favorite hors d’oeuvres!
So tasty! Convenience is really key when you’re entertaining (especially during the holidays), so I love that can save time without sacrificing flavor by using Johnsonville Summer Sausage. It’s one that has stood the test of time, since Johnsonville’s Summer Sausage has been made with the same original recipe for over 70 years! That’s a good record! We think all the varieties are delish. So, for this tray we went with a mix of garlic summer sausage, original summer sausage, and beef summer sausage! But, any varieties of the Johnsonville Summer Sausage will work great on your board! 
So, to prepare your very own festive Christmas tree appetizer board, you’ll need:
- desired flavor assortment of Johnsonville Summer Sausage (sliced)
- desired cheese assortment (I like white cheeses for the holidays to go with a more Christmas/winter themed look)
- variety of crackers, crostini, etc. for eating with the meat & cheese
- assortment of vegetables, olives, fruits, and/or nuts that look good on the board. For a Christmas theme, I think any of the following items would work well- snap peas, grape tomatoes, green olives, green grapes, dried apricots, dried cranberries, cashews, almonds, and/or pecans. Fresh rosemary also looks great on the board for a Christmas theme!
What’s great is that you can prep all of these things ahead of time (wash veggies, slice cheeses and sausage, etc). So, all you have to do is put together the tray right before the meal (which just takes a few minutes). Then you just arrange your items in a general Christmas tree shape, doing different layers of items in each row! So easy and festive! I love doing things like this for parties! And, anything that can be made ahead or takes little time to make is the BEST! It’s simple tricks like this can make hosting holiday parties and meals so much easier! There’s no need to have things be a stressful wirlwind! Other ideas that can help make hosting holiday parties easier are utilizing your slow cooker to save time and/or oven space, setting the party up as buffet-style (instead of plated on the table), and even asking guests to bring a dish to share.
What appetizers do YOU like serving during the holidays?
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For more great recipe ideas using Johnsonville’s Summer Sausage, visit www.SummerSausageStory.com! While you’re there, be sure to check out the online store where you can get it delivered right to your door in time for the holidays!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Johnsonville. The opinions and text are all mine.
