How to Create a Christmas Dessert Platter

It’s the Christmas season and there are numerous parties and events. Christmas is literally celebrated all December long. Countless celebrations are held with family and friends. You are invited to office parties, ugly sweater parties, white elephant gift exchanges, cookie exchanges, Grinchmas parties, wrapping parties, etc. I can go on and on. Sound familiar?

Are you hosting one of these Christmas parties and need to figure out what to serve? Are you invited to one of these events and want to bring something amazing? Something to wow your friends and family?

Whatever the case may be, it’s time to create a Christmas Masterpiece!

For our neighborhood Christmas Sip and Stroll, I created a festive Christmas dessert platter. It was a total hit and super fun to make!

If you want to create a Christmas dessert platter of some sort this holiday season, but do not know where or how to start, you came to the right place!

Below are some steps to success:

• First, find your canvas! Look through your cabinets for your serving platter, a cutting board, a large dish, serving tray or maybe you get out your roll of butcher paper if you want the goodies placed directly on the counter. Also gather small dishes and little serving utensils. For my platter, I used a vintage silver-plated platter because I was going for the luxurious and upscale look. I also used vintage serving utensils and small silver candy dishes. I picked up this platter, along with the utensils at my frequent estate sale visits over the years. It is beautiful and really makes anything you put on it look uber elegant. Oreo cookies would look sophisticated on a silver platter like this! Ha ha.

• Second, brainstorm what types of treats you want to serve and what theme you want to convey. Do you make a candy board? A Christmas cookie platter? A fun and festive arrangement? A gingerbread theme? Christmas moods usually are cheerful, warm, snowy, winter, joyful, religious, nostalgic, whimsical, Santa related, etc. Colors are usually reds, greens, whites, golds, silvers and even blues. Do some brainstorming and think about how you could visually portray Christmas on your platter. You can even look at images on Pinterest, magazines or books for inspiration. Write down all your ideas and create a list of items you want to serve.

• Third, now that you found your canvas, settled on your mood/theme and have a list of what items you want on your platter or serving dish, it’s time to shop! Look for all the goodies and garnishes you plan to use. Visit your local grocery store, a farmer’s market, candy shoppes, bakeries, bulk food shops, specialty stores with imported goods or online. Some or all of the desserts you may even want to make yourself! The world is your oyster here! For my platter, I chose to express more of a Christmas around the world sort of theme. I had French macarons, Italian nougats, Belgium mini eclairs and Mexican wedding cake cookies displayed. Because I chose a silver platter to serve everything on, I wanted the desserts to also share the same high-end look.

• Fourth, now that you have all your supplies it is time to create your decadent Christmas masterpiece! Go where your creativity takes you. Arrange the sweets on your platter or serving tray in a manner to avoid all the gaps. This will make your platter look full and inviting. Example, place items around small bowls and such to make it look full. Make sure the colors are distributed evenly. You can add some garnishes to decorate and enhance the look too. I used mini candy canes as a garnish to keep things looking festive! They were so adorable! You could even use holly or Christmas flowers. Once you have the look you want, add any utensils you may need.

• Fifth, stand back and look at your creation! Take lots of pictures before your friends and family start digging in!

Enjoy!

For my Christmas dessert platter, I used the following items (all served on a vintage silver platter with a paper doily underneath):

• Belgian Custard Cream Mini Eclairs – Local grocery store (Delizza Patisserie)
• Assorted Macarons – Local grocery store (Private Selection)
• Wedding Cake Cookies – Local grocery store (Archway)
• White Creme & Peppermint Pretzel Crisps – Dollar Tree (Snack Factory)
• Iced Gingerbread Cookies – Hobby Lobby (Stauffer’s)
• Torrone – Soft Nougats – Italian Specialty Store (La Florentine)
• Peppermint Crunch Drizzled Popcorn – Dollar Tree (Sweet Chaos)
• Pretzel Crisps – White Chocolate and Peppermint – Target (Snack Factory)
• Hershey Kisses – Local grocery store
• Christmas M&Ms – Local grocery store
• Mini Candy Canes – Dollar Tree
• Paper Doilies – Dollar Tree