This holiday season, impress your friends and family with a creative and beautiful dessert board. This version features several flavored cream cheese dips shaped into festive holiday cookies and figures, surrounded by fruit, cookies, crackers, and pretzels for dipping.
Table of contents
- What you’ll need
- For the cream cheese dip
- To flavor and decorate the dip
- For serving with the dip
- Optional additions
- How to make a holiday dessert board
- How to make mini holiday dessert boards
- Tips and tricks
- More festive holiday recipes
Peanut butter reindeer, chocolate gingerbread men and red velvet candy canes — this dessert board is a festive, no-bake showstopper. A simple cream cheese dip base is split and flavored a few different ways, then pressed into cookie cutters to create adorable holiday shapes. Serve with an assortment of dippers and let guests enjoy a playful, shareable dessert station.
What you’ll need
For the cream cheese dip
- Cream cheese (room temperature)
- Salted butter (room temperature)
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
To flavor and decorate the dip
- Creamy peanut butter
- Roasted peanuts, crushed
- Cocoa powder
- Mini chocolate chips
- Rainbow sprinkles
- Red velvet cake mix
- White sprinkles or white chocolate chips
For serving with the dip
- Honey graham crackers
- Vanilla wafers
- Mini twist pretzels
- Fudge striped cookies
- Milk chocolate biscuits
- Vanilla crème wafer cookies
Optional additions
- Sliced apples or apple chips
- Pomegranate seeds
How to make a holiday dessert board
-
Prepare the cream cheese dip base.
- Add room temperature cream cheese and butter to a large mixing bowl or the base of a stand mixer. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed for 2–3 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
-
Prepare the flavored cream cheese dips.
- Divide the prepared cream cheese dip into four bowls.
- Red velvet: Stir red velvet cake mix into one bowl until fully combined.
- Chocolate: Add cocoa powder to a second bowl and mix until smooth; fold in mini chocolate chips if desired.
- Peanut butter: Stir creamy peanut butter into a third bowl and mix until evenly blended; reserve crushed peanuts for topping.
- Plain: Leave the fourth bowl plain to become a Christmas-tree-shaped dip you’ll decorate with green sprinkles.
- Cover the bowls and chill the dips in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour so they firm up for shaping.
-
Create festive shapes with cookie cutters.
- Lightly spray the inside of each cookie cutter with nonstick cooking spray so the dip releases cleanly.
- Place cutters on your serving board in the arrangement you want, then press chilled dips into their corresponding cutters: red velvet into a candy cane cutter, peanut butter into a reindeer cutter, chocolate into a gingerbread man cutter, and plain into a Christmas tree cutter.
- Carefully lift the cutters straight up to reveal the shaped dips.
- Decorate each shape: crushed peanuts on the reindeer, green sprinkles on the tree, mini chocolate chips on the gingerbread man, and white sprinkles or white chocolate chips to stripe the candy cane.
-
Assemble the board.
- Surround the shaped dips with the cookies, crackers, pretzels and fruit. Arrange items in small clusters so guests can easily grab a dipper and enjoy a variety of flavors.
How to make mini holiday dessert boards
Mini dessert boards make thoughtful edible gifts for neighbors, teachers, or friends. Prepare the flavored dips as described, then use small cookie cutters or mini molds to create petite shapes. Pack a small selection of cookies, crackers, and sliced fruit on a compact board or sturdy tray, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and keep refrigerated until delivered. Remind recipients to refrigerate until they’re ready to serve.
Tips and tricks
- Grease cookie cutters well: A light coating of cooking spray ensures the dip slides out cleanly and keeps the shapes intact.
- Chill before shaping: Chilling the dip for at least an hour makes it firm enough to press into cutters and keep its shape on the board.
- Store leftovers properly: Leftover cream cheese dips can be wrapped in plastic or stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
- Assemble ahead, finish later: If making the board ahead of time, prepare and shape the dips and keep them chilled on the board (covered). Add the cookies, crackers and fruit just before serving to preserve texture.
- Substitute shapes freely: Don’t have a reindeer cutter? Use any available cutter and decorate to match the flavor—fun shapes and colors matter more than the exact cookie cutter.
- Easy candy cane stripes: For neat stripes, mark rows with toothpicks as guides and fill in between with white sprinkles or small white chocolate chips.
More festive holiday recipes
Try other holiday sweets to complement your dessert board, such as red velvet bites, chocolate cookie cups, cheesecake bites, or seasonal bars. Mix and match sweets to create a varied dessert spread that pleases every palate.
- Red velvet snack mixes
- Nutella cheesecake bites
- Hot chocolate cookie cups
- Glitter fortune cookies
- Nutella chocolate chip cookies
- Apple pie dip
- Oatmeal cranberry bars
Holiday Dessert Board
Get in the holiday spirit with a beautiful board featuring several flavors of cream cheese dip shaped into festive designs and served with cookies, crackers, pretzels, and fruit.
Servings: 8 people
Prep Time: 30 minutes • Refrigeration Time: 1 hour • Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Author: Whitney Bond
Ingredients
Cheesecake Dip Base
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate Cheesecake Dip – Gingerbread Man
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp mini chocolate chips
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Dip – Reindeer
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tbsp roasted peanuts, crushed
Red Velvet Cheesecake Dip – Candy Cane
- 1/4 cup red velvet cake mix
- 1 tbsp white sprinkles or white chocolate chips
Plain Dip – Christmas Tree
- 2 tbsp green sprinkles
For Serving
- Honey graham crackers
- Vanilla wafers
- Mini twist pretzels
- Fudge striped cookies
- Milk chocolate biscuits
- Vanilla crème wafer cookies
- Sliced apple
- Pomegranate seeds
Instructions
Prepare the cream cheese dip base
- Combine room temperature cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
- Beat on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2–3 minutes until smooth and creamy.
Prepare the flavored dips
- Divide the base into four bowls.
- Mix red velvet cake mix into one bowl, cocoa into another, and peanut butter into the third. Leave the fourth plain.
- Cover and refrigerate all dips for at least 1 hour to firm up.
Shape and decorate
- Lightly grease cookie cutters and place them on the serving board in the desired arrangement.
- Press each chilled dip into its cookie cutter, then lift the cutter away carefully.
- Decorate each shape with the appropriate toppings: crushed peanuts, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, or white sprinkles/chips for stripes.
Finish the board
- Surround the shaped dips with cookies, crackers, pretzels, and fruit. Arrange so guests can easily choose dippers and flavors.
Notes
- Nutritional information will vary depending on which dippers you include on the board.
- If assembling ahead, refrigerate only the shaped cream cheese dips; add cookies and fruit just before serving.
- Cream cheese dips keep in the refrigerator for up to 7 days when stored in an airtight container.
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
Calories: 483 kcal • Carbohydrates: 30 g • Protein: 7 g • Fat: 39 g • Saturated Fat: 20 g • Cholesterol: 93 mg • Sodium: 355 mg • Fiber: 2 g • Sugar: 25 g