I’ve always been a huge Grinch fan if you couldn’t tell from my Grinch gift exchange, my Grinch themed Christmas punch game, and the various Grinch recipes on my site. I even made Who pudding last year! There’s just something fun about one of Sr. Seuss’ most iconic characters. Maybe it’s the green. Maybe it’s him realizing the true meaning of Christmas at the end of the story. Or maybe it’s all of the fun renditions that have been made over the years that just keep the story alive and coming back over and over again. Who knows, but Grinch is definitely popular guy. And Grinchmas is one of my favorite Christmas party themes each year! This Grinch themed Christmas charcuterie board is the latest in my Grinch party ideas, and it may be my favorite one so far. It’s a little different than a traditional charcuterie board because it’s more of a fruit and dessert board, but this dessert platter will still be a hit whether you call it charcuterie or not.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
So much fun – I brought this to a Christmas party the other day and everyone was just wowed by the details and how fun it was. It really is a fun addition to any holiday dessert table. Easy – forget spending hours make gingerbread cookies or homemade treats, this is the perfect Christmas dessert board if you want something impressive but that’s easy to whip together! Snack board – with parties this time of year lasting hours and hours, it’s nice to have something that people can snack on all day without worrying about having to keep something warm or chilled. This is a seasonal favorite that can sit out all day at room temperature at holiday parties with no problems at all!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
I’ve included a shopping list of ingredients below that I used in my board if you want to make an exact replica but feel free to switch out some of these items with your favorite things instead. I recommend sticking to the same colors (using different colors will change the look of the board) but you can totally substitute your favorite desserts or favorite treats if you want.
Green Christmas candies – for this holiday dessert charcuterie board I used green M&Ms, holiday Dots, green Hershey kisses, green Rolos, and green gumdrops. There are tons of other things you could use for these sections, just make sure they’re plain green (or with a hint of white like the Dots). The one that I do recommend is the green M&M sections because they go well with the yellow and brown M&Ms used for the eyes. Yellow and brown M&Ms – I just grabbed a couple of bags of M&Ms from our Halloween candy stash to get the right amount of yellow M&Ms and the two brown M&Ms for the eyes. White chocolate-covered pretzels – you can do either white and the white with sprinkles like I did or just stick with all white. I just loved the white with green sprinkle variety I found at my grocery store, but those likely aren’t available everywhere! Strawberries – try to get strawberries that are as red as possible. I know during the winter it’s a bit harder but the more red on the inside the better.Raspberries – One pack of raspberries is plenty, you’ll just use this to outlined the Grinch’s hat. Green grapes and kiwis – I used these to give dimension and different coloring to the Grinch’s face, and I love how they turned out. If you’d rather not spend time cutting these or don’t want to use fresh fruit at all, you could just do more green Christmas candies or use lighter colored Christmas candies instead. Black licorice – I love how this looks on the board but you could also just outlined the mouth and eyes with black colored candies like black jelly beans instead. Or even just something dark like dark chocolate chips. White candies – I used Tootsie Rolls snowball candies for one of my boards but then used mini marshmallows for the one I shared on TikTok. Either one works great! Nerd Ropes – I used Christmas colored Nerd Ropes to outlined the hat and keep all of those berries in. They’re cheap and really give this themed dessert charcuterie board a nice finishing touch! Heart candy – the perfect way to finish off this dessert board is a heart shaped Grinch nose! This is the heart candy I used for my board.
How to make a Christmas Candy charcuterie board
Normally I just freehand making my charcuterie boards like I did with this Halloween dessert board but for the Grinch, I decided it would be helpful to start with a template just to get sizing for the candy. I printed out this Grinch face template and resized it so that it would fit my board the way I wanted it to. You’re not going to be following the template exactly, just getting an idea of the spacing and how big the face will need to be in comparison to your board. If you have a large board, you’ll want to make the template (and your face) bigger. If you’re doing something a bit smaller, go smaller on the template and sizing of your licorice and eyes. Once you’ve figured out your sizing, cut the black licorice in half lengthwise to make them thinner. Then Microwave the licorice for about 10 seconds to make it easier to mold. Just make sure it’s only about 10 seconds because too long will leave you with melted licorice instead. And let me be the first to tell you, if you don’t like the smell of black licorice in the first place, melted black licorice is not better. Place the black licorice and the coal toward the bottom of your board so that you have space to add green below it but also plenty of space for your Santa hat at the top. Once your smile is in place, add the connecting piece from the smile to the coal, the eyes, and eyebrows with the softened licorice. Putting these in place first will make sure that you get the shapes that you want, and these are really the most important part to make this really look like a Grinch charcuterie board. Adding the other elements around it is a great way to keep these pieces intact. Whether you’re using a large wooden board or a smaller one, make sure that you have plenty of space above the eyebrows to make the Grinch’s Santa hat. It’s definitely not as cute without it! Fill the licorice in with yellow and brown M&Ms to make the Grinch’s eyes. This is a good starting point for filling in the rest of your board and doesn’t it just look so cool? You can already tell it’s the Grinch even without the green. That was just the first step. Now it’s time to start filling in the rest of the Grinch’s face. I like to add the green M&Ms around the face detailing first to help hold the placement of the facial features. Once the green M&Ms are done, you can move onto the Grinch’s Santa’s hat. The M&Ms should keep the facial features in line as you’re adding in the different shapes. Line Santa’s hat with white chocolate covered pretzels and create the outlined of the hat with red raspberries. Then fill in the hat with sliced strawberries, putting the red sides up as much as possible. I used mostly the ends of the strawberries or turned them over to show mostly red. Then finally, add in the white snowballs at the end! This is an easy way to make this look like a Santa Hat compared to just a red hat on the Grinch’s head! Next you’re going to fill in the rest of the green around the Grinch’s face using the variety of sweets you’ve chosen for your Christmas dessert board. An easy way to do this is to start from the outside with larger items and work your way in to the smaller ones (other than the green M&Ms that are still holding strong on that black licorice). I added wrapped candies on both sides of the face and then did darker green candies all over the left side of the face. And then I finished off the face with the lighter colored fruit on the other side of the board, making sure that the center of the board was completely covered. I do recommend leaving a bit of space outside of the Santa hat though to give it more definition as a hat. You may not use the entire board, but that’s okay! Then finish off this gorgeous dessert charcuterie board by bending the Nerd Ropes around the Santa hat to give it even more definition. And then adding on the heart candy for the Grinch’s nose! Doesn’t this just say Merry Christmas or Merry Grinchmas should I say?? You can serve it immediately or put it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
Expert Tips
Wrap very carefully and very tightly with plastic wrap if you’re traveling with this board so all of your candies and fruit pieces don’t go all over the place. I did that with my Christmas tree charcuterie board recently, and it worked out perfectly. I just had to slightly adjust things after removing the plastic wrap but overall, it was a total success! Buy more candy than you think you’l need, especially in packages that have different colors. I found that some packages of M&Ms for example had very few M&Ms of the color I needed, and I actually ended up having to go to the store to get more. Serve this with tongs and spoons so people can get treats without having to use their hands on everything. It’s fine to use hands on wrapped candies, but having serving utensils will encourage people to use them. Make your own chocolate covered pretzels like mine by drizzling white chocolate on top of the pretzels and sprinkling with green Christmas sprinkles. Prep all of your fruit and candy before you start placing it on the table. I like to put each item in small bowls (and often will sort out the green candies while I’m watching our favorite Christmas movies or listening to Christmas songs). Make sure to outline the nose, smile, and eyes first. It’s a pain to try and add those in after you’ve filled in the rest of the face. Skip the template if you don’t have time. While it’s a great place to start, I just copied my pictures the second time I made this board, and it turned out just as cute!
More Grinch Ideas
If you’re looking for idea for a Grinchmas party, here are some of our other favorites!
Grinch punch recipe – a delicious Grinch themed punch and the cutest Grinch themed pitcher! Christmas mad libs – fill in the blank Christmas stories with a Grinch themed twist!Grinch brownies – these decadent Grinch brownies uses a homemade brownie, a green chocolate ganache, and a surprise heart to finish them off!Grinch cupcakes – cupcakes that look similar to this Grinch dessert board with a green frosting and Santa hat topping! Grinch cookies – the cutest Grinch cookies that look unlike any of the other heart shaped ones you see out there. These are way better!
