Festive & Simple Christmas Buttercream Board

The holiday season is here, and you cannot go wrong taking this Festive Christmas Buttercream Board to your next Christmas party, church potluck, or office celebration. This board is so easy to put together - with store-bought or homemade frosting, your favorite cookies, and a couple of simple tools.

Christmas Buttercream Board

This Christmas Tree Frosting Board is not your traditional charcuterie board - it's the perfect way to satisfy a sweet tooth with a fun, decorated board that screams "Merry Christmas!" at your next party!

I've been meaning to share this holiday frosting board for a couple of years and well, life has gotten in the way. But making your own Christmas dessert board really is so easy, after I show you these steps, I hope you'll make one this year!

I use American Buttercream for my Christmas Tree Buttercream board, but you could use your favorite frosting recipes or even a tub of store-bought vanilla buttercream to make this easy buttercream. 

Video

Why You'll Love a Christmas Frosting Board

• They're easy to make - you can have one ready in about 15 minutes!
• You can change it up to fit your tastes and use your favorite treats. 
• You can change the board size - make a large charcuterie board for a potluck or a small one for a family movie night. 

More Christmas Boards

• Rudolph Dessert Board
• Christmas Tree Charcuterie Board
• Santa Hat Christmas Dessert Board (coming soon!)
• S'mores Charcuterie Board

Have a Charcuterie lover in your life? Check out this post: Gift Guide: The Best Charcuterie Board Gifts for Food Lovers.

Tools Needed

• Medium Bowl
• Hand Mixer
• Piping Bag
• 1 M Tip
• Cutting Board, Charcuterie board, or other wooden board

Ingredients

These ingredients are very basic and you can easily find all of them at your local grocery store.

Green Frosting (Homemade Buttercream)

• Butter, at room temperature. (I use salted butter, but unsalted butter would work just as well, but you probably want to add a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor)
• Vanilla Extract
• Powdered Sugar
• Milk ( or heavy cream or water) for thinning
• Green  Gel Food Coloring

Decorations

• White and Gold Pearl Sprinkles
• Powdered Sugar
• White Sugar Sprinkles

Dippables

• Graham Crackers, for the trunk
• A Variety of Cookies (shortbread cookies, vanilla wafers, sugar cookies, etc.)

Substitutions

• Frosting. You could absolutely use store-bought frosting if you don't want to make it homemade. I recommend scooping the canned frosting into a mixing bowl and mixing in an extra cup of powdered sugar. This makes the frosting more pipeable! You could also use any other white frosting that you like - use your own buttercream recipe, a cream cheese frosting recipe, or add lemon or coconut extract for more flavor!
• Tree Trunk. You could mix some cocoa powder into a bit of the frosting to make your tree trunk out of chocolate frosting instead of a graham cracker. You could also grab a box of mini brownies and use one of those. The rest could be added to your dessert charcuterie board.
• For Dipping, you can use any sweet treats that you want. cubes of pound cake, fresh fruits, any cookies, mini cinnamon buns, mini donuts, little bites of cake, etc. OR you could go savory and use pretzel rods or pretzels for a sweet & savory version.

How to Make a Christmas Buttercream Board

1. First, make the frosting. Add the soft butter to a bowl then the vanilla extract and cream them together. 
2. Once it's light and fluffy, add the confectioners' sugar and mix on the lowest setting on your mixture until the sugar is incorporated.
3. Scrape down the bowl and add milk 1 teaspoon at a time until you get a soft, creamy frosting.
4. Add a few drop of green food coloring and mix - add more as needed until you get a shade of green that you like (keep in mind that frosting continues to darken the longer it sits!).
5. Add the frosting to your piping bag with a star tip and decorate your completely cooled cupcakes. 
6. Start by adding your 1M tip to your piping bag and filling your piping bag with green icing.
7. Find the center of your board and use that as reference for the top of your tree.
8. Start out with a triangle and slowly fill it in. Pipping the icing on to the board.
9. Once your icing tree is complete, top it with one gold pearl sprinkle for a star.
10. Sprinkle the rest of the tree with white pearl sprinkles, powdered sugar, and white sugar sprinkles. 
11. Use your graham cracker for a “trunk”.
12. Surround the tree with your favorite cookies!

Pro Tips

• If you want to fill in all the blank space on your board completely, you could fill in any spots with Christmas candies.
• Place parchment paper on you charcuterie board and pipe the Christmas tree onto it. This makes for really easy cleanup at the end of your party or evening.
• I don't recommend making this ahead of time, but if you want to, here's an idea... Place a piece of parchment paper on a large baking sheet that has a lid (or other flat food-safe container with a lid). Then, pipe the Christmas Tree onto the parchment. Cover it and place it in the fridge. Just before you're ready to serve, slide the parchment onto your charcuterie board and surround the tree with all of your best cookies and favorite holiday treats. The best part? The easy cleanup!

Serving Suggestions

• Christmas Eve gathering
• A Holiday Party
• Office Party
• Movie Night

​Christmas Cookies

• Easy Mini Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
• Easy Red Velvet Peppermint Cookies
• Chewy Caramel Oatmeal Cookies (with Cookie Mix)
• The Ultimate Chocolate Chip M&M Cookies Recipe
• Easy Grinch Cookies Recipe (no Cake Mix)
• Snowflake Cookies (Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing)