Christmas Grazing Platter Ideas: How Much Food, and How to Lay It Out

A Christmas grazing platter for 12 people, served before lunch, needs about 600g of cheese, 500g of cured meat, 60 crackers and a kilo of fresh fruit. Double it if the board is the meal. Lay it out as a tree or a wreath, start from a hamper so you only shop for the fresh things, and keep the perishables cold until guests arrive.

That is the short version. The rest of this guide is the detail: quantities for 6, 12 and 20, two Christmas layouts that people photograph before they eat, what is worth buying rather than making, and how to keep a board safe on a 30-degree afternoon. If you would rather have the pantry half done before you start, our gourmet hampers arrive with the crackers, olives, nuts and pastes, and the cheeseboard hampers bring the board itself.

Grazing platter, charcuterie board or antipasto: what is the difference

The names overlap, and nobody at the table will check. A charcuterie board is built around cured meat: prosciutto, salami and coppa, with mustard and pickles to cut through the fat. An antipasto platter is the Italian version, heavier on marinated vegetables, olives, artichokes and bocconcini. A grazing platter is the generous Australian take on both, with cheese, meat, fruit and crackers spread wide enough that people stand around it and pick.

At Christmas a grazing board usually does two jobs at once. It feeds people while the main event is still in the fridge, and it covers for a lunch that runs an hour late without anyone noticing.

How much food per person

Plan by the job the board is doing. A board that comes out with drinks before lunch is a nibble. A board that replaces lunch is a meal, and it needs about twice as much. These are the quantities we work to for a before-lunch board:

On the board	6 guests	12 guests	20 guests
Cheese, about 50g each	300g	600g	1kg
Cured meat, about 40g each	250g	500g	800g
Crackers and bread, about five pieces each	30 pieces	60 pieces	100 pieces
Fresh fruit	500g	1kg	1.6kg
Olives, dips and pastes	3 small bowls	4 small bowls	6 small bowls
Nuts and sweet bites	2 cups	4 cups	6 cups

For a grazing lunch, double every row. For 20 people, build two boards rather than one enormous one: two boards mean two places to stand, half the queue, and one can wait in the fridge while the other is out.

Three cheeses chosen by texture cover six to twelve people. For twenty, add a fourth and double up on the hard cheese, because that is the one everyone eats. Our guide to building a cheese board from a hamper goes through choosing the cheeses and laying them out.

What goes on a Christmas grazing platter

A good board is built in layers, and each layer has a job. Pick one or two things from each and it will look generous without turning into a shop window:

• Cheese: one hard, one soft and one with character, such as an aged cheddar, a brie and a blue.
• Cured meat: prosciutto for softness, salami for bite, and leftover glazed ham if the board is out on Boxing Day.
• Something fresh: cherries, grapes, figs, strawberries and mango, plus cucumber and baby carrots for anyone avoiding the cheese.
• Something crunchy: crackers, crispbread, grissini, pita chips and toasted sourdough.
• Something salty and sharp: olives, cornichons, caperberries and a tapenade.
• Something sweet: quince or fruit paste, honey, dried apricots, and a few pieces of chocolate or shortbread at one end.
• The finish: roasted nuts to fill the gaps, and herbs to make it look like Christmas.

For a Christmas charcuterie board, lean on the meat layer and add mustards and pickles. For a Christmas antipasto platter, swap some of the cheese for marinated capsicum, artichokes and bocconcini.

Christmas layouts: the tree and the wreath

The Christmas tree board

This is the layout behind every Christmas tree cheese board you have seen, and it is easier than it looks. On a long rectangular board, or straight onto baking paper on the bench, mark out a triangle with a line of rosemary sprigs. Fill it in rows from the base up: cubes of cheddar, folded salami, red grapes, a line of crackers, green olives, then ribbons of prosciutto. Cherry tomatoes and pomegranate seeds are the baubles. Cut a star from a slice of hard cheese with a biscuit cutter for the top, and use a short stack of crackers as the trunk.

The wreath

For a round board, build a ring. Put a bowl of dip, a wheel of brie or a small dish of quince paste in the centre, then lay rosemary and thyme around it in a circle. Work round the ring with cheese, folded meat, bocconcini, cherries and strawberries, spreading the red evenly so it reads as a wreath rather than a pile. A wreath is the better shape for a crowd, because it can be reached from every side.

Christmas colour without trying

Red and green do the work. Cherries, strawberries, raspberries, pomegranate, cranberries and red grapes bring the red. Rosemary, mint, green grapes, pistachios, cornichons and green olives bring the green. Mango cheeks and apricots add the summer. Leave out anything that browns once it is cut, apple and pear included, unless you slice it at the last minute.

Buy or make: where your effort should go

Every grazing board has two halves. The fresh half (cheese, meat and fruit) has to be bought close to the day and kept cold. The pantry half (crackers, flatbread, olives, nuts, pastes, tapenades and something sweet) keeps for weeks, and it is the half that turns into four shop trips when you build it item by item.

That second half is what a hamper is for. Start the board from one and your shopping list shrinks to the deli counter and the fruit shop:

• Wine & Antipasto Hamper. A bamboo board and a Dreamfarm Knibble Lite cheese knife, with the savoury layer and a red to go with it. The one to start from if you own nothing.
• The Artisan Cheeseboard Hamper. Two tapenades and a quince paste on a bamboo board. The condiments are done, and all that is missing is the cheese.
• The Epicurean Cheeseboard Hamper. A board with a handle, plus a red and a white, for a bigger table with mixed tastes.
• Gourmet Cheeseboard Hamper. A bamboo board with green olives and crispbread, alcohol-free, for a family table or a host who does not drink.
• Merry Christmas Nibbles Box. An alcohol-free box of chips and shortbread, among other nibbles, to fill the small bowls at the kids' end of the table.

If you are making things yourself, make the dips and the spiced nuts and buy the crackers. Homemade crackers are the most effort for the least credit on any board.

Keeping it cool on a 30-degree day

This is the part that matters most in an Australian December, and the rules are not ours. The food safety basics from Food Standards Australia New Zealand say perishable food belongs in the fridge at 5°C or colder, and that bacteria multiply quickly between 5°C and 60°C. Their guidance for food left at room temperature is simple: under 2 hours, it can go back in the fridge; between 2 and 4 hours, eat it straight away; after 4 hours, throw it out.

On a hot Christmas Day, a grazing board is perishable food at room temperature, so plan for it:

• Build it in two layers of time. Crackers, nuts, bowls of olives and pastes can stay out all afternoon. Cheese, meat and cut fruit go out in smaller rounds and get topped up from the fridge.
• Two boards beat one. One out, one in the fridge, swapped halfway through.
• Put it out when people arrive, not before. A board that waits an hour for the first guest has used up half its time.
• Keep it in the shade and away from the barbecue. Shade and a breeze matter more than any garnish.
• Give the seafood its own platter. Prawns and oysters belong on ice, not on the grazing board.

Christmas nibbles that hold up

Not every Christmas nibble needs a board. For the hour before lunch, or the long afternoon after it, the reliable ones are the things that do not mind the heat: salted nuts, popcorn, pretzels, crackers with a paste, olives and shortbread. Keep the chocolate inside until it is wanted. A few quick cold bites that always disappear:

• Prawn cocktail in baby cos leaves
• Bocconcini, cherry tomato and basil on skewers
• Smoked salmon and crème fraîche on blini
• Ham and mustard on mini crackers
• Dates stuffed with blue cheese and a walnut half

Five Christmas platter ideas beyond the cheese board

1. The seafood platter. Prawns, oysters and smoked salmon over crushed ice, with lemon wedges and a bowl for the shells.
2. The antipasto platter. Chargrilled capsicum and eggplant, marinated artichokes, olives, salami, bocconcini and torn bread.
3. The ham platter. Slices of glazed ham with mustards, pickles and soft rolls, for the afternoon and for Boxing Day.
4. The summer fruit platter. Cherries, mango, watermelon, lychees and berries, cold from the fridge.
5. The dessert platter. Shortbread, mince tarts, meringues, chocolate-dipped strawberries and a few truffles, put out with the coffee.

Drinks for the board

Match the drink to the strongest thing on the board. Sparkling covers a mixed board best, because the bubbles reset your palate between cheese and meat. Shiraz suits hard cheese and salami, and a crisp white suits soft cheese and anything from the sea. Our wine hampers pair a bottle with the grazing layer, so the drinks and the board arrive together. Enjoy responsibly.

Bringing or sending the board

If you are a guest rather than the host, a board-building hamper is one of the few gifts a Christmas host is genuinely glad of, because it is tomorrow's lunch as much as today's present. Our gifts to share are built for a table rather than one person, and the full range of Christmas hampers covers everyone else on the list.

Start your board from one of our gourmet hampers, add the cheese, the meat and a bowl of cherries, and you have a Christmas grazing platter on the table before the first guest finds the fridge.