Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board

Last Updated October 30th, 2023 at 09:41 am by Lisa

Create a stunning Thanksgiving charcuterie board filled with your favorite sliced meats, different types of cheeses, crackers, fruit, nuts, and a few festive and sugary holiday treats for hungry guests on turkey day or anytime during the holiday season!

A Fall cheeseboard is so easy to put together and a delicious way to make easy Thanksgiving appetizers. These also work for a Friendsgiving gathering, as an after-school snack board for kids, or to host a happy hour for friends with simple appetizers and drinks...

How To Build A Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board

There is something for everyone on this Fall board, there are savory bites, crunchy salty snacks, sweet spreads, and a few creative decorations.

Here are some fun ways to add pizzazz to a festive Thanksgiving cheese board. And be sure to see the video in the recipe card below...

What Can I Use For A Charcuterie Board

A charcuterie platter is the easiest thing to put together for Thanksgiving gatherings! The first thing you will need is to decide how many people you are serving for the size of your board. Choose one based on the number of guests, and how much food and yummy things you plan to serve.

• CUTTING BOARDS: A large cutting board will work really well, just give it a good clean. They can be round, square, or rectangular in shape.
• GRAZING BOARDS: A extra large board is also fun for a party, like a long 4' grazing board to put down the center of a long table.
• TRAYS: Use a large tray that you have, it could be wood, a low-profile basket, or any beautiful tray you love.

What Are Classic Charcuterie Foods

1. Variety Of Meats
2. Cheeses
3. Crackers And Bread
4. Fresh Fruits, Olives, or Nuts
5. Sweets

Creative Charcuterie Board Ideas

Try some creative unique charcuterie board ideas and different things you see online for your Thanksgiving celebration. You can go with a color theme, like classic fall oranges and rust colors. It is so much fun to create a whimsical look on a beautiful charcuterie board. Look for inspiration, jot some notes, and create your own easy charcuterie board!

PRO TIP: Find a Trader Joes type store to get the best variety and prices on your cheeses and meat products. Seasonal Thanksgiving or Fall candy can be ordered online or found in specialty shops like See's Candies.

• Do some Party Planning for the number of guests, and have everything ready to go before your party! You can cut the cheeses, and prep the meats and fruit the day before, store them in airtight containers, then assemble the board in about 15 minutes.
• Take some time to make the best charcuterie board design. Then cover with plastic wrap tucked in the refrigerator for a few hours before the party. Once the guests arrived, pull it out to serve!
• Use 2-3 Mini Bowls that are orange or white and round or shaped like pumpkins to serve drippy things like Marinated Olives or Marinated Mozzarella Balls (try my recipe!) with appetizer toothpicks.
• Add Real Flowers, snip a few in dark colors like rust orange or purple daisies, they add a real touch of whimsy, and you can tuck them in at the end.

What To Serve On A Charcuterie Board

• Dried Fruits are a great addition to your board, try apricots, cherries, cranberries, or figs.
• Small Cookie Cutters to cut sliced cheese in shapes like pumpkins, leaves, or turkeys. Stack up the cutout cheese, and these are fun for kids.
• Have a Small Spoon for Dips to make it easier to serve and eat.
• Put out Small Spreader Knives for dips and cracker spreads.
• A small container of Appetizer Picks to lift items like Marinated Mozzarella or olives out of small bowls onto plates.
• Use a Classic Cheese Board Knife Set including a good cheese knife, slicer, fork, and or dip spreaders are a great way to slice and cut items on your board either ahead of time or let your guests do the honors.
• Cheeses get better at room temperature for up to 4 hours, but you will want to rechill meats like sliced salami after 2 hours to keep it food safe. Also, did you know you can freeze leftover charcuterie meats?

How To Design A Fall Charcuterie Board

The best charcuterie boards have a neat design and appeal but are simple. There really are no strict rules, and no wrong way to build a beautiful board. Here are some top tips I have learned over the years for assembling your gorgeous autumn-themed board.

Once you choose the right board, platter, or serving tray here are some easy ways to build your board. First, consider lining the tray or board with some parchment paper to keep stains off your board or tray. I learned this the hard way and got some marks on my long grazing board, oh well!

• Traditional Meat is a star of a perfect charcuterie board. Start with sausages and salami both presliced and whole. Meats like prosciutto, ham, and soppressata are also classic additions. You can slice, cube, wrap, fold, stack, or serve meats in many designs like the salami roses you see all over the internet. There are step-by-step instructions below, so read on!
• Dips or a finger food item are a nice addition! Choose ones that are premade or can be made a day ahead and prepare those first.

Charcuterie Design Tips

• Choose Some Focal Points for larger items and place the larger items like wheels of brie or salami roses on first. Those are your anchor points and work in odd numbers with large focal points.
• Empty Spaces can be filled in with small items like roasted or raw nuts, candied pecans, roasted pumpkin seeds, candies, or crackers.
• Add a Variety of Textures by trying different kinds of crackers, gourmet cheeses, delicious meats, nuts, fruit, and more using them all in various ways. The goal here is to work with different sizes to keep it interesting!
• Design Top Tip is to add things in small piles, and add other things in equal parts in various patterns like stacks or neat rows. The variation of textures is pleasing to the eye.

Soft And Hard Cheeses

• Add 1-2 Hard Cheeses sliced into thin triangles, small cubes, broken into chunks like the English Coastal Cheddar, or served in small wedges with cheese knives for people to slice their own. I found one that was a rust Fall color and a tri-color that looked like the colors of candy corn! I got my cheeses from a Southern California Trader Joe's, but most grocery stores carry a nice variety these days.
• Add 1-2 Semi Soft Cheeses like brie can be transformed into a centerpiece on your board by cutting out the center using a small cookie cutter. I used a pumpkin shape and filled the center with finely diced dried apricots and a good drizzle of honey. Other semi-soft cheeses like goat cheese or camembert are really popular and add a nice variety.

Fruit, Herbs, And Bread

• Seasonal Produce like fruits and herbs are great options for your board, try some grapes, apple slices (toss in lemon juice to keep them from browning), or pear slices, or sprinkle some pomegranate seeds on top of a piece of soft cheese like brie.
• Fresh Herbs like rosemary or thyme sprigs can add a lot of dimension and character to goat cheese.
• A Bread Loaf like sliced French bread or toasted Fall Crostini is great to spread soft cheese on
• Put some Fig Jam or Apple Butter in a little dish with a spreader knife.
• Baked Brie in a pastry with cranberry sauce or apricots would be amazing!

Fun Additions And Extras

• Mini Pumpkins buy real mini orange or white pumpkins, they look so cute, and are a perfect size for a board. You can easily find them at your local grocery store.
• Marinated Mozzarella Balls or Marinated Olives are super easy, taste delicious, and are a great addition to any classic charcuterie board.
• Add Fun Foods for kids and adults, some sweet, salty and treats the whole party will adore. There could be smaller items like finger sandwiches, cookies, candy corn pumpkins, mini pumpkin madeleines, or even small slices of Pumpkin Bread or one of four flavors of Holiday Cheese Balls shaped like Christmas tree ornaments!

Sweets And Treats

• Sweet Treats like Fall Chocolates are a favorite addition or some seasonal candies. I found some foil-wrapped leaf candy from See's Candies in light and dark chocolate. You can order those online, or look in specialty shops.
• Holiday Treats like Fall Cookies are a nice addition, I have some pumpkin madeleines from Trader Joe's on this board, you can buy them at a bakery. Also, beautifully decorated sugar cookies are a nice addition like ones with leaves, turkeys, or cornucopia cookie designs. Another fun idea is macarons in Fall flavors like fig or apricot. These will usually hold days before the party in an airtight container refrigerated. Another idea is to add some baked mini pies in a variety of flavors!

Ways To Cut Cheeses Creatively

• Use a fork and break off rustic chunks, I did this on the English white cheddar
• Slice thin triangle wedges of cheese and stack the pieces going in opposite directions, like the rust-colored cheese you see below
• Cut cheese blocks into small square cubes for your cheese board
• Use small seasonal cookie cutters to get different shapes
• Cut a shape out of a wheel of brie with a cookie cutter and fill the center
• Roll the cutout portion of brie into crushed cracker crumbs, I used cheddar cheese crackers.
• Use 3D Thanksgiving-themed cookie cutters and cut shapes out of sliced cheese, these 3D cookie cutters will impress a line design too!

Ways To Slice Charcuterie Meat

• Cut salami into small square cubes.
• Make salami roses, they are so easy and such a fun thing on your board!
• Fold sliced meats in half and fold those ends in, then push two on short skewers, you can trim the skewers short for a pretty look
• Fold sliced meats into quarters and stack 3 on a skewer, and cut the excess bamboo skewer off.

How To Make Salami Roses

1. Buy good sliced pepperoni or sliced salami.
2. Use a smaller glass like a wine goblet or champagne flute.
3. Layer the salami around the edge of the glass pressing and folding them down as you go.
4. Go round and round adding more layers and pushing them down into the center.
5. Flip the glass upside down, and place it down on a plate to see your beautiful salami rose! You can make these a day ahead and store them flat in a zip-top bag on a small plate until you are ready to assemble your board.

Free Thanksgiving Planner!

A little planning goes a long way, put down all your ideas and things that inspire you in this planner. There are spots for everything from deciding on your Thanksgiving menus to a guest list, shopping items, ideas for Thanksgiving decorations, how to put a festive twist on the menu, and more. Happy Thanksgiving!

Download your FREE copy of this 20-page planner and get those party plans started today…

More Charcuterie Board Ideas

Here are some perfect appetizer ideas to serve on your board or before Thanksgiving dinner, and my Halloween Charcuterie Board has a spooky twist just for Halloween!