5 Cold Christmas Appetizers for a Festive First Bite

Cranberry-speckled spirals, a rosemary-ringed platter, and little green wreaths on deviled eggs bring Christmas to the first bite. These five appetizers are served cold, with a different way to offer each one.

Choose for the way people will eat: a handheld bite, a shared dip, or a skewer from the platter. Each idea leads to its creator’s complete recipe, including the preparation before it reaches the table.

Heather Seeley’s filling includes pecans and white cheddar, so there’s more here than cream cheese and fruit. Dried cranberries supply the red pieces dotted through the chilled roll.

Lay the slices with their cut faces showing. Those little circles supply the pattern themselves, so a simple platter lets you see the cranberry, onion, and pecan pieces.

Give this one a place in tomorrow’s plans. Lindsey Maestas’s written recipe includes an overnight stage, so read it before choosing the dip for your date.

Set out a serving spoon where it can reach both layers. A scoop from the edge shows the cranberry topping and cream cheese together; that contrast is part of the appeal.

Michael Wurm Jr.’s assortment includes tomatoes, gherkins, blackberries, peppadew peppers, and pitted olives alongside the cheese and meat. This is the choice for several ingredients gathered into one individual serving.

Give the open center some breathing room and keep the wooden picks visible. The gap makes the wreath shape clear, while the separate picks show guests which piece to lift.

Julia Pinney seasons the cream cheese with spring onion, chives, lemon juice, lemon zest, and pepper. The pale layer contributes its own flavor beneath the salmon.

A simple white platter would let the green cucumber edges and salmon color stand out on the Christmas table. The festive setting is an H&P serving suggestion for Julia’s cold appetizer.

These eggs are served cold, but their preparation includes cooking. Stacey Garska Rodriguez uses hard-boiled egg halves with a yolk filling containing mayonnaise and mustard. Food coloring supplies the green.

Leave the egg-white edges visible around the filling. They frame the green wreath and keep the little red bow easy to read, even when several eggs share the platter.