It’s not the holiday season without an abundance of sweet treats, cookies and milk. Between the entertaining, holiday break and Santa’s arrival we keep the house packed full of goodies to make an epic treat board at a moments notice. Over the past couple of years there have been a few favorites.

One of my favorite boards to build on is a long skinny board I have had for years, it makes for a perfect table runner and gives me lots of room to play. I planned this board with Royally Iced Sweets with a color concept and theme. She created the most stunning cookies to highlight. We leaned into the Christmas movie theme with nods to A Christmas Story, Elf, Home Alone and A Christmas Vacation. The off beat colors made this board really fun. It’s not often you see purple and chartreuse in holiday decor, but I love the way it makes the red and green pop. With the cookies I added marshmallows, caramel corn and the most stunning macarons by Soiree Macarons. I used small bowls and ramekins to separate the smaller items and it turned into a show stopper.

Royally Iced and I worked together again to create the wreath board. Again choosing off beat colors like hot pink and lime green. A funky shaped board makes it so much fun to put together. I started with the cookies and layered in gorgeous ribbon candy and champagne gummies through out. Filling small measuring cups all the way around the wreath gave the look of colorful ornaments. I finished the board with an acrylic, food safe bow- this will be the talk of any holiday party.

When creating any snack board, I find if I go in with a theme it will always come out even more beautiful and cohesive. The “Naughty and Nice” theme has always been a favorite of mine. I thought it would be fun to create a Naughty and Nice board.

Here is everything you need to build a Nice board

-White Chocolate Peppermint Ice cream

-Candy canes + and cane taffy

-White fluffy marshmallows with edible glitter

-powered sugar doughnuts

-Merry Berry Ice cream

-Champagne gummies

-Hershey Kisses

-Sugar plum cookies

To give the board a “Nice” look I used pastel color bowls, pink and purple spoons and a jolly Santa mug to fill with treats.

Want to make a Naughty Board? Here’s what you need

-A slice of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting

-Coal hard candies

-chocolate chips

-almonds

-Dark chocolate bark

-Truffle Potato chips

For a naughty board, I go for the rice, dark and decadent treats and display on a black serving board with a mischievous Santa. Serve the two together at any event and see which list your guests land on.

If there is no other board you created all season long, make sure you display something special on Christmas Eve for the big man himself. This board is always different and fun to make with the kids. We have a signature tray that we leave cookies and milk for Santa, but of course we leave out a few extra things. We pile in all the types of cookies we have backed all year long, homemade gingerbread, Christmas Bark with pistachios, and peanut butter kisses. Rumor on the street is that the Elves love meringues, so we leave a few for Santa to take with him. We can’t forget the reindeer- they get extra big carrots covered in honey and Lauren Glass special Reindeer food made of oats and glitter. Santa of course needs him milk to wash it all down and a special Christmas Ale for all hime hard work.

One week later and it’s New Year’s Eve, the night of sparkle and celebration. It’s our tradition to celebrate with oysters, champagne and a festive board of treats. Time to include leftover truffles from our Christmas stockings, golden gummies and delicious crackers. Load it up with mini marshmallows to accompany hot cocoa on that cold winter night.

As December comes to an end, don’t forget to build an epic winter board for those dreary January days. For my winter board, I decided to go all white and create a board that would pair perfectly with hot chocolate. Fill the board with peppermint sticks, white chocolate bars, mini marshmallow, peanut butter cups and a little extra frosting for good measure. The best part of this one has to be the Snowman stir sticks. On a skewer stack three marshmallows to look like a snow man, and use bubble gum to create a cute little scarf. The perfect pair for a hot cup of cocoa.

Any occasion becomes a little more special with an epic holiday board. Follow along with #kkboardmagic to see my creations for every holiday and event.

Here’s a little peek at the feature in Mingle Magazine

XO,

Kelsey Klos