Generally, holiday entertaining means feeding a crowd, but it doesn’t have to mean a lot of cooking and tedious prep work. Charcuterie boards and other kinds of creative snack trays (butter board, anyone?) have become popular for this very reason. Simply set out an assortment of fun finger foods and you can be free to mingle with your holiday guests instead of slaving away in the kitchen.
If trends like “girl dinner” — as covered by The New York Times — are any indication, grazing boards are bound to be as popular among guests as they are with hosts. But they don’t have to be overindulgent — in fact, some can be downright healthy.
While traditional charcuterie boards tend to be loaded with high-fat cheeses and processed meats, grazing boards give you a little more leeway for offering nutritious options. We asked seven registered dietitians what they offer their guests at Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s gatherings. They explain how they balance traditional holiday foods with healthier options for their seasonal celebrations.
Hanukkah Grazing Board With Nutrient-Packed Latkes
Lots of Hanukkah grazing boards are full of candy and chocolate. And it’s okay to treat yourself when you’re celebrating. “As with most holiday eating, some foods are purely fun and traditional, with health kept in mind for other meals,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, New York–based author of Read It Before You Eat It: Taking You From Label to Table.
That said, she pumps up the nutrition in the latkes included on her grazing board — besides white potatoes, the latkes are filled with zucchini, carrots, broccoli, corn, peppers, and sweet potatoes. And she serves them alongside Greek yogurt, instead of the traditional sour cream. That’s because Greek yogurt packs protein and calcium, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and it may help keep your digestive system healthy, according to a study published in February 2022 in BMC Microbiology.
Her Hanukkah board also includes unsweetened applesauce, cucumbers, tomatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and pomegranate arils: “Not only are they fun to eat — they also provide a pop of garnet color, plus fiber, vitamins, and minerals,” Taub-Dix says.
Fresh Winter Charcuterie Board
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Hanukkah Grazing Board With Healthy Alaskan Smoked Salmon
Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN, a nutrition expert and author of Smoothies and Juices: 100+ Delicious Recipes for Optimal Wellness, features wild Alaskan smoked salmon on her Hanukkah platter. “Wild salmon is packed with high-quality protein and heart-healthy omega-3s, and it also has nutrients like vitamin D, zinc, potassium, and calcium, which are all great for the immune system,” she says. “I specifically look for salmon from Alaska, which guarantees it’s both wild and sustainably caught.”
A 3-ounce serving of cooked sockeye salmon has 23 grams of protein, 570 international units of vitamin D, and 371 milligrams of potassium, per USDA data, plus omega-3s, which may benefit your mind as well as your heart, according to the National Institutes of Health. A study published in June 2023 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that omega-3s may be beneficial in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, although more research is needed.
Like Taub-Dix, Largeman-Roth also includes the traditional Hanukkah latkes on her grazing board. “Foods fried in oil, like latkes, represent the oil that miraculously burned for eight nights at the temple in Jerusalem,” she says. She offers applesauce, Greek yogurt, spicy ketchup, hummus, cucumber, lemon, and red onion to top the latkes.
Christmas Grazing Board With a Mix of Proteins
Andrea D’Ambrosio, RD, owner of Dietetic Directions in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, points out that traditional charcuterie boards include cured meats like salami. But she likes to expand the protein possibilities on her boards. On this Christmas grazing board, she includes nontraditional proteins, such as hard-boiled eggs, hummus, salmon pâté, and cheese, in addition to salami, which is a popular favorite in her Italian family.
She also likes to add a boost of fiber by including a side of lupini beans, which are also an excellent source of zinc, according to USDA data. Zinc is a mineral that might help shorten the duration of those winter colds that circulate this time of year, according to a review published in April 2020 in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
To brighten the Christmas table, D’Ambrosio also includes vibrant, nutritious fruits and veggies on her grazing board, such as grapes, radishes, cucumber slices, and strips of yellow pepper.
Christmas Grazing Board With Festive Pomegranates
“Pomegranates scream ‘holidays’ and make Christmas grazing boards even more jolly,” says Robin Plotkin, RD, culinary nutritionist and founder of Board Mama in Dallas. “High in fiber, vitamin C, and folate, pomegranates help balance out the rich, creamy ingredients with their fresh flavor and unique crunch.”
Pomegranates pack a more potent antioxidant punch than red wine or green tea and can help prevent or treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high glucose levels, and inflammation, according to past research.
Plotkin rounds out her Christmas grazing board with dried apricots, figs, and walnuts. “Between the three of them, they provide a powerful omega-3 fatty acid, protein, and fiber punch,” she says. She also includes berries, Manchego and Moliterno al Tartufo cheeses, salami, prosciutto, and whole-grain crackers.
Kwanzaa Grazing Board With Kenyan Chevda
“As a dietitian based in the United States who was born and raised in Zimbabwe, I have always appreciated the value of including pieces of my heritage and other African heritages in the foods I make for the holidays,” says Nicole Chimbetete, MPH, RDN. “On this board, I included Kenyan chevda, which is a savory and spicy snack using toasted potatoes, grains, and nuts and tossed in delicious spices. As the centerpiece of the board, it represents the African core in me.”
Her Kwanzaa board also includes cheeses, meats, nuts, raisins, figs, and honey. Honey contains flavonoids and antioxidants, and a research review published in September 2018 in Molecules reported that honey could help protect the cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems.
Kwanzaa Grazing Board Representing the Kinara
Kwanzaa celebrations include the lighting of the kinara, a candelabra that holds three red candles on the left, three green candles on the right, and a black candle in the middle. Jerlyn Jones, RDN, a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, created her Kwanzaa grazing board to reflect the kinara.
Her red foods are raspberries, strawberries, and grape tomatoes. For the green foods, she chose grapes, kiwi, and okra. She used blackberries to represent the black candle, and Vermont white cheddar cheese cubes and cashews to represent the flames on top of the candles.
“These foods are packed with nutrients, especially antioxidants and phytochemicals,” Jones says. Berries deserve their spot at the center of this grazing board. Eating berries may help reduce risk factors for heart disease such as LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, according to a meta-analysis published in December 2021 in Frontiers in Nutrition.
New Year’s Eve Grazing Board With Sparkly Shrimp Skewers
“Special occasions call for festive foods that nourish our bodies and our spirits. That is especially true after the last year (or so) we just had,” says Isabel Maples, RDN, a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Though COVID stole the glamor from last year’s New Year’s Eve, it doesn’t have to this year. Just scale the sparkle to fit your numbers.”
Her New Year’s grazing board highlights sparkly shrimp skewers, which are low in calories and carbs and high in protein and astaxanthin, an antioxidant that may help preserve brain function as you age, according to a review article published in February 2017 in GeroScience.
Along with shrimp, her board includes berries, caprese skewers, cheeses, nuts, grapes, dried fruit, dark chocolate, apricots with goat cheese and walnuts, and chocolate-dipped figs.
“To make sure your guests don’t run out of steam, serve foods with a mix of energy sources — carbohydrate, protein, and fat,” Maples says. “And if alcohol is part of your celebration, be sure to include foods like nuts and cheeses that offer protein and fat to blunt the effects of alcohol.”
New Year’s Grazing Board for Good Luck
Given the ongoing rise in grocery prices, Diana Wind, RD, a nutritionist at Inspira Health, stresses that making sustainable ingredient choices is just as important as making healthful ones. In her grazing board for New Year’s, she does both, with the star of the show being black-eyed peas. They’re affordable, full of protein and fiber, and have been shown to improve cholesterol levels in menopausal women, according to a study published in April 2022 in the Asian Journal of Health Research.
“Black-eyed peas (sometimes called cowpeas) bring good luck in the new year,” Wind says. More specifically, Hoppin’ John — a stewed black-eyed pea dish made popular in the American South, particularly in Black households — is a holiday favorite, and Wind makes it grazing-friendly (and healthier) by enacting a few ingredient swaps. “For a grazing board, Hoppin’ John is best served in a bowl as a dip surrounded by whole grain crackers,” she explains, as it’s typically served over rice. Her recipe also eliminates some of the dish’s saturated fats by removing the ham hock the beans are typically cooked in, and subbing in olive oil, aromatics, and greens.
With the beans being the main event, Ward recommends incorporating side elements of sweetness and creaminess with fresh fruit — grapes, apples, strawberries, clementines — and cheese, such as pepper jack. These add-ins will bring antioxidants, calcium, and a bit more protein to the party.
Additional reporting by Kayla Blanton.
Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES
Medical Reviewer
Lynn Grieger is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist, certified personal trainer, and certified health and wellness coach. She completed requirements to become a registered dietitian at Valparaiso University in 1987 and completed a dietetic internship at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, in 1988.
Lynn brings her expertise in nutrition, exercise, and behavior change to her work in helping people reach their individual health and fitness goals. In addition to writing for Everyday Health, she has also written for websites and publications like Food and Health Communications, Today's Dietitian, iVillage.com, and Rodale Press. She has a passion for healthy, nutrient-dense, great-tasting food and for being outdoors as much as possible — she can often be found running or hiking, and has completed a marathon in every state.
