Pentecost is coming up and we love to celebrate with various versions of “fruits of the Spirit” fruit salads. This year I thought given the popularity of these charcuterie boards popping up everywhere that we would try it out, and you know what? I kinda love it! Let me share my tricks with you about how to make an easy fruit charcuterie board, and turn it into a fun and healthy fruits of the spirit snack idea for kids!
What Is A Charcuterie Board?
It’s just a board or plate with ready to eat foods piled on it. That’s it! Using wooden cutting boards for this seems especially popular. It can have meats, cheeses, nuts, fruits, or really anything you can imagine. You can find all kinds of themed charcuterie boards all over the internet. I have also seen them online for kids called “grazing boards” and I love that name as well! Whatever you want to call them, let me tell you what I love about them:
Here is a similar board to the one I used. It is useful for a variety of things, so it’s a good one to have around!
Why Moms Love Charcuterie Boards
- These are easy to put together! There are no rules, you just kind of group foods together however you think looks appealing.
- They make for basically no dishes! This is the optimal selling point for me lol. Rather than needing 10 different fancy bowls or dishes to place your food on, you just pile it all onto your cutting board. And you know what? That makes it “fancy” 😉
- “Grazing Boards” is a very easy way to serve an easy and healthy breakfast or lunch for little ones that they will love!
What’s On My Fruits Of The Spirit Board
I will admit here that since there are 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit, having 12 different fruits would be absolutely ideal! I didn’t currently have that many on hand, but the kids didn’t complain haha.
We had the following fruits on our charcuterie board:
- Mango
- Watermelon (which I cut out with a star cookie cutter just for a little extra fun for the kids!)
- Orange slices
- Blueberries
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Green grapes
More fruit ideas to help bring your number of fruits to 12:
- Purple grapes
- Kiwis
- Strawberries
- Banana slices
- Apple slices
- Manderine sections
- Cherries
Be sure to use your kid’s favorite fruits! This is supposed to be fun, and it may be the perfect time to throw in something new and interesting that you don’t usually buy!
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Exotic fruits to think about throwing in there:
- Starfruit
- Dragonfruit
- Papayas
- Coconut Chunks
How To Arrange Your Charcuterie Board
These fruit boards can be quite beautiful once arranged, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort. Here are some tips for arranging your charcuterie fruit board like a pro!
- The fruit should be “ready to eat” when placed on the tray. That means that whatever you serve should already be cut or peeled accordingly. You can still be creative with this! For instance, I sliced my mango into squares and then turned the peel inside out to make a beautiful display, and each mango chunk is ready to be plucked off for the eating!
- Make sure your platter or board isn’t too big. It will be harder to fill a larger platter. Sometimes smaller is better to make things really seem piled high! Full is more visually appealing than big.
- Place like fruit together. So rather than spreading all the pieces of fruit all over the board, place all the orange slices together, all the grapes in one bunch, etc. This helps the board look beautiful and also allows people to easily grab the fruit they want to eat.
- Mix up the colors! Don’t place 2 fruits that are the same (or similar) color next to each other. So for instance if you are using blueberries and also purple grapes, make sure to put them on opposite sides of the board to spread out that color pallete.
- Place larger fruits around the outside. Because all of the fruit is “loose” on the board, you don’t want small things rolling off the edge. I created somewhat of a “wall” around the outside of my board with larger fruits, and then filled the middle with the smaller berries. The outside fruits acted kind of like a “bowl” around the small stuff in the middle. It worked great!
- At the end, pay attention to a few details. Once you have all the fruits on the board, take just a minute to arrange just a few things to make it beautiful! One way to do this is to take just a few pieces of fruit that contrast in color and place one over the other. Or to take a particularly beautiful piece of fruit and make sure it’s on the top. I ended up sprinkling some blueberries over the orange slices because it provided an absolutely beautiful little pop of extra color! And I love how it turned out. A little bit of attention to detail at the very end can go a long way!
- Pay attention to placement. The environment you place your board on can really up or down your game. I find that if I put down some kind of tablecloth or place-mat, it can really make our celebrations feel a lot fancier without much extra work on my part. In this case, I wanted something red behind the board because red is the color of the Holy Spirit, and the liturgical color of Pentecost. I think it definitely made the final display cuter!
When To Serve The Grazing Board
This would be an excellent and healthy afternoon snack for kids, but could also be easily served for breakfast or brunch after Pentecost Sunday mass!
Fruits Of The Spirit Craft For Kids
If you are learning about the fruits of the spirit, you definitely want to check out my printable fruits of the spirit crafts for kids. So many fun possibilities with this one!!!
You can find all of my Holy Spirit teaching resources for kids here including the gifts of the spirit, the fruits of the spirit, celebrating Pentecost Sunday, dove crafts, and more!
