The Best Christmas Party Food Recipes for Fussy Eaters

Top tips for catering for fussy eaters:

• Have both sweet and savoury party foods on offer.
• For kids, they love foods that look like something else (ants on a log, etc.).
• Deconstructed appetisers are perfect as guests can leave out ingredients they don’t like.

We all know someone (child or adult alike) who will turn their nose up at even the best Christmas party food recipes. However, it doesn’t mean having to feed the rest of your guests party pies and sausage rolls to keep the fussier eaters happy.

In this guide to the best Christmas party food recipes for fussy eaters, we show you some of the best quick and easy finger foods and treats to keep everyone happy. You’ll even find some of our favourite vegan and vegetarian options, so nobody feels left out.

Photo by Lee Myungseong on Unsplash

The Best Christmas Party Food Recipes for Kids

Mini Bacon & Egg Pies

Serves: 12

This quick and easy snack recipe takes the classic Australian bacon and egg pie and turns it into something even the fussiest kid will enjoy. With only 5 ingredients, even someone with minimal cooking experience can whip this up in no time. If you do have some skills in the kitchen, try making your own puff pastry.

You’ll need:

• 3 sheets of store-bought puff pastry.
• Cooking spray.
• 12 whole eggs.
• 1 & ½ cups bacon bits.
• 3 tbs fresh parsley, chopped.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Method 

1. Preheat your oven to 180°c (fan-forced).
2. Lightly grease muffin tin.
3. Using a cup, trace and cut out circles in your puff pastry and place each circle in a muffin tin space.
4. Crack an egg into each puff pastry casing and lightly scramble with a fork.
5. Sprinkle your bacon bits and fresh parsley on top of each, and season with salt and pepper.
6. Lightly whisk with a fork again.
7. Place the pies in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of your pies.
8. Remove pies from oven and allow to rest for 2 minutes.
9. Serve hot or cold.

Baked Chicken Nuggets

Serves: 25

Save time and your wallet with these super simple baked chicken nuggets! Even the adults at your Christmas party will love this healthier version of a traditional fast-food favourite.

Tip: Swap out the plain flour with tapioca flour to make this a gluten-free chicken nugget recipe.

Tip: You can replace tenderloins with thigh fillets for juicier nuggets but remember to trim the excess fat. You may also use breast fillets, which has less fat but will be drier.

You’ll need:

• 1kg chicken tenderloins (thigh or breast).
• 2 cups plain flour.
• 2 whole eggs.
• 1 cup light milk.
• 6 cups crushed cornflakes.
• Salt and pepper 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (fan-forced).
2. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.
3. Place flour, salt and pepper into a large bowl
4. In a second bowl, crack and beat your eggs with the milk.
5. Grab a third bowl and fill with the 6 cups of crushed cornflakes.
6. Using one hand, toss a couple of pieces of chicken in the flour.
7. Use your other hand to dip into the wet ingredients, before transferring to the cornflake bowl, using your dry-ingredients hand to coat.
8. Place chicken pieces on a wire rack with a tray underneath.
9. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden and crispy on the outside, and cooked-through in the middle.

Frosted Doughnut Pops

Makes: 12

Get the kids in the kitchen this Christmas with these simple, no-cook holiday treats. We’ve given you some of our favourite toppings to try, but feel free to mix and match however you want to create your perfect doughnut pop. 

You’ll need:

• 36 mini doughnuts.
• 300g icing sugar. 
• 1 cup chocolate, vanilla or strawberry frosting.
• Jelly beans, choc chips, lolly straps, nuts or anything you want to decorate with.
• 12 bamboo skewers.
  
  

Method

1. Dust some of the doughnuts in icing sugar to create a frosted appearance.
2. Thread two or three doughnuts onto each bamboo skewer.
3. Add frosting to your doughnuts. 
4. Now is the time to add as many or as little toppings as you want, and then serve.

3 Best Christmas Party Food Recipes

Smash Burgers

Serves: 12

Smash burgers are a great new spin on an all-time classic. The ‘smash’ refers to the actual smashing of the patty so it’s very thin at the very start of the cooking process. This helps you keep in the juiciness, while ensuring you have that flavourful crust your Christmas guests will love.

You’ll need:

• Vegetable oil (for pan).
• 1 ½ kg ground beef (20% fat).
• Salt.
• 12 slices mild cheddar or colby cheese.
• 12 potato or brioche rolls, toasted.
• Your favourite burger fillings.

Method

1. Heat a large, heavy-bottom frying pan over high heat for roughly 1 to 2 minutes, or until hot.
2. Add your vegetable oil to the pan, and reduce to medium-high heat.
3. Split the beef into 12 equal portions, but don’t make into the patties yet.
4. Two at a time, season one side of each beef portion, before placing seasoning-side down onto the pan.
5. Use a spatula to flatten the beef into patties, roughly 4-inches wide, and don’t worry about the rough edges.
6. Cook for about 2 minutes before seasoning the top-side of the meat and flipping to cook for another 1 minute, or until brown and crispy all over.
7. Slice open a bun, add your patty and your toppings.

Easy Chicken Wings

Serves: 60 wings

Everyone loves a good chicken wing—well, almost everyone as we’ll find out further on. So these easy chicken wings will be an absolute win with majority of your party guests. Best of all, they’re baked, not fried, so you can skip all the mess and hassle of frying. We’ve provided two different sauces, but feel free to swap them with your favourite.

You’ll need:

For the buffalo sauce:

• 1 tbs melted unsalted butter.
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper.
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper.
• ¼ teaspoon salt.
• ¼ cup of hot sauce.

For the ginger-soy glaze:

• 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced.
• 3 large, crushed garlic cloves.
• ¼ cup honey.
• 2 tbs soy sauce.
• ¼ cup water.

For the wings:

• 2.5kg chicken wings.
• 2 tbs vegetable oil.
• 1 tablespoon salt.
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper.

Method

Buffalo sauce recipe:

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Add hot sauce and keep warm until ready to use on wings.

Ginger-soy glaze recipe:

1. Add all ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to help dissolve honey.
2. Once honey is dissolved, reduce heat to low and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes .
3. Strain the sauce and let sit until it’s reached the desired thickness.
4. Keep warm until ready to add to wings.

Wings recipe:

1. Coat chicken wings in vegetable oil, salt and pepper by gently tossing them all together in a large bowl.
2. Marinate half of the wings in ginger-soy sauce and other half in buffalo sauce overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 180°(fan-forced) and set wire racks inside 2 large baking trays.
4. Spread wings in an even, single layer on each tray.
5. Bake wings for 45 to 50 minutes or until cooked through and skin is crispy, turning once mid-way through.

Iceberg Wedges with Grilled Bacon & Croutons

Serves: 16

You can make friends with salad if your salad is this amazing take of a Caesar. If you have guests who can’t have bacon, try switching out with small roast chicken chunks, or even add them as well for a tasty extra.

You’ll need:

• 1 cup buttermilk.
• 1 cup sour cream.
• ⅔ cup fresh dill and parsley.
• ½ freshly squeezed lemon juice.
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped.
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• 1 kg thick-cut bacon, diced.
• 3 cups roughly chopped bread (borderline stale for best results).
• 2 heads of iceberg lettuce cut into 8 wedges each.

Method

1. Stir together the sour cream, buttermilk, lemon juice, herbs and garlic in a mixing bowl.
2. Add salt and pepper to the dressing to season. 
3. Heat frying pan to a medium-high heat and add the diced bacon.
4. Once bacon is crispy, transfer to a paper towel.
5. Toss bread chunks in the pan with bacon grease and fry until golden and crispy.
6. Display lettuce wedges on a large serving plate, before drizzling with buttermilk dressing and sprinkling on your bacon and freshly made croutons.

Our tasty vegetarian party food recipe

Goat Cheese, Potato & Onion Tart

Serves: 16 slices

As far as Christmas party food recipes go, this goat cheese, potato and onion tart is both easy and absolutely delicious. You can serve this dish either hot or cold, making it perfect for a holiday party or as an addition to Christmas lunch or dinner. 

You’ll need:

• 500g shortcrust pastry.
• 50g butter.
• 2 tbsp olive oil.
• 3 sliced red onions.
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced.
• 4 crushed garlic cloves.
• 4 tbsp fresh thyme leaves.
• 280g goat cheese, broken into pieces.
• 6 whole eggs.
• 400g crème fraîche.
• 50g rocket.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°c.

2. Line a tart tin with shortcrust pastry and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. Once chilled, remove the makings of your tart from the fridge and place a piece of greaseproof paper on top of the pastry.

4. Add pie weights or something with a little weight across the paper and blind bake for 15 minutes.

5. Remove the weights and paper, returning the pastry to the oven to bake for a further 5 minutes.

6. Reduce the oven to 180°c.

7. In a large pan, fry the potatoes and onions in butter or oil with salt and pepper, adding the garlic and thyme to the pan just before the mixture is fully golden.

8. Add the potato and onion mix, along with the goat cheese, evenly across the pastry.

9. Beat the eggs and creme fraiche together, and then pour over the potato, onion and goat cheese.

10. Bake the tart for 30 to 35 minutes until just set in the centre.

11. Once cooked, cut and serve with a few rocket leaves sprinkled on top.

The Best Vegan Finger Food for Christmas

Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Pinwheels

Serves: 20

Vegan Christmas party food recipes can seem like a challenge, but these pinwheels are one of the easiest on this entire list! Even non-vegans will flock to this plate and be coming back for seconds, so doubling up on the recipe may be a good idea. 

You’ll need:

• 225g vegan cream cheese.
• 50g dry, chopped sun-dried tomatoes.
• 45g frozen spinach.
• 2 large garlic cloves minced.
• 20g vegan parmesan cheese (plus more for serving).
• 1 pinch of both salt and black pepper.
• 2 large flour tortillas (check for vegan friendliness).
• 24 fresh basil leaves (divided).

Method

1. Thoroughly combine the vegan cream cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic, vegan parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.
2. Spread the filling evenly over both tortillas, ensuring you spread to all edges.
3. Split the basil leaves in half and place a half on each tortilla.
4. Begin to roll the tortillas, ensure you have a tight roll to stop in unrolling or the filling from falling out.
5. Squeeze gently once the tortillas are rolled to help hold them together.
6. Use a serrated knife and cut each roll into 1 ½ inch portions.
7. Serve immediately or chill covered for up to 23 hours.

Or, find a caterer on Localsearch and let someone else take care of your Christmas party foods.

More from Luke

Luke Davidson

Digital Content Specialist

Luke Davidson is a Digital Content Specialist at Localsearch, his professional journey ranges from startups to international digital agencies working in content for a wide variety of clients, big or small. When he isn't deep diving content, data and SEO, Luke is an avid guitarist, surfer, coffee nut and gamer. As a digital content specialist and lifestyle fanatic, Luke provides valuable insights on lifestyle musings on the Localsearch Blog.