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Christmas Fondue Party

Christmas Fondue Party: Make an entire evening out of fondue, with cheese fondue, oil fondue, chocolate fondue, and caramel fondue. Perfect easy entertaining for the holidays.

Christmas Fondue Party dessert table with decorations, and chocolate and caramel fondue.

This Christmas Fondue party was so much fun! I love to entertain and especially around the holidays. But sometimes you spend so much time hosting that it’s more tiring than fun…anyone been there? Hosting a wine and fondue party is the perfect way to get to be a guest at your own party. This is a great party for the holidays or for New Year’s Eve. But a fondue dinner party is great for any special occasion, or just for getting a group of friends together. One of my favorite things about a fondue meal is that it takes awhile to cook your food, and tends to be an evening where everyone slowly cooks and talks together, and spends a great evening together.

Dining table set for a Christmas fondue party.

How To Host A Fondue Party

This Christmas Fondue party is so much fun, easy to put together, and a fun retro idea for the holidays. We made a complete meal of fondue, by starting with a cheese fondue, and offering an oil fondue with meat and vegetable options. We added a salad as a great accompaniment to round things out. We had a chocolate and a caramel fondue for dessert. Dinner guests loved all the fun choices.

Wine bar cart set up for a party.

As your guests arrive at the beginning of the party it’s lovely to offer them a drink a glass of wine from the bar cart.

Christmas bar cart set up with wine and wine glasses.

I set up a wine bar near the door.  It made it easy for guests to serve themselves through out the evening, and is a great way to welcome them in with a lovely glass of wine.  

Christmas bar cart with "cheers" sign.

Wine and cheese are the perfect pair, and inspired the wine and fondue theme.
Wine glass with a silver rim, and wine bottles on a bar cart.

 Christmas Fondue Party Table Setting

I set the table for the party and tried to make it warm, welcoming and festive.  My dining room already has a Christmas forest theme, so I added in some snowflakes and lots of silver and gold for the party.

How to host a fondue party

We added in some pretty paper stars, and honeycomb balls to really make it feel like a party!  See how all my Christmas decor in our Christmas Home Tour here.

Side table with dessert and neutral Scandinavian Christmas decor.

Christmas Fondue Sign

One of my favourite little party details is this fun sign I came up with.  “All I want for Christmas is fondue”, a little spin on the Christmas song “All I want for Christmas is You”. 😉

All I Want For Christmas Is Fondue sign.
I had lots of fun setting the table too.

Christmas pacesetting with wood charger, gold cutlery, and snowflake plate.

Place Settings

Next we used wood chargers for the table. I love the mix of the gold and silver with the rustic wood and antlers. It helps strike the perfect balance for a holiday table where you want a little bling and sparkle, but love the rustic style too. And the snowflake plates, table runner, and candle holders definitely add to the winter wonderland feel in the room. And don’t forget the fondue forks. It’s works well to give everyone a colour for the evening. We had several sets of fondue pots going, so everyone had multiple forks to have more than one going at once, which worked really well.

how to host a fondue party

This is the kind of meal where the guests linger. The fondue takes a while to cook, you tend to chat, and cook, and eat, and sip your wine, and then do it all over again. 

It’s absolutely the perfect holiday get together. You’re not stuck in the kitchen, and it turns into a long, relaxed evening. Honestly, I’d forgotten how fun a fondue party is, until I went to the basement to find all the fondue pots and start setting up.

I started the evening off with a cheese fondue, and oil fondue.

The Cheese Fondue

The cheese fondue is really easy to make, and I promise it’s so, so good. A good cheese fondue recipe is a great thing to have to serve anytime, even as a starter to any good meal. You may want to serve this fondue first, as a starter cheese course, or set it up with the oil options all at once like we did. There are different cheeses you can use for cheese fondue but we went with a classic swiss fondue.

shredded cheese and wine and ingredients for a cheese fondue

Yield: 6 servings

Cheese Fondue

Cheese Fondue
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 8 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 8 oz. Swiss cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup Sutter Home Pinot Grigio
  • 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • a pinch freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 tbsp brandy

Instructions

  1. Start by rubbing the inside of your pot with the garlic clove cut in half. Then add the wine and lemon juice to the pot and heat to a simmer over a medium heat.
  2. Coat the grated cheese with the cornstarch by shaking in a sealed zip bag.
  3. Slowly add the cheese to the wine mixture, handful by handful, stirring in a figure eight pattern to incorporate it each time until it's all mixed, creamy and smooth.
  4. Add in the brandy, dry mustard and nutmeg and stir to combine.
  5. Serve in a fondue pot with assorted dippers.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 341Total Fat: 23gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 275mgCarbohydrates: 7gFiber: 0gSugar: 1gProtein: 19g
Cheese fondue pot with a piece of bread dipping in and dripping cheese.

Cheese Fondue Dipper Ideas

We served the classic cheese fondue with some beautiful fresh cubes of crusty bread from the bakery, roasted baby potatoes, and some kielbasa sausage. This is the perfect simple dish for the cheese lover, with such yummy dippers for melted cheese. Par-cooked vegetables like asparagus, or roasted cauliflower florets, other green vegetables like green beans, or roasted brussels sprouts work really well. You could also try some fresh crunchy vegetables like bell peppers or cherry tomatoes. The best cheese fondue dippers are anything that pairs well with melty cheese. Any breads are an obvious choice, like white bread, whole wheat bread, pumpernickel bread, but things like wheat crackers or tortilla chips are a fun option and good choice too.

  • crusty French bread or sourdough bread, or wheat crackers
  • roasted potatoes
  • cooked asparagus
  • kielbasa

In fact, most of the dippers were picked up at the store, so other than making the three fondues ahead of time to re-heat before serving, all I had to do was roast a few potatoes and do a little slicing. Another reason this party is so much fun, it’s pretty easy to put together, sure to put the host in a good mood.

Cheese fondue dippers of bread pieces, roasted potatoes and kielbasa sausage.

The Oil Fondue

For the oil fondue, I set up two pots of oil. Just bring the oil up to 375 degrees on the stove and then set them on the fondue stand over the heat source. The oil did lose its heat as we lingered around the table a long time. I did reheat it on the stove top a few times. Another option would be to use electric fondue pots for the oil fondue, which is plugged in and will maintain its heat as long as it’s turned on.

Beef, chicken, and egg rolls ready to cook in an oil fondue.

Oil Fondue Dippers

I served some beef, chicken, and egg rolls. For the chicken, I used frozen chicken fingers that had been thawed and cut into bite-sized pieces. The egg rolls were also frozen -already fully cooked so you’re just crisping them up in the oil. It’s nice to offer a variety of meats.

  • beef
  • chicken
  • egg rolls

For the raw meat, be sure to keep them separate from the other food, and make sure they’re fully cooked before eating. Cook time will vary depending on the meat and how hot the oil is. Make sure chicken is fully cooked before eating. Also make sure Let everything come up to room temperature just before serving to reduce cooking time and help your oil stay hot. Do defrost any frozen items first, so that they will cook faster and cook down the hot oil less.

A plate of salad and oil fondue cooked beef and chicken.

Dipping Sauces:

One of the fun parts of oil fondue is offering lots of sauces to go with the meats. This is such a fun part of fondue parties, and there are so many prepared sauces available at the grocery store. This is a change to offer lots of different flavors, so that even just a few meat options have lots of different tastes when combined with the different sauces. Make sure that the sauces are in small bowls, and that plenty of options within reach of your guests around the dinner table.I served:

  • teriyaki sauce
  • peanut sauce
  • plum sauce
  • asian dipping sauce,
  • chipotle mayo
  • truffle aioli
  • honey mustard.

Raw mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli ready to dip and cook as a tempura fondue.

Tempura Vegtables

I also offered some tempura vegetables. Just slice the veggies to prepare them. I used:

  • zucchini
  • mushrooms
  • broccoli

To make a tempura batter -see tempura recipe here. Guests can choose a veggie, dip into the batter, and fry in the oil. These are so, so yummy and also great with the sauces. This isn’t a traditional fondue choice, but I think these tempura vegetables are good options for someone looking for an option other than just meat.

Green salad in a white bowl with gold salad servers.

Since the fondue is so rich, a green salad helps round out the meal, and makes the fondue into a real main course.

Christmas dining room decorated for a party and a table set with rustic Christmas decor and party food.

After dinner, lastly it was time for the dessert fondue.

Chocolate and caramel dessert fondue with fruit, candy, and other dippers.

Chocolate Fondue and Caramel Fondue

I prepped all the desert before the party and set it up on the side. This way, I didn’t have to head back into the kitchen and get back to work in the middle of the party. I just reheated the chocolate and caramel fondues in the microwave when it was time to serve (this is one of the best ways to reheat any leftovers too).

Dessert fondue dippers, included fruit, candy and nuts.

For the chocolate and caramel fondue  -see my chocolate and caramel fondue recipes here.  The sky is the limit for dippers. Fresh fruit is delicious and one of the best things to include. Next I also added some nuts, and toasted coconut to sprinkle over the dipped fruit. Candy canes are a good idea and fun Christmas touch.

Dessert fondue all set up with dippers and Christmas decorations.

I also included a tray of other sweet dippers; shortbread cookies, marshmallows, angel food cake pieces, belgium waffles, chocolate cookies, and pretzels or try potato chips for those who love sweet and salty.

Lastly, one of my favourite little party details was adding some edible glitter and star sprinkles to this tray. It’s the little things. 😉

Dessert Fondue Dippers:

  • pineapple
  • apple slices
  • blackberries
  • raspberries
  • oranges
  • banana slices
  • candy canes
  • shortbread cookies
  • graham crackers
  • marshmallows
  • angel food cake or pound cake pieces
  • Belgium waffles
  • chocolate cookies
  • pretzels
  • toasted coconut sprinkles
  • nuts

 

Angel food cake with edible glitter and star sprinkles on it.

Finally we moved everything over to the table for dessert.

Dining room table set up for a Christmas fondue party with place settings and food.

And you thought guests lingered at the table for dinner, wait until dessert. No one wanted to leave! What could be better than getting to dip strawberries in melted chocolate?

Christmas Fondue Party food set up at a table.

Fondue Pots

The chocolate fondue is in a double boiler fondue pot.  I think this is one of the best fondue pots. There is water in the pot, and the ceramic bowl with the chocolate is sitting in it so it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot. With a regular fondue pot, try to regulate the heat so that it’s a low heat for the swiss cheese fondue or chocolate fondue. I also used the double boiler type fondue pot for the cheese, and it really worked well and is an excellent choice. If you don’t have enough fondue pots to host a fondue party though don’t worry. Most of these were picked up at thrift stores. They’re easy to find. And also look for an electric fondue maker as a great option for oil fondue.

Dessert fondue dippers and caramel fondue.

In short, this fondue party really was the perfect holiday get together. It would be an amazing idea for New Years Eve too. A family fondue night is a lot of fun too. A word about young children though, the oil fondue could be a little dangerous for burns depending on the children’s age. Either partner a child with an adult, or skip the oil fondue with young children. To avoid double dipping with kids, sometimes an individual bowl of chocolate fondue or cheese fondue is a great option.

A plate of dessert fondue with wine and food in the background.

With a Christmas Fondue Party to celebrate with girl friends, life really is a party.

More Inspiration

You might also like our Fondue Date Night, perfect for Valentine’s Day or any special occasion here:

Fondue Date Night

Also check out our Easy Milk Chocolate Fondue recipe here:

easy milk chocolate fondue recipe

You might also like Caramel Apple Fondue recipe here:

7 Comments

  1. Iam going to try this for Christmas Eve so if iam having steak and prawns would I cook them in the same oil ,as well as the veggies ,how many Fondu pots would I need I have one electric one and one with a candle

  2. Hi Val, you can cook them all in the same oil. The candle will not keep the oil hot enough for frying, so for sure use the electric one for that. The number of pots depends on the number of guests, ideally about 4 people per pot for the oil, just because the more people using it the longer things take to cook in the oil, each cold ingredient cools the oil a little. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve fondue night!
    Dannyelle

  3. Hi there iam just made the cheese for cheese fondu and it didn’t go smooth it separated ,,just wondering what to do now I don’t want to throw it out

  4. Hi Val, I’m so sorry to hear your fondue separated. The cornstarch in the recipe is meant to help guard against this problem. It might have happened because you melted the cheese over too high a heat? Once it’s separated some people suggest dissolving a tsp of cornstarch in cold water, and stirring it into the separated cheese fondue to bring it back together, but I’ve never tried it.
    Dannyelle

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