Christmas Fondue 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.

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.  

Wine and cheese are the perfect pair, and inspired the wine and fondue theme.

 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.

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.

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”. 😉

I had lots of fun setting the table too.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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).

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.

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

 

Finally we moved everything over to the table for dessert.

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?

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.

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.

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:

Also check out our Easy Milk Chocolate Fondue recipe here:

You might also like Caramel Apple Fondue recipe here: