What better way to impress your family and guests this holiday season than with this festive cranberry pecan chive and garlic loaded cheese ball. This tasty crowd-pleasing cheese ball comes together in under 20 minutes, is self-serve, and doesn’t require anything fancy. Serve it with a box of crackers and your done! 
To get started, Holiday appetizers could not get any easier than cheese balls. For one, they look AMAZING, you can customize them to your liken, AND they’re ready in under 20 minutes from start to finish. There’s nothing better than a garlic and herb cheese ball loaded with chives, garlic, and your favorite herbs. For the Holidays, we like to make this festive version which includes dried cranberries and chopped pecans (or walnuts). The cranberries compliment the nuts and herbs perfectly and present beautifully.
HOW TO MAKE A CHEESE BALL
It all starts with an 8 oz bar of cream cheese (can substitute goat cheese if desired), 1 cup shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese (this isn’t written in stone so any kind of your favorite melting cheese should work), chives (or parsley or green onions or dried herbs), chopped dried cranberries, chopped pecans or walnuts, and a pinch of garlic powder.
Simply combine all these ingredients in a large bowl and shape into a ball or log with your hands or with plastic wrap. Roll into a mixture of chopped pecans, cranberries, and chives and serve with crackers and YOUR DONE! simple place on the table and let your guest do the work from here. 
Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 cup white sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 cup dried cranberries, chopped and divided
- 1 cup Fisher’s Nuts pecans, chopped and toasted *optional
- 1/4 cup chives or green onions, chopped
- ½ tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- To Toast Pecans: Pre-heat oven to 375F. Place chopped pecans on a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes or until aromatic. Remove from oven and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ½ toasted pecans, ½ cup dried cranberries, chive or green onion, and garlic powder until well combined.
- Place mixture in the center of a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper and cover completely with wrap while forming it into a ball shape. Place in fridge until ready to serve.
- Just before serving, combine remaining ½ cup pecans, ½ dried cranberries, and 2 tablespoon chives on a flat surface or cutting board. Unwrap the ball and roll in cranberry-pecan mixture.
- Serve with crackers, pita chips, pretzels, carrots or celery.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just wondering can I roll it in the cranberry/pecan mixture right after I make it and keep in fridge till the next day? Thanks!
Yes, you can store it assemble from the day before!
Our country fair had a new competition for cheeseballs in homecrafts last year, and I used this recipe for mine. The colour of the dried cranberries and chives really popped next to the other entries, and I knew it tasted great, so I wasn’t surprised when it took first place. Thanks for a literal winner!
Delicious, beautiful, and festive! The colors were a perfect festive sight for a holiday dinner. Also it was easy to make. The only thing I would change is to take it out of the fridge for an hour or so before rolling in the topping and serving. Rolling it right after taking out of the fridge was hard because the stuff didn’t stick to it. And guests had a hard time at first getting the stuff spread on crackers. After about an hour or two sitting out it was more spreadable. It was beautiful and fun and I will definitely make this every holiday in the future.
Oh my goodness. I made this for a holiday party. I doubled the recipe. My wife said I was making TOO much. When cleaning up after the party, my wife said you were correct in doubling the cheeseball recipe, there was nothing left. Everyone raved about the recipe and wanted to know where I got it. I’m point them to your site, one of my all-time favorite food blogs. Happy 2024 and we all can’t wait to see what is in store for the upcoming year.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, Chuck! That means so much to me 🙂
Everyone loved this yesterday at Christmas! I used chopped fresh flat leaf parsley on the outside layer as I did not have any chives.
Absolutely delicious, I did add a few things to spice it up… I have a cranberry bourbon pepper jelly… I added about a teaspoon
Very good, but added mayo to make it more creamy, easier to spread.
Found the taste of onion overpowering, maybe cut the green onion quantity in half or substitute onion powder.
Wow! I made this cheeseball recipe for Thanksgiving this year, and it was such a hit. Everyone loved it! Thank you for a delicious, easy, and beautiful addition to our holiday celebration.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review! 🙂
I have not tasted this recipe but I made it this afternoon. There is no clue that of the chives I chop I need 2 TBSP later to roll the ball in. So I had to chop more. Or should I have divided the initial 1/4 cup I chopped? It would be nice to know for next time.
Could you use chopped fresh cranberries instead of dried?
I don’t recommend as the texture and flavor won’t work.
Love this recipe
Yummy
My family loved the cheeseball. I got several requests for the recipe. It is a good recipe for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years’s,
5 STARS from me.
It was a hit at our church gathering!
So excited to make this! I love cranberries, pecans, and cheese so it’s the perfect combination for me haha! We are hosting Christmas with my family this year so I need some yummy appetizers to impress my family hahaha. Everything has been hectic in prepping to have my family in town. We have been decorating the house, setting up a couple of guest rooms, making sure the air mattresses don’t have leaks in them…super super busy! And THEN just yesterday my daughter was eating on the couch (which she knows is against the rules!) and she spilled and stained the couch a little bit! I’m just glad that the upholstery cleaning company was able to get over here so quickly to help us out! Crisis averted! Thank you so much for sharing – I’m excited to try out this recipe!
I haven’t made this in a while and I need clarification. For the nuts, cranberries and chives half gets mixed in and the rest go on the outside correct?
I took this to a party and I was complimented by at least four women, one of which said this was the best cheese ball she had ever eaten! I made it as written but used walnuts. I will certainly make this again.
First, let me say this was easy, pretty, and delicious! The hit of my cocktail party, even with tons of other yummy hors d’oeuvres. My question is how long can it be kept in the fridge before serving? I made this on Saturday and would like to serve the extra ball for Thursday still. Your thoughts?
Thank you again for a clearly written, beautifully photographed recipe!
Do you use sweetened dried cranberries?
“YOUR DONE” should be “you’re”.
Hall monitor?
Just basic grammar.
Could almonds be used instead ?
If using almonds, I would only use them on the outside!
I’m making this for the 2nd time and so is my cousin. So delicious, easy and looks stunning too. Will make this every Christmas!
This sounds amazing! How long does this keep for please?
It will last up to 4 days in the fridge.
Looks amazing!
I will make it this week!
OMG I cannot wait to make this next week while Christmasing with my daughter and her family!!! 😊
Can this be frozen for future use. I would like to use the recipe and make smaller size and save one for later???
I made this many times. Definitely can be frozen and I always split it into 2 balls. Even 3 would be good.
I haven’t tried freezing it!
I’m surprised that people can follow you l on Pinterest yet there is no link in the past to save the recipe to Pinterest. When I try to save it through Google, the picture doesn’t come up.
Send it to yourself as an email or just write the 3-4 ingredients down.
Get the Pinterest extension for your browser. I see a link in the left hand margin on the post though.
Haven’t made this yet but there’s nothing not to like in it so I will make it after my next grocery shopping trip. It looks awesome and so pretty.
I make appetizer dinners, a few sweet and a few savory with assorted crackers, served with a wine, maybe a light and a red. Awesome meals.
Just made a simple new one. Sliced French bread painted with olive oil, topped with bacon crumbs, thin sliced yellow onion sauteed in the bacon grease, heated until warm, serve. So simple, so good.
This Cranberry Cheeseball would be excellent with the bacon toast and a cream cheese pineapple dip.
Not a fan of chives and/or green onions, but I like the red and green colors – what if I substitute parsely for that ingredient?
You can sub it with any fresh herb.
Simply and so yummy! A define hit at my party!!
Sure, make it your own. Just use it for the concept.
Love love your creative idea thanks for sharing
Beautiful photo ! I wish you have healthy and prosperous year to come !