Christmas Food - 6 Fun Sandwich Ideas

After the success of my Halloween sandwich post earlier this year, I thought it would be fun to do a similar series for Christmas.  I'm sharing 6 creative Christmas sandwich ideas today - I may have more to share later on in the month but hopefully this is a good start for now! As with my Halloween sandwiches, I've tried to come up with designs that are really easy to put together, so they would be great to use for party food or a fun healthy snack as well as for children's packed lunches. These designs also all use circle cutters, as I think that a circle is the most likely cutter shape that your average person would already have available in their kitchen (if not, I do have some nesting circle cutter sets currently available in the Eats Amazing Shop!).

I've also made a fun little game using one of these sandwiches - be sure to scroll right down to the bottom of the post to play 'pin the nose on the reindeer!'

A few tips before I begin:

1. As mentioned above, I used various sizes of cutter from a nesting circle cutter set to make all of these sandwiches.  Most of them could easily be resized to make mini versions for party food – just use a smaller circle cutter.  If you don’t have circle cutters, you could try using different sized glasses, mugs, bowls or plates by cutting around them with a small sharp knife. For some of the sandwiches I also used tiny circle cutters from my mini bento cutter sets.

2. A good tip when making shaped sandwiches is to cut each piece of bread out separately and fill them after – this way you will get much neater edges.

3. If using ham or other sandwich meats, cut the meat into shape (in this case a circle), before adding to the shaped bread.  The same applies to slices of cheese – if using a hard cheese such as cheddar then cut into slices, lay them out together to make one large slice and cut into shape before transferring to the bread.

4. If your sandwich is going in a lunch box rather than being served up immediately, you can ‘glue’ any features or decorations in place using foods such as cream cheese, houmous, mayonnaise, peanut butter, chocolate spread, honey or jam, depending on your sandwich filling.

5. For some sandwiches I used my homemade edible icing eyes, but if you don't have any you can also cut some from cheese using a mini circle cutter (you could also use the end of a plastic drinks straw) and an edible marker pen to dot them. You can also buy ready made icing eyes from Amazon UK.

6. I also used edible marker pens to add details to some of the sandwiches – if you don’t have any then food colouring and a fine paint brush will do the same job.

7. You’ll most likely generate lots of spare crusts of bread after making circle-shaped sandwiches, but don’t waste them! See this post for some great ideas for using them up.

Now for the sandwiches!  First up is a Christmas pudding.  This was nice and simple to make, just a round sandwich with easy to add decorations! Brown or granary bread works best for this one - cut out and fill a round sandwich using your circle cutters then add the 'icing', cut from a tortilla wrap (see instructions below) and finish with a couple of leaf picks and a red polka-dot pick.

To make the 'icing', first cut a circle from a plain tortilla wrap using the same sized cutter that you used for the sandwich.  Cut a wavy line across the middle - either using a mini circle cutter or by cutting free-hand.  Glue to the sandwich using houmous, cream cheese or similar (see tips above for more 'edible glue' suggestions).

Next up is a simple snowman.  I used my circle cutters to cut out two round sandwiches – one slightly smaller than the other, then cut a piece from the larger circle using the smaller cutter in order to fit the two sandwiches together (see below).  I decorated the sandwich with a small piece of carrot for the nose and a Bear yoyo (dried fruit strip) which I cut into little strips for the scarf.  I cut some tiny circles from the yoyo using a mini bento cutter to make the eyes and the buttons and added some sugar snowflake sprinkles to the plate to decorate.  You can see how I used this sandwich in a bento lunch here.

Here's how I cut the sandwiches - as you can see I cut a piece from the bigger circle using the smaller cutter so that they would fit together perfectly.

Of course I needed to make a Santa Clause sandwich for my Christmas series, and here he is! To make, first cut out and fill a plain circle sandwich.  Next, cut out another circle from a tortilla wrap using the ridged side of the same cutter you used to shape the sandwich. If you don't have ridges on your cutters (all mine are double sided), you can also just cut a plain circle, although it will give you a slightly different effect. Cut a piece from the tortilla circle using a slightly smaller cutter to turn it into a beard shape.  Cut out a piece of red pepper and cut into shape using the same cutter you used to make the sandwich, then add a strip of tortilla wrap to make the hat.  Finish with a couple of edible eyes and draw on a little mouth on using a red edible marker pen.

A Santa Claus sandwich would be lost without Rudolf! The idea of using pretzels for antlers isn't a new one - I've been seeing it all over Pinterest for years now, but it's a great idea so I unashamedly borrowed it! You can see the instructions below for how I cut out the shape of Rudolf's face, and I finished him off with a couple of edible eyes, two pretzels for his antlers and a piece of red pepper which I cut out using a mini bento circle cutter for his nose.

I originally started off with a plain circle sandwich for this one, but then decided to add a little more shape to his face so used the same circle cutter to do so.  To shape, I used the circle cutter to cut a slice off each side to make a point for the nose, then a small slice off the top to even it out a little.  If you're short on time or don't want to take the extra steps, a plain circle with the same added features would probably work well too.

This penguin sandwich is definitely my favourite of my designs so far this Christmas season!  When I was trying to come up with some deigns for this series I roughed it out on paper, but it came out much better 'in the flesh'! This was beautifully simple to make, and very effective I think (see instructions below).

To make the penguin sandwich, first cut out two circles from brown or wholemeal bread using your biggest circle cutter. Top one of the pieces with your sandwich filling and set aside.  Take the other circle, and using a smaller circle cutter, cut out a piece and remove.  Take a piece of white bread, and cut out a circle from it using the same smaller circle cutter.  Slot into the gap in your large circle, and use to top your sandwich.

Finish the penguin off by adding edible eyes and a beak cut from a slice of carrot.  I was so excited by how well the penguin sandwich turned out that I decided to use the discarded smaller circle to make an extra baby penguin sandwich!  I used a mini circle bento cutter to cut out his tummy, and followed the same method as above to finish him off.  Isn't he cute?!

Last but not least is my Christmas take on the fairy sandwich, but instead of sprinkles I've highlighted the design with lettuce, which is rather more healthy, if a little less tasty! To make, I first cut two circles from white bread.  I topped one slice with my sandwich filling (in this case chicken) and popped a lettuce leaf on top (cut with the same circle cutter to ensure no messy edges).  I used a little holly leaf cutter to cut out the leaf design in the second slice, then used to top the sandwich.  I finished it off with three red polka dot picks to make the berries, although dried cranberries or tiny circles cut from red pepper or a bear yoyo would also work well to replace the picks if you don't have any.

Update: I had a little fun with one of these sandwiches and created a fun little game for you - try to pause the video below at just the right time to pin the tomato nose on the reindeer sandwich! (click here to view on YouTube if the video below doesn't work for you for any reason, and do subscribe to the Eats Amazing YouTube channel while you're there for lots more fun food ideas throughout the year!

That's it for now, which of my Christmas sandwiches is your favourite? If you try any of these designs, do leave a comment below to let me know!

Grace

Disclosure: This post contains some Amazon affiliate links; I may receive commission on items purchased through the links.

I hope you enjoyed this post, don't forget to pin it so you can find it again!