Fruit Christmas tree

I love a good celebratory dinner but it does often involve so much rich food.  It is always very satisfying to find ways to be a little healthier.  If you look online, there are lots of fun festive ways to shape fruit and cheeses.  For this year's Christmas in July lunch, I made a fruit Christmas tree.

Sylvia and I went to the Queen Victoria Market the previous day to buy fruit.  I had hoped there might be some fresh cranberries or out of season grapes but none to be found.  We bought lots of berries - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries plus some kiwi fruit and pineapple.  The pineapple was to be the star as well the the yellow fruit.  I was also excited to find red kiwi fruit but it went squishy quite quickly.

We cut a hole in an apple, and sliced the bottom to get it to sit firmly.  Then we sat a carrot in the hole, trying to have it as straight as possible - ours was a little crooked.  The carrot, if you like, is the trunk, the toothpicks are the branches and the fruit is the leaves.  While I chopped fruit, Sylvia stuck the toothpicks into the apple and carrot.  She started at the bottom and cut the toothpicks smaller as she got closer to the top.

The final tree was good but could have had more coverage.  I followed Handimania's instructions and found that they didn't have that many toothpicks.  Maybe their fruit was bigger chunks.  I felt that we could have done with more toothpicks but we ran out of time.  With both me and Sylvia working on it, we took over 30 minutes and needed more time.  When people arrived I stacked the rest of the fruit around the base, which worked well.  I think that it was good to make the tree close to the lunch as some of the fruit got slightly soft even over a couple of hours.

I really loved this addition to the Christmas dessert.  It was really refreshing to have after a large main meal.  And I really enjoyed grazing on the fruit both during lunch and after everyone had gone.  It appealed to the kids too, which was pleasing.

Upon reflection, it seemed ironic to have a summery cheese board, fudge and a fruit tree for dessert for our Christmas in July when we were trying to make the most of a festive winter feast.  On the other hand, this is a Christmas dessert item that would work very well in summer, so when December comes around, I would like to try this again and make the most of all the lovely summer fruit.

More fun ways to serve fruit  on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Watermelon monster (gf, v) 
Rainbow fruit kebabs (gf, v)
Choc-nut banana and fruit kebabs (gf, v)
Christmas in July dessert cheese platter
Fruity icy poles (gf, v)

On the Stereo:
The Original Christmas Album: 20 Party Christmas Crackers - Various Artists