These no-bake Strawberry Santas are a fun and festive way to stuff fresh strawberries with a simple cheesecake filling styled to look like little Santas who bring a healthy dessert and holiday spirit to your Christmas party. You only need 3 ingredients (plus decoration) to assemble an army of cute and colorful bites; so easy to make, the more the merrier!
Simple and Sweet Strawberry Santas – The Perfect Christmas Treat
Strawberry Santas are the easiest way to enjoy a healthy, light dessert after a heavy holiday meal. Made from juicy, sweet strawberries and a dollop of creamy homemade “cheesecake-inspired” frosting, these adorable handheld treats bring a fresh factor to your Christmas party platter.
A perfect guilt-free indulgence that only tastes naughty so you can still be on Santa’s nice list!
Making fun food for the holidays is the best way to get kids in the kitchen. Strawberry Santas are so easy to make and little helping hands will love assembling these adorable stuffed Santas; they are the perfect way to balance out all of the Christmas cookies and cakes and they’re a yummy way to get the entire family snacking on nutrient-rich strawberries!
Why We Love This Strawberry Santas Recipe
- So easy to make during the busiest time of the year.
- Simple to assemble with 3 ingredients plus decoration.
- Sweet and creamy frosting is a dreamy combination with the strawberries.
- Fun to make with kids and loved by all.
- Healthy holiday treat that tastes delicious and looks too cute to eat!
- Strawberries are packed with Vitamin C, Vitamin K, folate, potassium, manganese and magnesium.
- Gluten-free, nutrient-dense fresh fruit dessert.
- Perfect for Christmas parties, class treats, or a light snack after a heavy meal.
Ingredients / Shopping List
- Package cream cheese, softened
- Powdered sugar
- Strawberries
- Tube black decorating icing: Instead of black decorating icing, you can use chocolate frosting or white icing/frosting that has been colored black.
- Red sprinkles or Tube orange/red decorating icing: If you only have white frosting, you can use some red or orange food coloring to color it and use that for the nose instead.
Substitutions and Additions
- Change the Cream Cheese: This homemade frosting is delicious and perfect for these strawberries, but if you want something a little easier, you can use store bought vanilla frosting or a cream cheese frosting. You can also make a sweeter frosting with some softened butter and powdered sugar if you prefer that option.
- Simply Stuffed: Simply stuff your strawberry with frosting and create a custom-themed holiday treat. For Valentine’s Day, stuff your strawberry and drizzle with chocolate, for Fourth of July, stuff your strawberry and top it with blueberries, or make your own version of this delicious dessert.
- Santa Can See: Feel free to use mini chocolate chips, little black sprinkles, or raisins for Santa’s eyes.
- Holy Cannoli: Swap the cream cheese for ricotta and pipe the ricotta mixture into your strawberries. Then top them with mini chocolate chips or crushed pistachios to make mini cannolis.
Recommended Tools to Make this Recipe
- Mixing bowl and tools
- Standing mixer or hand mixer
- Measuring tools
- Piping bag and star tip
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How to Make Strawberry Santas with Cheesecake Filling
It is so easy to make these adorably sweet Strawberry Santas. It’s as simple as cutting your strawberries into pieces, mixing cream cheese and powdered sugar together, and then piping on the frosting to create the cutest healthy treats for Christmas.
- Beat the cream cheese until fluffy.
- Gradually beat in the powdered sugar.
- Cut the stem off each strawberry.
Pro Tip: Make sure you make a flat surface for Santa’s bottom–it will resemble a cone. - Cut 1/4 off the top of each strawberry to create a smaller cone for Santa’s hat. Set the Santa hats aside.
- Add cream cheese mixture to a piping bag with a round tip
Pro Tip: I used a Wilton 2A, but any medium to large piping tip will work. - Pipe the cream cheese mixture onto the bottom parts of the larger strawberry pieces.
Pro Tip: For the cutest Santas, create large upward swirls with 2 layers.
- In the middle of the cream cheese swirl, use the black decorating icing to dot two eyes and use a single sprinkle or red/orange decorating icing for the nose.
- Top each swirl with a Santa hat and pipe a dot of frosting onto the tips of each hat to create the pom pom.
Pro Tip: I like to go in the direction of the strawberry “hat” to make it cuter.
- Enjoy!
Tips
- Make sure the cream cheese is completely softened so that when beaten there are no lumps.
- If you don’t have a piping bag you can easily use a Ziploc bag and snip the corner.
Storage Tips
- To Store: You will need to store these Santas in the refrigerator. Strawberries are only good for a few days, so you won’t be able to store these longer than that. Carefully cover them, or place them in a container that will allow for some room so that you don’t squish or ruin the decorating.
- To Freeze: Freezing your Santas would make for a delicious treat, but you likely won’t be able to keep the decoration since you will need to wrap them tightly to go in the freezer. You can also store the strawberries and cream cheese frosting separately and prepare the Santas right before serving. Strawberries will last up to 1 year in the freezer as long as they are stored correctly, and cream cheese will store for up to 2 months in the freezer.
Frequently Asked Questions
I like to buy the tubes of decorating icing at the store, which makes decorating these strawberries much easier. However, if you don’t have these, you can use food coloring for nearly the same effect. Add black and red/orange food coloring to some white frosting. You can use the same cream cheese frosting that you used for the Santa strawberries, make some more homemade frosting, or buy some from the store. In one bowl, mix some black food coloring with a bit of frosting, and in another bowl, mix up the orange or red food coloring with more frosting. You won’t need more than ¼ cup for each (In fact, you could probably get away with 2 Tablespoons as long as you can pipe it). Once you have your respective frostings, use either a piping bag with a very narrow circular tip, or a strong zipper plastic baggie with a tiny hole cut out of the corner. Either of these options will allow you to pipe very small dots onto your Santas. Have fun making them cute!
You can use a low calorie option, like powdered erythritol or stevia, or your favorite sweetener. It’s best to use a powdered one to ensure that the cream cheese mixture remains smooth and velvety. I would avoid granulated sweeteners as it will be gritty.
Yes, you can easily use a dairy-free cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese to create your frosting. Your frosting will be a deliciously dairy-free, Vegan, and naturally gluten-free dessert.
Other Easy Christmas Treat
- Christmas Light Cookies
- Reindeer Pretzel Rods
- Christmas Tree Brownies
- Ugly Sweater Cake
- Christmas Tree Brownie Cups
- Gingerbread
- Reindeer Rice Krispies Treats
- Santa Hat Brownie
- Christmas Lasagna
Strawberry Santas
Ingredients
- 8 ounce package cream cheese softened
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- 20 large strawberries
- 1.3 ounce tube black decorating icing
- 20 round red sprinkles or 1 (.67 ounce) tube orange/red decorating icing
Instructions
- Use a mixer to beat the cream cheese until fluffy and then gradually beat in the powdered sugar on low speed.
- Prepare the strawberries by cutting the stems off to leave a flat surface on the bottom. You will end up with a cone.
- Cut the strawberry ¾ of the way up from the bottom to create a smaller cone that will be the Santa hat. Set the Santa hat parts of the strawberries aside.
- Place the cream cheese mixture into a piping bag with a round tip (I used a Wilton 2A, but any medium to large piping tip will work).
- On the larger bottom part of the strawberry, pipe the cream cheese mixture, creating a large upwards swirl with 2 layers.
- In the middle of the cream cheese swirl, use the black decorating icing to dot two eyes and use a single sprinkle or red/orange decorating icing for the nose.
- Top the swirl with the previously cut off strawberry Santa hat and pipe a dot of cream cheese frosting onto the tips of the Santa hat to create the pom pom (I liked to go in the direction of the strawberry “hat” to make it cuter).
Jenn’s Notes
- To Store: You will need to store these Santas in the refrigerator. Strawberries are only good for a few days, so you won’t be able to store these longer than that. Carefully cover them, or place them in a container that will allow for some room so that you don’t squish or ruin the decorating.
- To Freeze: Freezing your Santas would make for a delicious treat, but you likely won’t be able to keep the decoration since you will need to wrap them tightly to go in the freezer. You can also store the strawberries and cream cheese frosting separately and prepare the Santas right before serving. Strawberries will last up to 1 year in the freezer as long as they are stored correctly, and cream cheese will store for up to 2 months in the freezer.
- Make sure the cream cheese is completely softened so that when beaten there are no lumps.
- If you don’t have a piping bag you can easily use a Ziploc bag and snip the corner.
The Santas look really cute, but I found that the cream cheese mixture was too soft. The filling ran off of the strawberry. There was no room to decorate the face. I had to use toothpicks to hold the hats on. Great tasting, though.
I hallowed out the strawberry a little bit and had a little bit firmer cream cheese mixture. They were adorable!
This is a bunky recipe. They slid off and won’t stay on.
These are so cute! But they slide off. How do you stop that from happening