No-bake Cheesecake Strawberry Santas are a deliciously festive treat for the Christmas season! Fill fresh strawberries with a simple cream cheese filling to make them look like little Santas. With only a handful of simple ingredients, you can create a healthy holiday snack everyone raves about!

The holiday season is notorious for being filled with sugar-filled, calorie-rich treats. While I’m all for indulging a bit, there’s something to be said for going “light” once in a while!

I have been having so much fun making holiday treats with strawberries! Who knew that the strawberry was naturally a fruit with so many creative possibilities?

These no-bake Cheesecake Strawberry Santas are a fun and festive treat that both kids and adults will love. All you do is stuff strawberries with a Cream Cheese mixture and shape them to look like adorable Santas. They’ll be gone faster than you can make them!

If you love strawberries, be sure to check out these Grinch Chocolate Covered Strawberries or Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Christmas Trees! I promise there’s just as much fun.

Santa Strawberries Are Guilt-Free

With Strawberry Santas, you can enjoy a healthy, festive dessert after a heavy holiday meal.

These adorable handheld treats are “finger food” at its best – and a must-have for ANY Christmas Charcuterie Board or party platter!

This dessert is inspired by cheesecake and makes the perfect nutrient-rich, guilt-free indulgence. They only taste naughty but do a great job of balancing out all the Christmas cookies!

Aren’t these cheesecake stuffed strawberry Santas such a cute idea? I just knew I had to share them with you! Check out how to make them and grab some tips to help them turn out perfectly every time.

Ingredients Needed To Make Strawberry Santas

Simple ingredients are all you’ll need for this delicious recipe!

• Fresh strawberries – rinse and dry them
• Cream cheese – let it warm up to room temperature. Want to cut calories and add protein? Try using Greek Yogurt cream cheese!
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla
• Mini chocolate chips – this is what you’ll use for eyes

How To Make Strawberry Santas With Cream Cheese

1. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth then place in piping bag.
2. Cut the top of each strawberry evenly to form the base.
3. Cut the tip of each strawberry about ⅓ from the top to form the hat.
4. Pipe cream cheese mixture onto the base and pipe a small dot for a button as shown.
5. Place the hat on top and pipe a small dab of mixture to the tip for the hat pom.
6. Place the mini chocolate chips flat side out  in the mixture between the base and hat as eyes.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Recipe Tips

Cold Cream cheese is hard and difficult to work with, and you want it to be soft and pliable. Not only will cold cream cheese not blend as well (it’ll be lumpy), but it won’t pipe well either. Make sure it’s at room temperature before you make this recipe.

After you’ve made them, refrigerate your cream cheese stuffed Strawberry Santas so they hold their shape.

If you don’t have a piping bag you can easily use a Ziploc bag and snip the corner to pipe the cream cheese.

These free printable Christmas Bingo cards are just too much fun – kids can’t resist them! Use them at home, at school, on a road trip, or even for a playdate or holiday party!

Variations To Try

• Cream Cheese Alternative – Instead of making the cream cheese mixture, you can use store-bought cream cheese frosting or vanilla frosting.  
• Use Different Sweetener – you can use honey instead of the powdered sugar. I prefer powdered sugar because it helps the cream cheese stiffen and maintain shape, but you can use honey to taste. If you want something low-calorie, you can use stevia powder.
• Modify For Different Occasions – You could eliminate the Santa elements and make it a tasty everyday treat. Or modify it for Valentine’s Day by drizzling it with chocolate. For the Fourth of July, stuff your strawberry and top it with blueberry sauce.
• Use Different Eyes – if you don’t want to use mini chocolate chips, you could use drops of decorator icing!

How To Store Strawberry Santas

• Refrigeration – Plan to store your Santas in the fridge in an airtight container to prevent them from losing their shape or getting crusty.
• Freezing – Unfortunately you can’t freeze these because of the strawberries (see more below).

FAQs

What’s the best Strawberry Santa Filling to use?

Besides using cream cheese or vanilla frosting, you could also use some homemade whipped cream.

If you’re gonna use whipped cream, I recommend making it really cold and eating them immediately because they won’t hold up.

All in all, I prefer the cream cheese mixture because it’s super easy to make, tastes fantastic, and has just the right amount of stiffness to make your strawberry Santas stand up proudly (and adorably)!

Can I use frozen strawberries for this recipe?

Unfortunately, no. Frozen strawberries are mushy and liquidy – which is NOT what you want for cute fruity Santas!

Can I make dairy-free Strawberry Santas?

Yes! Just use dairy-free cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese to create your frosting. You’ll have a gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan dessert you can’t resist!

Can I make these cream cheese Strawberry Santas a day early?

No way! Strawberry Santas must be made on the day you want to eat them because they’ll get mushy and leak juice. Ideally, you make them within a few hours before.

No matter what you plan to make these Cheesecake Strawberry Santas for, plan to make extras because they will ALL get eaten (and enjoyed)!!

More Christmas Fun

• Grinch Rice Krispies Treats: Lazy Moms Version
• Homemade Candy Christmas Tree Pretzels
• Grinch Cookies
• Adorable DIY Rudolph Wood Slice Ornaments

The post Cream Cheese Strawberry Santas appeared first on Made In A Pinch.