5 delicious easy-to-make Christmas party appetizers

Why not give yourself an early Christmas present this year by limiting your holiday party menu to a few delicious and easy-to-prepare appetizers. Just remember to make plenty of extra. They'll disappear fast!

When you balance flavours and vary the composition of your dishes, you can hit all the taste sensations without spending more than a couple of hours in the kitchen. What's not to love about that?

Hummus lends itself well to variation and it only takes a few substitutions to upgrade it to a Christmas special.

• Try using roasted or dried chestnuts in hummus.
• Puree the chestnuts in a food processor with fresh lemon juice, all-natural peanut butter, pumpkin oil, salt and nutmeg until creamy. Serve with crostini.

Prosciutto paired with cranberry confiture is like seeing a familiar friend in a tuxedo for the first time – surprisingly classy!

• Cook equal parts cranberry sauce and fresh cranberries with a little sugar until they reduce by half.
• Stir in chopped almonds and let cool.
• Top toasted baguette slices with blue cheese, cranberry confiture, prosciutto and fresh mint leaves.

Mozzarella mistletoe plays whimsically on holly leaves and their plump red berries with the ingredients of a Caprese salad. The pleasant tartness from the cherry tomatoes also works as a palate cleanser.

• Slice mozzarella into 0.5-cm-thick pieces and arrange one or two basil leaves on each slice.
• Place one or two halves of a cherry tomato at the top of the basil leaves.
• Season to taste with kosher salt and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.

Not unlike satsuma oranges in the bottom of a Christmas stocking, skewered and roasted Serrano ham with satsuma segments finish on a sweet note.

Serrano ham is a Spanish dry-cured variety of ham. Its salty meatiness plays off the delicate sweetness of satsumas without overpowering them.

• Skewer 1.5-cm-square cubes of Serrano ham alternately with satsuma segments on 10- or 12-cm long skewers.
• Roast them in a 175 °C (345 ºF) oven until caramelized – about 15 minutes.
• Drizzle lightly with extra-virgin olive oil before serving.

To close the party, try a combined digestive and dessert. Spiced pumpkin pie shots – pumpkin spiked with cinnamon liqueur and garnished with cream and nutmeg – are the bow that ties the previous starters together.

• Blend pumpkin purée with cinnamon liqueur and brown sugar to taste.
• Serve the purée in double shot glasses with a dollop of cream and a grating of nutmeg on top.
• If making ahead, add the cream right before serving.

You can make these dishes in advance and store them overnight in the refrigerator, but wait until just before serving to garnish them with fresh herbs and olive oil.

In addition, toast crostini one hour ahead and let all the starters (except the pumpkin pie shot) reach room temperature before serving.