13 Frozen Appetizers To Make Your Christmas Cooking Easier

Cooking the perfect holiday meal is stressful enough without adding extra courses to the labor. But keeping your hungry guests satisfied while they wait for the main dish doesn't have to be a chore if you include tasty appetizers from the frozen food section of your local grocery store on the menu. Sure, a themed charcuterie board would be cute and festive, but wouldn't you rather have more time to enjoy the occasion instead of spending it arranging prosciutto slices in the shape of Santa's face? Less labor and more fun sounds like a Christmas miracle everyone can appreciate.

If it's possible to serve a Christmas meal entirely in a can, then including fun and familiar small bites from the freezer is a no-brainer. You'll find a trove of tasty treats to tray up and set out with no more work than it takes to lay them on a baking tray and pop them into the oven. Our picks for the best frozen appetizers to lighten your workload include savory bar bites, intriguing international delights, and sweet treats, all intended to make your feast an easier feat. These options are not only popular with shoppers and our own taste-testers as convenient alternatives to homemade fare, but they're also high-quality food you can serve with confidence. Mariah Carey can sit this one out because all you'll want for Christmas are these fast and easy frozen appetizers.

Rather than baking any more than necessary, let Trader Joe's Mini French Baguettes bestow the gift of prepared bread to both you and your guests. The company employs a French bakery that uses no strange ingredients or weird chemicals in its recipe, just the wholesome goodness of wheat flour, yeast, water, and salt for an authentic bakery taste and texture. With individual serving-sized baguettes, you can pile a plate high on your buffet table or serve your guests their own table bread with a single loaf at every place setting. They're the perfect size for scooping up dips and sauces, as well as enjoying on their own with a pat of easy-to-prepare homemade garlic butter.

To prep these beauties, place them fully frozen directly onto your oven rack at 400 F for six minutes or longer, depending on your ideal doneness. As for the taste of the finished product, reviewers like Mrs. Trader Joe's Cart give Trader Joe's Mini French Baguettes a 10 out of 10 rating, praising the easy prep and explaining that the diminutive size is perfect for smaller meals. With six baguettes per box priced at around $4.49 as of November 2023, you can easily serve a medium-sized group for under $15.

When Budweiser, the self-proclaimed king of beers, adds a line of battered apps to its product catalog, you'd best believe it's an occasion worthy of your Christmas table! Budweiser Beer-Battered Cheese Sticks use the classic Budweiser brew to flavor the crispy coating applied to a blend of mozzarella and white cheddar cheese sticks, for a treat that's crunchy and gooey at the same time. It's everything you love about snack food, and it's ready to heat and serve for the happiest hour of the whole season. Whether your holiday party is a simple get-together with longtime friends or a full-fledged festival with the whole family, this appetizer is a beloved creation that brings the best of pub grub to your holiday happenings.

YouTuber Starving Actor Food Reviews is generous in his praise for the seasoning and texture, noting that the batter doesn't impart a perceptible beer flavor. He enjoys them even without a sauce and bestows the sticks a 7.7 rating overall. Our own taste testers at Mashed also heaped acclaim on the quality of these cheesy pleasers, calling out the combination of creamy and salty flavors.

Looking for something sweet to serve without having to haul out the frosting bag and the stand mixer? Delizza Belgian Mini Cream Puffs are bite-sized pastries that pack big dessert flavors in adorably small cloud-shaped packages. Each European-style pastry shell is filled with fresh whipped cream. You can choose from a 30-count package that's perfect for a mid-sized Christmas coterie or buy these in 320-count bulk quantities for a full-fledged holiday gala. 

The Delizza website says six puffs count as a serving, though with other sugary selections on your dessert table, you can make them go much further. Unlike any pastry you might feel compelled to whip up at home, these gems are ready to eat right out of the package — just thaw and serve. Of course, if you're going for a fancier presentation, you can dust them with powdered sugar, drizzle them with chocolate or caramel sauce, or stack them in your own crafty croquembouche tower.

Over 100 ratings on the Target website amount to a 4.7-star out of 5-star average, proving customers are delighted with Delizza's delicious desserts. You'll find the 30-count box priced at around $7.50 in your area, making these puffs the cream of the crop for your Christmas culinary collection.

The classic pairing of Christmas and Chinese food favorites gets a restaurant-style boost from P.F. Chang's Chicken Mini Egg Rolls. This package is part of the fast-moving P.F. Chang's merchandise line and makes a perfect addition to a diverse menu where every dish represents a different culture's Christmas classics. In each crisped wrapper, you'll find dark meat chicken with shredded carrots and cabbage, plus a packet of the restaurant's famous sweet and sour dipping sauce to make the experience complete. A box contains eight miniature rolls, with two rolls per serving, so you may need a few boxes to make sure your elves are properly fed. With the notable quality of P.F. Chang's on your table, it's impossible to tell how quickly plates will empty.

Target lists a 3.8-star out of 5-star average over more than 600 reviews for these luscious little nuggets, with reviewers even giving shout-outs to the air fryer cooking method. You have the luxury of cooking them for two minutes in the microwave or 14 minutes in a conventional oven to suit your preference. Whichever you choose, you'll have hot and crispy egg rolls stamped with P.F. Chang's seal of approval, ready in a flash to share with your Christmas mates.

Sausage wrapped in flaky pastry dough has never been as holiday ready as Hebrew National's Beef Franks in a Blanket. Imagine the hearty, high-quality Hebrew National franks swathed in puff pastry, already cooked and waiting to be heated and presented to your Noel noshers. Yes, it's the cocktail-wiener-in-a-wrapper that we've all come to know from holiday parties, but with the exceptional reputation of the all-beef frank purveyor right in the center of the celebration. If you've ever tried to make your own blanketed pigs and cursed the day you thought using Pillsbury dough would make things easier, you'll be happy to know that with these dynamite dogs, your days of rolling up appetizers are in the past. Hebrew National has got you covered, just in time for the party!

While reviews on the company's site are favorable as far as the flavor of these appetizers, several do call out the tricky cooking instructions. Though they're easily heated and served, they do require a bit of attention to prevent burning. Better yet, haul out your trusty air fryer and increase your chances of getting these edible gifts on the table without a hitch.

If tamales are part of your Christmas dinner traditions, try accenting them with El Monterey Steak & Cheese Taquitos, tasty tortillas containing real cheese and shredded steak in a thoroughly dippable tube shape. It's like eating a full-sized taco without the shell cracking and dropping all your fillings on the plate. Served with jarred salsa, bean dip, or a can of queso, you have all the fixings for a fun Mexican starter that will accent a more diverse menu or signal the beginning of a flavor fiesta for your tamale or pozole banquet.

These taquitos are a favorite with our taste test crew, who have included them in Christmas feasts with the family and intend to do so again — they're that fantastic! With 20 taquitos in a box and a suggested serving size of three, you'll have enough to keep a mid-sized room satisfied as you bring out the rest of the selection. Double up for larger groups and if you want to make sure any late arrivers have a chance to join in on the Christmas taquito bash.