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This Christmas Salad with creamy poppy seed dressing is a colorful and refreshing side dish for your special holiday dinners. The dressing is so creamy and delicious!
Table of Contents
- Festive Christmas Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
- What Makes This Salad Special?
- Here’s What You’ll Need
- Let’s Make It!
- A Great Way to Use Leftovers
- Make It Your Own
- Fun Ways to Serve This Salad
- Questions About this Christmas Salad
- More Christmas Salad Ideas
- Christmas Salad Recipe
- Let’s Make This Holiday Extra Delicious!
- More Christmas Recipes
Festive Christmas Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
I’m so excited to share one of my all-time favorite holiday recipes with you—My Christmas Salad with Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing. Every year, this salad steals the show at our family dinners. It’s colorful, refreshing, and perfectly festive with those bright red pomegranate seeds, juicy mandarin oranges, and creamy feta cheese. Oh, and the dressing? Absolutely dreamy—so creamy, sweet, and just plain delicious!
If you’re looking for a side dish to add a little balance to all the rich holiday food, this salad is it. Plus, it’s so easy to put together, which is a total win during the busy holiday season!
What Makes This Salad Special?
This salad is a holiday tradition in my house. I love how the vibrant greens, pops of red, and creamy white feta just scream “Christmas!” It’s not only beautiful but also light and refreshing—a great way to brighten up your dinner table. And that creamy poppy seed dressing? You might just find yourself licking the spoon.
This salad is also incredibly versatile, so you can tweak it to suit your tastes (or whatever you have in your fridge!).
Here’s What You’ll Need
For the Salad:
- Spring Mix or your favorite greens
- Mandarin Oranges (fresh or canned both work!)
- Dried Cranberries
- Pomegranate Seeds (aka arils—so fancy, right?)
- Feta Cheese, crumbled
- Candied Walnuts or Pecans (these add the perfect crunch)
For the Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing:
- Mayonnaise (or Greek yogurt for a lighter version)
- Greek Yogurt
- Sugar (or your favorite sweetener)
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Poppy Seeds
Let’s Make It!
- Assemble the Salad
Start by layering your spring mix in a big, beautiful salad bowl. Add your mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, and feta cheese. Sprinkle the candied walnuts or pecans on top for that perfect holiday crunch. - Whip Up the Dressing
In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, sugar, apple cider vinegar, and poppy seeds. You can use greek yogurt instead of mayo if you’d like. Any way you make it, it is delicious on this Christmas Salad. Serve the dressing mixed in immediately or keep it in a jar in the fridge until ready to serve. - Put It All Together
Just before serving, drizzle the dressing over the salad or serve it on the side so everyone can add as much (or as little) as they like.
A Great Way to Use Leftovers
This salad is a light side that complements a traditionally heavy ham or turkey dinner. However, it also jazzes up Thanksgiving leftovers like you wouldn’t believe! Sometimes, I add leftover shredded turkey or diced ham to the top and make it more of a main course. It’s so yummy.
Make It Your Own
One of the reasons I love this salad is how easy it is to customize. Here are some ideas to switch things up:
- Add fruit: If pomegranate seeds aren’t in season, try strawberries, raspberries, or diced apples.
- Add veggies: Oven roasted beets or pickled beets can also be a beautiful and flavorful addition!
- Swap the cheese: Goat cheese, blue cheese, or mozzarella are all great options.
- Go nuts: Almonds, sunflower seeds, or pistachios are yummy alternatives to candied walnuts or pecans.
- Boost the greens: Toss in some baby spinach or arugula for even more color and vitamins.
- Make it a meal: Add shredded pork, grilled chicken or steak, or even crispy bacon on top.
- Dressing: If Poppy Seed Dressing is not your favorite try our Cranberry Vinaigrette, Strawberry Balsamic Dressing, or Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing.
- Toppings: Top with some seasoning or shake on a little salt and pepper. Try adding a little squeeze of fresh lemon juice or orange juice or a drizzle of honey.
Fun Ways to Serve This Salad
- Wreath Style: Arrange the salad on a platter in the shape of a wreath and place the dressing in a bowl in the center. So festive!
- Buffet-Ready: Set up a little salad bar with all the toppings in separate bowls so guests can build their own perfect salad.
- Simple Elegance: Place the salad bowl inside a decorative Christmas wreath on your table. It’s such an easy way to make it feel extra special.
Questions About this Christmas Salad
Yes! There is no gluten in this salad.
Salads are a perfect place to try new textures and flavors. Try chopping pears, adding citrus, tomatoes, arugula, kale salad, roasted potatoes, green beans, chewy raisins, crunchy nuts and seeds, and creamy avocado or cottage cheese.
Definitely! You can prep the salad ingredients and dressing separately and store them in the fridge. Just combine everything right before serving to keep it fresh and crisp.
More Christmas Salad Ideas
We have so many gorgeous salad recipes that are perfect for Christmas dinner. If you are a fan of this Christmas Salad, try a few of our other favorites:
Christmas Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 5-6 cups spring mix lettuce
- 1/2 cup mandarin oranges
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1/3 cup Feta cheese
- 1/2 cup candied walnuts or pecans
For the Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing:
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
Instructions
For the Creamy Poppy Seed Dressing:
- Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
- Whisk until smooth. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.
For the Salad:
- Place the Spring Mix in a large bowl.
- Top with remaining ingredients.
- Toss and top with poppyseed dressing.
Video
Notes
Recipe Tips:
There are many ways that you can do substitutions for this Christmas Salad! You can add or subtract as many ingredients as you wish. Here are some ideas of how you can switch it up:- If you don’t love Pomegranate seeds try strawberries, roasted beets, red onions, or raspberries for pops of red color.
- Add diced red or green apple slices for more crunch, color, and flavor!
- Turn this Christmas Salad into a summer supper with pineapple and sliced grilled chicken on top.
- Toss in a handful of baby spinach leaves for more greenery. Those extra vitamins can’t hurt, either!
- Instead of Feta cheese, substitute it for goat cheese, cubed mozzarella, blue cheese, or ricotta cheese for a different taste.
- Slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, or cashews would be a delicious substitute for walnuts or pecans.
Nutrition Information
Let’s Make This Holiday Extra Delicious!
I hope this Christmas Salad becomes as much a part of your holiday traditions as it is ours. It’s so easy, so pretty, and so delicious—I just know your family and friends will love it. I’d love to see how you make it your own! Comment to tell us below. 🙂
Looking for more holiday inspiration? Check out my Ultimate Christmas Dinner Guide for even more festive recipes. Happy holidays and happy eating!
Awesomeness
Would avocado go well with this salad?
Yes! That would be delicious!
I usually substitute yogurt for mayo in recipes. Would the dressing work with double the yogurt and no mayo?
Thanks!
Yes, the dressing may be a little thinner, but it will still taste great. Thanks for asking!
One of my favorite salads to make during Christmas! Can’t wait to make this again! My family loves this salad! So delicious and yummy!
Yummy, healthy and fresh!! JUST what I crave over the holidays after all the treats and rich foods.
So delicious! The perfect salad to have with my Thanksgiving Turkey! Perfect proportions of sweet and salty and creamy, and bright!
Hi there,
Do you ever make the dressing a day ahead? Or is it best to make it day of?
You can make it a day or even up to a week ahead. Thanks for asking!
I have bought this dressing. I can’t wait to make my own.
What a light and delicious salad! So colorful with the perfect balance of flavor! Delish!
I love everything about this salad, especially this creamy dressing! I want to put it on everything!
This is such a colorful & beautiful salad! Love all these ingredients combined & the dressing is amazing!
This Christmas salad is light, easy and delicious!
Would you be able to use tin mandarins??
Hi Charmaine, I’m not sure if canned mandarin oranges are what you are referring to by “tin” mandarins. If it is, then answer is yes. You can use 1/2 cup of drained oranges from a can or tin. Thank you for asking!
Do you toss the salad and the dressing before serving or do you serve the dressing on the side? The recipe looks delicious!!
You can do it either way! Usually if I’m feeding a large group, I like to toss it with the salad, just to make things easier.
Help! The recipe won’t show up!
Could you please specify how many this would feed?
Thank you
As a side dish or starter salad, this will serve 6 people. Thanks for asking!
This salad was absolutely delicious! My family loved it! I made the poppyseed dressing with splenda and it turned out fantastic,thanks was so good.