Emily In France Exclusive 🇫🇷 9 Cheeses Perfect for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is cheese.

Much like fruits, vegetables, and footwear, cheese is seasonal. (Some of them also smell like feet, but I digress.) Goat cheese is best in the spring and summer months, when nannies can graze on fresh, green grass. My favorite smoked goat cheese crottins from Quatrehomme are ideal in fall, when their smell of woodsmoke seems to evoke the very season.

As for Christmas? There are quite a few specialties to make your seasonal table merry and bright. 

This list encompasses both cheeses classically served at Christmas in France and a few of my own favorites that I think are worthy of the occasion, tradition be damned. From those best-suited to a cheese board to centerpieces that could stand in for the roast, here are the French cheeses that any turophile would be pleased to serve at the holidays.
 

1. Mont d'Or

Mont d'Or, also known as Vacherin Mont d'Or or Vacherin Haut-Doubs, is a soft Alpine cheese made on both the French and Swiss sides of the mountain range. This cheese is only in season from November to March, so it's perfectly suited for Christmastime – especially given the spectacle of its preparation and presentation. Mont d'Or is sold in its own spruce box, and traditionally, the lightly washed cheese is first pierced with a paring knife and studded with slivers of garlic before being drizzled with white wine and baked until molten. It's then drizzled over boiled potatoes, charcuterie, pickles, or bread. If you're gunning for a meat-free Christmas with an impressive centerpiece, I can think of no better cheese.

2. Pistachio-Crusted Goat Cheese

As I mentioned up top, goat cheese isn't technically in season at Christmastime, but given the added accouterments to this sweet-and-savory creation, that's not a problem here. Pistachio-crusted goat cheeses are fairly common in Paris' fromageries, where it's the job of the monger – rather than the maker – to craft this specialty. My favorite comes from Jouannault in the Marais, where a very fresh goat cheese is whipped with honey and then rolled in a generous quantity of crushed pistachios. Given its bright green color, it's the ideal sweet-and-savory option on a Christmas cheese board or stand-in for a more classically American cheese ball.

3. Banon

Cheese makes a lovely Christmas gift – especially when it's already all wrapped up! Banon is a Provençal goat cheese soaked in eau de vie before being wrapped in chestnut leaves and tied with raffia. The chestnut leaves not only create an alkaline environment, allowing the cheese to take on a greater complexity, but they also make this one of the most appealing cheeses to open.
 

4. Murols

That gorgeous wheel with a reddish hue up top is the perfect choice for anyone looking to recreate the colors of Christmas on their holiday table – and unlike many other chromatically-similar cheeses, it's not a big stinker. Murols is made in Auvergne and has a similar flavor to fellow local specialty Saint-Nectaire: nutty, a bit funky, and super lactic and rich.
 

5. Brillat-Savarin

Double-cream Brie does not exist in France. Thank God (and Henri Androuët) for Brillat-Savarin, then, an ultra-rich bloomy-rinded delicacy that has always struck me as being halfway between butter and cheese. The barest of mushroomy aromas are joined by fresh cream flavors in this holiday-worthy specialty.

6. Aged Comté

Of all of the holiday suggestions on this list, aged Comté is perhaps the most traditional, with top cheesemongers pulling out all the stops at Christmas by selling wheels aged 30, 33, or even 40 months like this one from Marie-Anne Cantin in the 7th arrondissement. As Comté ages, it gains brown buttery, hazelnutty notes and also sees the development of tyrosine crystals – essentially crispy bits of pure umami.
 

7. Truffled Brie

Another classic Christmas cheese choice is undoubtedly anything with truffles – and while you'll find everything from truffled Brillat-Savarin to Laurent Dubois' Ossau-Iraty-based Tartuffe, one of my personal favorites is definitely a truffled Brie – specifically Brie de Meaux, which is the milder of the two AOP Bries. With a briny character and root vegetable undertones, Brie de Meaux is the perfect foil for the rich aromas of black truffles.

8. Mendiant

Oranges have long been associated with my own memories of Christmas, whether it was sticking them with cloves to make pomander balls or just watching Kirsten Dunst's Amy March take a whiff of the fresh fruit before resigning herself to giving her breakfast away in Little Women. In France, too, oranges and clementines frequently appear in Christmas treats, so while Quatrehomme's mendiant (beggar) isn't an exclusively Christmas creation, the Camembert topped with jam, nuts, dried fruit and a touch of dark chocolate feels pretty seasonal to me.

9. Bleu des Causses

Seeing as Stilton is a Yuletide staple in the UK (not to mention one of my all-time favorite cheeses), it was very tempting to include it on this list. But I promised French cheese, and I'll keep my word: In its stead, I propose Bleu des Causses, a cousin of Roquefort made with nuttier cow's milk in place of ewe's. Crumbly and salty, it's just as welcome a pair with Port as with Sauternes.

(For more cheesy content, check out my cheese Advent calendar on Instagram!)