Christmas Granola with Cranberries, White Chocolate, and Pistachios
This Christmas granola is the perfect healthy homemade food gift. With red cranberries, green pistachios, white chocolate chips, and warm spices, it's a festive nourishing treat that everyone will appreciate. It's simple to make, great for gifting, and is ready in just 45 minutes!
If you love giving food gifts as much as we do, also try our spicy rum and rosemary mixed nuts, or chipotle sea salt spice blend.
If you've always wanted to make a food gift for the holidays, give this Christmas granola a try. This festive and healthy crowd-pleaser is filled with oats, nuts, dried cranberries, and coconut ribbons. It's dotted with Christmas colors and spiced with cardamom and ginger to make it taste like the holidays.
It stores well in an air-tight container for up to a month at room temperature so you can plan ahead and make a big batch in advance. Package it in a glass jar and tie a ribbon around it as a host gift or party favor everyone will enjoy.
Christmas granola ingredients
There are no unwanted ingredients in this wholesome Christmas granola recipe. Here's everything you'll need to make it:
- Rolled oats
- Pistachios
- Coconut
- Honey
- Coconut oil
- Cardamom + ginger
- Sea salt
- Dried cranberries
- White chocolate chips
How to make Christmas granola
Homemade granola is one of those foods that tastes so much better than store-bought. This festive cranberry granola is easy to make by following a few simple steps:
- While your oven preheats, get your baking sheet ready and find a large bowl. Mix together the oats, pistachios, and coconut.
- Then warm the coconut oil, honey, and spices in a small pot on the stove and pour this syrup over the oats.
- Mix it all together then spread the mixture onto your baking sheet. Bake it until lightly golden.
- Let it cool for a few minutes before gently stirring in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.
- When it's completely cool, package it in an air-tight container for up to a month. It's that easy!
Full recipe instructions are in the recipe card below.
How to get bright green pistachios
To make life easier, we normally use pre-shelled pistachios in this recipe. If you want your pistachios to be bright green like they are in the pictures, it's a bit of work. Here's how to do it:
- Start by removing the pistachios from their shells.
- Once you have enough, put them into a bowl and cover them with very hot water.
- After 5 minutes, drain the water and rub the skins off of the pistachios. The easiest way to do this is to put a few into a clean and lint-free tea towel and rub them between your fingers.
Removing the skins from pistachios is not for the faint of heart or anyone in a hurry. If you have time, patience, and really want the brightest green pistachios for this Christmas granola, go for it! If not, darker-colored, pre-shelled pistachios taste even better.
Christmas granola: FAQS
Yes! Maple syrup is a great substitute for honey. Just know that if you use maple syrup, the granola won't be as crunchy.
You can make this granola gluten-free by choosing gluten-free rolled oats.
In a pinch. It will change the texture and overall look of the granola, but it will still be delicious.
DIY Chrismas gift
This holiday granola makes an excellent DIY Christmas gift! Simply download and print our cute gift tags, package the holiday granola in glass jars, and wrap your gift with the tag attached to the jar. Easy!
Popular granola recipes
Christmas Granola
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats, gluten-free if needed
- 1 cup pistachios
- 1 cup ribbon or large flake coconut
- ½ cup honey
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Add the oats, pistachios, and coconut to a large, heat-proof mixing bowl.3 cups rolled oats, 1 cup pistachios, 1 cup ribbon or large flake coconut
- In a small pot over medium-high heat, mix the honey, coconut oil, cardamom, ginger, and sea salt. Once it starts to boil, remove the pot from the heat and pour the liquid over the oats.½ cup honey, 2 tablespoons coconut oil, ½ teaspoon ground cardamom, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon sea salt
- Mix the oats well the spread them out in an even layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 30-35 minutes, stirring halfway through. Take the granola out of the oven when it is light golden brown. It will crisp once it cools.
- Let the granola cool for 5 minutes then gently stir in the cranberries and white chocolate. The chocolate will melt slightly (as long as you don't mix it too much) and adhere to the granola. Let the granola cool completely on the baking sheet.1 cup dried cranberries, 1 cup white chocolate chips
- Store the Christmas granola in glass jars in your pantry for up to a month.
Delicious and so easy!
I bought cardamom to use in this recipe, but must’ve left it at the self-checkout! I used a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger like another mentioned. I used about half and half honey and maple syrup, and it still crisped up nicely. Only issue I ran into was the white chocolate chips melting too much even after I let the granola cool almost ten minutes. Packaging it today to give to the neighbors along with some white chocolate oatmeal cranberry cookies.
I just made this recipe! I didn’t have pistachios, so I used left-over pumpkin seeds. They were salted, but I just rinsed them to remove the salt so the granola wasn’t too salty. I also didn’t have cardamom so I used a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger! This is DELISH!!! I’ve also never been one to stir my homemade granola, because I like clumps. BUT I decided to follow these instructions exactly, and see what happens… It clumped as it cools, and I love it! Amazing! Thank you!
Im looking forward to making this! Are the pistachios salted or unsalted and coconut sweetened or unsweetened?
We make it with salted pistachios and unsweetened coconut. But you could use either – sweetened coconut will just make the granola sweeter.
Excellent timing – this is definitely being added to my list of gifts to make this year — along with your Bacon Jam, of course. Thanks for the recipe.
Homemade gifts are the best, aren’t they?! Have a merry Christmas!
This is such a pretty and festive granola! I love the white chocolate cranberry combo! This would disappear in no time at our house 🙂
It went fast at our house! 🙂
This granola looks so perfect! My mouth is watering over these flavors. Can’t wait to try this!!! Pinned :).
Thanks for the pin! It really was one of my favourite granolas. 🙂
This would make me jump out of bed with excitement in the morning!
Yes! For me too 🙂
One ultra delish granola at that! Love pistachios!!!!!
They’re the best, aren’t they?!
Now THIS is how you do granola holiday-style! Love, LOVE the pistachios, white choc, and cranberries you packed into this gorgeous granola, Kristen!
Thanks, lovely!