Easy Christmas Jello Salad Recipe

This easy Christmas Jello salad recipe is perfect to make during the hustle and bustle of the Christmas holidays. Eat it as a desert or as a side dish, along with a holiday meal. The salad is light and delicious, and a festive way to add some important fruit during the busy holiday season.

Christmas is a time when we tend to eat foods in a rush, as we go about our holiday preparation. This jello salad recipe is light and tasty, and a great way to get some important nutrition during the holiday season.

Jam packed with fruit, this fun jello salad is sure to be a hit.

It’s great as a stand alone treat, and also a great side dish for a holiday dinner. Add this salad to any holiday meal, with it’s bright fruit, cranberry base, and jewel toned pomegranate arils.

This is a favorite recipe for holiday parties, because it’s easy to put together, and looks beautifully festive.

Ingredients

• Cranberry Juice: 1 cup of cranberry juice

• Pineapple Juice: 1 cup of pineapple juice (drained from the canned pineapple)

• Water: 1 cup of water

• Raspberry Jello: 6 oz (two 85 gm boxes) of raspberry jello

• Cranberry Sauce: 1 can of whole cranberry sauce, extra fluid drained

• Pineapple: crushed or tidbits of canned pineapple, 1 to 1 ½ small cans (13.5 oz can)

• Apples: 2 large chopped apples

• Pomegranate: pomegranate arils from ½ of a pomegranate

• Walnuts: ½ cup of walnut pieces

• Cloves: 4 crushed cloves, or ¼ tsp

Make sure to use canned pineapple, rather than fresh pineapple in your jello salad. Some fruit will prevent jello from setting, due to fruit enzymes which react with the jello. Fresh pineapple is one of these types of fruit.

Canned pineapple however is good to use.

How To Make Christmas Jello Salad

This jello fruit salad is full of simple ingredients.

Here is a step by step summary of this classic Christmas jello salad recipe, and you will find detailed instructions below in the recipe card as well.

Make The Jello Mixture

• Pour pineapple into a fine mesh sieve over a bowl, to drain the juice from the fruit. Allow to drain completely before using.

• Use the pineapple juice from the drained pineapple in your jello mixture. Measure out one cup only.

• If you don't have enough pineapple juice, you can top it off with orange juice.

• Add cranberry juice, pineapple juice, and one cup of water to a medium saucepan.

• Bring the juices and water to a boil.

• Remove from the heat and add the raspberry jello crystals. Stir for about 2 minutes, until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

• Add the whole cranberry sauce, after draining any liquid which has separated from the sauce, and mix in well.

• Next, add the crushed cloves, and stir in.

Allow The Jello To Partially Set

• Pour the warm jello mixture into a clean glass bowl or container, one in which you will be serving your jello salad. Place into the fridge, and allow the mixture to begin to set.

• It will take a little bit of time to begin the setting process, approximately 2 hours, so keep your eye on the mixture.

• This is an important part of the setting process, which should be done before you add the fruit to the salad.

• It is good practice to add any fruit after the jello has partially set up.

Add The Fruit

• Once the jello has started to set, add the crushed pineapple and chopped apples, and mix well to distribute the fruit.

• Stir the ingredients, covering the fruit with the jello mixture.

• Add the pomegranate arils and chopped walnut pieces, distributing evenly.

• Place into the refrigerator to allow the salad to completely set, for at least 4 hours. Setting time will vary depending on ingredients.

Recipe Variations

Depending on how your Christmas jello salad will be served, you may want to consider a garnish.

If served up as a dessert, add a dollop of whipped topping such as cool whip, or whipped cream, and pomegranate arils to garnish.

As a side dish for a holiday meal like Christmas dinner, there is really no garnish that is necessary. You can however add a sprinkle of walnut pieces or pomegranate seeds, as a final touch to the dish.

Christmas Jello Salad Substitutions

The raspberry jello can be switched out with other festive options and different flavours.

I always think of red and green as traditional holiday colors, so consider these jello colors for your salad substitutions, such as red strawberry jello and cherry jello, and green lime jello for a green jello salad.

You can even use black cherry and orange jello, which are also great festive options.

Juice options can also be substituted. Consider pomegranate juice and orange juice as great alternative choices.

The pineapple and apple add a lovely flavor combination, however these fruit can also be substituted and switched out with some of your favorite fruit. Consider fruit such as raspberries, strawberries, mandarin oranges, and cranberries.

I love the look of pomegranate arils. They seem to glow in the light as they sit on top of the salad.

If you don't have pomegranates, that's okay, the jello itself still catches the light, and is perfectly shiny, all by itself.

How To Store

This Christmas jello salad can be made a few days in advance, and stored covered in the fridge.

If there are any leftovers, store for up to 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container. Chances are it will not be in storage for long.

You can even store it in individual containers. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap or a lid.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does Jello Salad Last In The Fridge?

Jello salad will last up to 5 days in the fridge, if stored in an airtight container.

It's important to keep the jello covered, so that it does not absorb odors from the other foods inside the fridge.

Why Is My Jello Salad Runny?

One cause of runny jello is too much liquid in the mix.

If the pineapple has retained a lot of extra juice, or the cranberry sauce has extra liquid, these can prevent the jello from setting, due to the extra juices.

Another cause of runny jello is not mixing the jello crystals for a long enough period, preventing all of the crystals from dissolving completely. The jello should be allowed to dissolve for at least 2 minutes in the hot mixture, before adding anything cold to the mix.

A third cause of runny jello is adding certain types of fruit, which prevent the jello from setting. These fruit contain enzymes, called proteases, which keep the jello from solidifying.

Fruits such as fresh pineapple, bananas, kiwi, figs, ginger root, papaya, guava, and mangos are examples of fruit that can have this affect, and prevent jello from setting.

Interestingly, cooking can break down these enzymes, which is what happens with canned pineapple. The canning process inactivates the enzyme which inhibits jello setting.

Other fruit such raspberries, strawberries, apples, peaches, oranges and blueberries do not have this enzyme, and will not interfere with the jello setting.

How To Fix Jello That Does Not Set

If you have added any of the above mentioned fruit that prevent setting, and the jello has not set, it's still possible to salvage the jello.

First step is to remove the fruit, to see if the jello will set.

If the jello does not set, you can try a redo. This involves mixing up another box of jello, and making sure the jello crystals are completely dissolved, by stirring for at least two minutes in the hot water.

Add the failed jello mixture with removed fruit to the new mix. Put in the fridge to set.

Once partially set, add the fruit again.

Conclusion

This jello recipe is jam packed full of goodness. It's likely to become a family favorite, and it's already on my list of favorite family recipes. It's just so easy to make.

Perfect for a holiday table with it's festive colors, it's also a great dish for special occasions like Christmas parties.

It's one of the best jello salad recipes to use as a light holiday dessert, with all of it's colorful ingredients and tangy flavor.

Make it ahead for an easy and festive decoration for your Christmas table.

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