Christmas Tree Cake Dip with Sprinkles and Mini Chocolate Chips

Christmas tree cake dip is a sweet, fluffy cream cheese dip packed with mini chocolate chips and red and green sprinkles, served with graham crackers for scooping. It takes about 10 minutes, needs no oven, and makes 10 servings. That makes it an easy pick for a holiday party table, a cookie swap, or a night of Christmas movies at home.

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What goes into the dip

• 1 block (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup whipped topping, thawed
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup red and green Christmas sprinkles, plus more for topping
• Graham crackers, for serving

Every ingredient here does a job. The cream cheese gives the dip body and a slight tang, the butter makes it rich and smooth, and the powdered sugar sweetens it while dissolving fully, so there is no grit. The whipped topping is what turns a dense frosting into something light enough to scoop with a cracker. Mini chips are the right size here because regular chips are heavy and tend to snap a graham cracker in half.

Start with truly soft cream cheese and butter

Lumpy dip almost always traces back to cold dairy. If the cream cheese is still firm from the fridge, small white specks stay in the mixture no matter how long you beat it, and you can see them clearly against the smooth base. Cold butter does something similar and can leave tiny greasy beads.

Set both out ahead of time and wait until a finger pressed into the block of cream cheese leaves an easy dent. The butter should be soft enough to spread but should not look shiny or melted. Melted butter makes a loose, oily dip that never firms up.

Why the sprinkles go in at the very end

Red and green sprinkles carry a lot of dye, and that dye dissolves in the moisture of the cream cheese and whipped topping. Fold them in too early and you get pink and green streaks running through a dip that should look snowy white with bright flecks.

The fix is simple: fold in the sprinkles right before serving. Keep the extra sprinkles for the top until the bowl is on the table, too, so the colors stay sharp when your guests first see it.

For a dip that is less sweet, set out our Christmas cherry cream cheese dip with crackers next to this one.

If you would rather roll those snack cakes into bite-size treats, try our Christmas tree cake balls dipped in white chocolate.

Pretzels are also the base of our Christmas crack with pretzels , a chocolate and toffee candy you break into pieces.

How to make Christmas tree cake dip

• Beat the cream cheese and butter together until very smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice so no firm bits hide along the edges. You want a uniform, creamy base with no visible lumps.
• Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Start on low speed so the sugar does not puff out of the bowl, then raise the speed. The mixture will lighten in color and look airy.
• Fold in the whipped topping gently. Use a spatula and a lifting motion from the bottom of the bowl up and over. Stirring hard or switching the mixer back on knocks out the air you just added.
• Fold in the mini chocolate chips and sprinkles. A few turns of the spatula is enough to spread them through the dip.
• Spoon the dip into a clear bowl, top with more sprinkles, and serve with graham crackers.

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Setting up the bowl for a party

The recipe calls for a clear bowl, and there is a good reason. You can see the chocolate chips and colored sprinkles all the way through the sides, so the dip looks festive from across the room. Pile the extra sprinkles on top just before people start eating, then arrange the graham crackers around the bowl or on a plate beside it.

With 10 servings, one batch covers a small gathering. Place the bowl where people can reach it from more than one side, since a thick dip and a crisp cracker work best when nobody has to lean over a crowded table. Watch the top of the bowl as the evening goes on: the recipe warns that sprinkle colors bleed into the white dip, so the flecks look brightest in the first stretch after you add them.

Because the whole recipe takes about 10 minutes from softened dairy to finished bowl, timing is easy to plan around. Get the cream cheese and butter out early so they soften, then do the beating and folding close to when you want to set the bowl out. That way the last two steps, the sprinkles and the topping, happen right before serving, which is exactly when the recipe says they should.

Building a holiday dessert spread? This dip sits nicely next to our red velvet trifle cups and a bowl of pink Christmas cherry pineapple fluff , and for something savory on the same table, try our Christmas jam baked brie .

Questions about this dip

Why did my dip turn out runny?

The usual causes are butter that was partly melted or whipped topping that was stirred in too hard. Both deflate the dip. Keep the butter soft but solid, and fold the whipped topping in by hand with a spatula.

Why are there pink streaks in my dip?

The red sprinkles released their dye into the moist base. This happens when sprinkles sit in the dip for a while or get mixed too long. Fold them in at the last minute with only a few turns of the spatula.

Where does the name come from?

It borrows the look of the tree-shaped holiday snack cakes many people grew up with: a sweet white vanilla cream dotted with red and green. Here that idea becomes a scoopable dip, with graham crackers standing in for the cake.

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Written and edited by The Foodie Yummy Kitchen Team

The Foodie Yummy Kitchen Team writes and edits the recipes on Foodie Yummy: classic American potluck salads, holiday sides and easy comfort food, with a few low-carb options. Every recipe lists exact quantities, numbered steps and a printable recipe card, plus notes on swaps, storage and make-ahead timing. Spot a problem with a recipe? Tell us through the contact page and we will correct it. About us