Easy Pineapple Christmas Balls

Pineapple Christmas Balls are a festive, no-bake delight that taste like tropical sunshine wrapped in a snowy coconut coating! With just five simple ingredients and zero oven time, these sweet little treats are perfect for holiday parties, cookie exchanges, or when you need something special. They’re creamy, tangy, slightly sweet, and SO easy to make ahead.

Love More Desserts Recipes? Try My Italian Christmas Cookies or this No Bake Oreo Balls next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

They look absolutely gorgeous on a dessert tray with their snowy coconut coating, and the bright pineapple flavor is such a refreshing change from all the chocolate and peppermint. Plus, they’re done in about 10 minutes.The flavor hits different too. While everyone else is drowning in chocolate and peppermint, these bring something fresh and bright. Tangy pineapple, creamy filling, crunchy coconut.

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Ingredient List

For the Mixture:

• 398 mL (14 oz) canned crushed pineapple, well drained
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
• ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3 oz pineapple-flavored gelatin powder (like Jell-O brand)

For Coating:

• 1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut

Yields approximately 24 balls

Substitution Notes:

• Cream cheese: Light works but tastes less rich
• Graham cracker crumbs: Vanilla wafers or those digestive cookies work
• Pineapple gelatin: Orange Jello turns them sunset-colored and tastes amazing
• Desiccated coconut: Sweetened bags from the baking aisle work fine, just use less

Why These Ingredients Work

Cream cheese is basically glue here. Soft glue that tastes good. Leave it out on the counter while you’re getting other stuff ready or you’ll regret it when you’re picking lumps out of your mixture later.

The pineapple brings all the flavor but also all the problems if you don’t drain it properly. My first batch looked like baby food because I was lazy about squeezing the liquid out. Learn from my mistakes.

Coconut shows up twice—mixed in and rolled on. Inside it keeps things from getting gummy. Outside it makes them look like they belong on a magazine cover instead of my messy kitchen counter.

Graham crackers absorb the extra pineapple juice that always sneaks through no matter how hard you squeeze. They’re like little edible sponges holding everything together.

The Jello powder confuses everyone. No, you don’t mix it with water. Yes, you dump the whole box in dry. It makes the pineapple taste more pineapple-y somehow and turns everything this pretty golden yellow.

Essential Tools and Equipment

• Large mixing bowl
• Electric hand mixer or wooden spoon
• Fine-mesh strainer (for draining pineapple)
• Paper towels or cheesecloth (for extra pineapple draining)
• Cookie scoop or tablespoon
• Shallow dish (for rolling in coconut)
• Airtight container for storage
• Plastic wrap or lid for chilling

How To Make Pineapple Christmas Balls

Step 1: Beat the Cream Cheese

Dump your soft cream cheese in a bowl and beat it until you can’t see any chunks. Two minutes with a mixer, longer if you’re doing it by hand. This is boring but necessary. Those chunks will show up in your finished balls looking like little cottage cheese mistakes.

Step 2: Drain That Pineapple Really Well

Pop open the can and pour everything into a strainer over the sink. Mash it down with a spoon. Then grab a wad of paper towels, wrap up that pineapple, and squeeze like you’re mad at it. Your hands should be tired. If they’re not tired, you didn’t squeeze enough.

Step 3: Add the Remaining Ingredients

Chuck in your squeezed pineapple, one cup coconut, the graham cracker crumbs, and tear open that Jello box. Mix everything until it looks the same color all the way through with no dry powder spots hiding at the bottom.

Step 4: Chill the Mixture

Slap some plastic wrap over your bowl and stick it in the fridge for an hour minimum. I usually pour myself some wine and watch Hallmark movies while I wait. Trying to skip this step just means you’ll be cursing at sticky dough later.

Step 5: Roll Into Balls

Scoop out chunks about the size of a walnut and roll them between your hands. They won’t be perfect spheres and nobody will care. If your hands start looking like you dipped them in tropical quicksand, rinse them off and the bowl goes back in the fridge for ten minutes.

Step 6: Coat in Coconut

Pour your second cup of coconut into something shallow. Roll each ball through it and press down a little so it sticks everywhere. This part’s actually kind of fun and makes them look way fancier than the effort you put in.

Step 7: Store and Chill

Line them up in whatever container has a lid and keep them cold. Pull them out maybe twenty minutes before people show up so they’re not rock-hard from the fridge.

You Must Know

Drain that pineapple until you think you’re done and then drain it some more. Every single time someone tells me theirs didn’t work, it’s because they skipped the death-grip squeezing part. Wet pineapple equals disaster.

Room temperature cream cheese isn’t a suggestion. It’s the difference between smooth balls and lumpy disappointments. Set it out when you start thinking about making these.

Personal Secret: I stick mine in the fridge for closer to two hours because my kitchen’s always hot and I’m impatient. Colder mixture rolls faster and easier. I’ve timed it.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

Buy a cheap cookie scoop. Mine was four dollars and makes every ball basically the same size without me having to think about it.

Cold water on your hands stops the sticking. Just a quick rinse, shake them off, keep rolling. Changes everything.

Roll them twice in coconut if you want them extra pretty. First coat, fifteen minutes in the fridge, second coat. They look bakery-level fancy.

Make a rainbow batch with different Jello flavors. I did orange, raspberry, and lime last year and people lost their minds over the colors.

Don’t rush the chilling. I know you want to taste them right now. I get it. But warm mixture is impossible to work with and you’ll just end up frustrated.

Flavor Variations / Suggestions

Tropical Paradise: Mango Jello plus some lime zest grated right into the mix. Tastes like vacation.

Coconut Cream Dream: Toast your coating coconut in a pan first until it smells nutty. Game changer.

Nutty Twist: Throw in some chopped macadamia nuts or pecans. Adds crunch that people go nuts for.

Chocolate Lover’s Version: Roll some in mini chocolate chips instead of more coconut. My brother specifically requests half and half now.

Citrus Burst: Grate an entire orange into the mixture. Makes them taste brighter somehow.

Rum Ball Style: Splash in some dark rum if kids aren’t eating them. Very grown-up Christmas vibes.

Make-Ahead Options

This is why these became my default party contribution. I make them when I have time, not when I’m already stressed.

Refrigerator: They last a full week if you can keep people away from them that long. I layer parchment paper between them so they don’t stick. Honestly they taste better on day three after everything soaks together.

Freezer: Freeze them for months. I line them up on a cookie sheet first until they’re hard, then bag them up. Night before the party I move them to the fridge to thaw.

Party Prep Timeline: Two days before I make the mixture. Day before I roll them. Day of I do literally nothing except take them out of the fridge. Peak efficiency.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

That Jello powder goes in dry straight from the box. Don’t add water. Don’t prepare it. Just open and dump.

Still too soft after waiting? More graham cracker crumbs. Two tablespoons at a time until it firms up. Chill it again after mixing.

Get unsweetened coconut unless you want diabetes. The sweetened stuff makes these so sugary your teeth hurt.

You want truffle texture. Holds together when you pick it up but melts soft and creamy when you eat it. Not rock hard, not falling apart.

These work gluten-free if you grab gluten-free graham crackers. Everything else already qualifies.

Serving Suggestions

Put them on your prettiest plate and keep them cold until showtime. They stand out on cookie tables because they actually look different from everything else.

Cookie swaps made these famous in my neighborhood. They’re also killer on those dessert grazing boards everyone’s doing now. I’ve stuffed them in mini cupcake liners when I’m trying to impress my husband’s work people.

Garnish ideas: Stick some mint leaves around the edge of your platter. Dust the whole thing with powdered sugar if you’re going for snow globe vibes. Makes people think you tried harder than you did.

How to Store Your Pineapple Christmas Balls

Refrigerator: Container with a lid, back of the fridge, week max. Parchment paper stops them sticking to each other.

Freezer: Three months easy. I use freezer bags after they’re solid. Move them to the fridge the night before you need them.

Room Temperature: Nah. Cream cheese situation means they stay cold. You can pull them out half an hour early but that’s your limit.

Reheating: Why would you reheat these? Eat them cold.

Allergy Information

Contains:

• Dairy (cream cheese)
• Coconut
• Gluten (graham crackers)

Allergy-Friendly Substitutions:

• Dairy-free: Those dairy-free cream cheese tubs work fine
• Gluten-free: Gluten-free graham crackers or almond flour
• Nut-free: Nothing has nuts unless you add them, just check your labels
• Coconut allergy: Roll them in crushed nuts or those rainbow sprinkles instead

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

My mixture is too wet and won’t form balls—help!

Didn’t drain enough. Dump in more graham cracker crumbs, two or three tablespoons worth. Mix and chill again. Still soupy? More coconut.

Can I make these without the gelatin powder?

You can but they’re boring without it. The Jello does heavy lifting flavor-wise. Skip it and you’ll need powdered sugar and pineapple extract to compensate. They’ll also be mushier.

How far ahead can I make these for a party?

Week in the fridge works great. Three months in the freezer if you’re really planning ahead. I’m usually a two-day-before kind of person.

Do these need to stay refrigerated the whole time?

Yeah because cream cheese goes bad at room temp. Two hours out during a party won’t kill anyone but after that they need to go back in the cold.

💬 Tried this recipe? Make these yet? How’d they turn out? Any tweaks you tried? Tell me everything in the comments!