"after dinner snack" news and stories

So one of my duties this Christmas at my sister's house (I'm also making this) is to make a cheese and cracker platter that folks can munch on before and after the main meal. I've done them before, but they always turn out to be just very basic cheese and cracker snacks: a couple of different blocks of Kraft cheeses and a few different crackers. A very basic, low-cost type of thing, and it's OK.

But this year I want to do something different. I want to get a really good selection of nice cheeses and several different types of crackers to place around them. So I need your help! What kinds of cheeses and crackers would make a good selection for my family? Any tips or tricks you can give me to make it just a bit more than the usual "cheese and Ritz cracker" affair? Anything besides the cheese and crackers you'd put on the platter too? Fruit? Chocolate?

That pic on the right looks like a cool presentation.