diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 0f2f8f5..296f303 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: docorator
 Title: Docorate (Decorate + Output) Displays
-Version: 0.7.0
+Version: 0.7.0.9000
 Authors@R: 
     c(
       person(given = "Shannon", family = "Haughton", email = "shannon.l.haughton@gsk.com", role = c("aut", "cre")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index e66c327..0513344 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# docorator (development version)
+Improvements
+* Check that display objects are not empty before processing with as_docorator (#125)
+
 # docorator 0.7.0
 Improvements
 * Added Word (.docx) output support with the new render_docx() engine. (#97)
diff --git a/R/docorate.R b/R/docorate.R
index 2cdd345..ba1b8b6 100644
--- a/R/docorate.R
+++ b/R/docorate.R
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ as_docorator <- function(
   # check inputs
   check_fancyhdr(header, chr_ok = TRUE)
   check_fancyhdr(footer)
+  check_display(x)
 
   # prep displays for render
   x <- prep_display(
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 6c9441c..3abd94a 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -346,4 +346,17 @@ prep_display <- function(x, fig_dim = c(5,8), convert_ggplot = TRUE, fontsize =
   )
   
   x
+}
+
+#' Check that the display object is not empty
+#' @param x object passed to `as_docorator`
+#' @noRd
+#'
+check_display <- function(x) {
+  if(rlang::is_empty(x)) {
+    cli::cli_abort(
+      "The {.arg {rlang::caller_arg(x)}} argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.",
+      call = rlang::caller_env()
+    )
+  }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R b/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R
index 4696f5c..c586899 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_docorate.R
@@ -90,3 +90,21 @@ test_that("Create docorator object without display_name errors",{
 
 
 })
+
+test_that("Create docorator object with invalid display errors",{
+
+  expect_error(as_docorator(
+    x = list(),
+    display_name = "empty_list",
+    save_object = FALSE
+  ),
+  "The `x` argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.")
+
+  expect_error(as_docorator(
+    x = NULL,
+    display_name = "null_object",
+    save_object = FALSE
+  ),
+  "The `x` argument cannot be empty or NULL. Please provide a valid display object.")
+
+})