Baking is a staple tradition around Christmastime for many people. Whether decorating sugar cookies, building gingerbread houses, or frosting cakes, baking can be a relaxing and communal celebration. But sometimes you just can’t be bothered to go through all the prep and clean-up, or maybe you want to watch someone better — or worse — than you make their own Christmas treats. That’s where baking shows come in. As Christmas comes around each year, hosts of holiday-themed baking shows and special episodes take over our screens. Here are some of the best Christmas baking shows to relax with this holiday season.
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays
Everyone’s favorite bake-off gets a spirited makeover in The Great British Baking Show: Holidays. The appeal of GBBO lies in the comradery between contestants and the hosts’s banter. Add a healthy dash of innuendos and it’s no wonder this is one of the most well-loved baking competitions on television. The Christmas episodes take all of its best aspects and add a holiday twist with challenges like yule logs and vegan baked Alaska. The best part is that lovers of the original show don’t have to say goodbye to their favorite contestants just yet. Each Christmas episode features past contestants from various seasons, giving them another chance at winning. Seasons one through seven of The Great British Baking Show: Holidays are available to stream on Netflix. Talk about a Christmas miracle.
Christmas Cookie Challenge
Take the fun of Christmas cookie baking, raise the skill level, stakes, and rewards, and you get Christmas Cookie Challenge. In this festive baking competition, participants work through three rounds to bake the best cookies. Each holiday-themed round takes the bakers one step closer to winning the $10,000. These bakers must focus on producing beautifully designed and unique cookies, but also making sure they taste like nothing the judges have ever tasted.
Sugar Rush Christmas
Sugar Rush Christmas brings the time crunch of a baking competition to the forefront with in-your-face timer screens and a fast-paced series of rounds. The show also features some spectacular guest judges like Liza Koshy, Adam Rippon, and Jordin Sparks. Bakers get three hours on the clock but whenever they’re ready to present their finished product for judging, the clock stops. They can use this remaining time in subsequent rounds to gain an advantage over other teams. Contestants must balance speed to aid themselves later in the competition without sacrificing precision. No one wants a messy ugly sweater cupcake.
Nailed It! Holiday!
Most of the shows on this list feature bakers who know their stuff. Watching them craft intricate structures out of cookies and delicately pipe designs onto cakes makes you wonder how they learned they could do that. But every once in a while, it’s nice to have a laugh watching someone produce a spectacular failure of a dessert. Nailed It! may not have the best bakers in the world but it certainly has some of the funniest. Groups of green bakers struggle to decorate their bakes just like the models until one person manages to do it decently enough to win. With the holiday edition, you can watch classic Christmas characters like Santa Claus and Rudolph transform into something more suited for Halloween.
Holiday Baking Championship
Host Jesse Palmer leads contestants through rounds of fierce competition centered around various holiday themes in Holiday Baking Championship. Each episode has two rounds. The contestant who succeeds in making the best small confection gains an unknown advantage going into the second round. And they’ll need it as they tackle a scaled-up challenge. Things might get a little stressful but there’s always an undertone of holiday joy.
Is It Cake? Holiday
One of the greatest joys of Christmas is waking up in the morning, running to the Christmas tree, and taking in the carefully wrapped presents underneath. What could be inside that big box in the corner? Could it be cake? In this show, it just might be. Even the box itself could be cake. If you love watching TikTok videos of people cutting into their household appliances only to reveal they were expertly disguised cakes, Is It Cake? Holiday will be right up your alley. Like The Great British Baking Show: Holidays, this special edition of Is It Cake? brings back previously featured bakers to craft realistic replicas of everything from wreaths to turkeys, all made of cake.
Holiday Wars
Baking cakes and cookies is one thing. Baking and structuring fully edible displays is another. That is the task given to the contestants on Holiday Wars. Teams of bakers with varying specialties — some being masters of cake, others of cookies or sugar — work together to make the best displays, impress the judges, and get a chance at winning a big cash prize. The bakers’ scenes are like something out of a movie, but even more delicious.
Beat Bobby Flay: Holiday Throwdown
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Christmas? Is it a Christmas tree, a snowy day, Santa Claus, or…Bobby Flay? Well, in Beat Bobby Flay: Holiday Throwdown, Bobby Flay brings on the Christmas spirit in his own way. The superstar chef challenges contestants to beat him at his own game. Will the judges be able to tell which festive dishes are Bobby’s and which are the hopeful chefs?
This holiday season, take a break from the stress of cooking and baking for your get-togethers, and let the contestants on your TV do all the stressing for you. Christmas baking shows are the perfect way to unwind, get into the Christmas spirit, and even get some inspiration for your own baking — once the stress subsides that is.
