The BEST episodes of Holiday Baking Championship

Every episode of Holiday Baking Championship ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Holiday Baking Championship!

The search to find the greatest holiday baker begins as eight amateur bakers enter the kitchen, where they show off their family traditions and superb baking skills. To survive the challenges from week to week, they must prove their abilities in front of our tough-love judges: Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller and Lorraine Pascale. Hosted by Bobby Deen, this baking championship is the sweetest way to celebrate this holiday season.

Last Updated: 4/22/2025Network: Food NetworkStatus: Continuing
Christmas Windows in Time
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#1 - Christmas Windows in Time

Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/21/2020

Dressed as a Christmas tree, host Jesse Palmer kicks things off by asking the final four competitors to honor the holiday tree in the form of a beautifully decorated macaron tower. In the Christmas past, present and future main heat, the bakers must feature an assigned icing style in a stunning cake that evokes their assigned time period -- marzipan from the past, buttercream from the present or mirror glaze from the future. In the end, judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall will decide the one baker who will be crowned Holiday Baking Champion and walk away $25,000 richer!

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Getting Ready for Thanksgiving
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#2 - Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Season 9 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/14/2022

After a grocery delivery gone wrong, host Jesse Palmer tasks the bakers with creating tasty desserts featuring ingredients used to make Thanksgiving dinner, including carrots, cornbread stuffing mix and sausage. Then, the jolly gingerbread man knows that he could be more than just a cookie -- and it's up to the bakers to make it happen! In the end, judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall send one baker heading for the exit.

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First Snow
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#3 - First Snow

Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/7/2022

Season's greetings! Host Jesse Palmer gets some welcoming inspiration for the first Preheat as he challenges the 12 bakers to create meringue pavlova wreaths in yummy fall flavors. For the Main Heat, Jesse settles a long-standing debate over the best holiday dessert by dividing the kitchen into the pie team and the cake team. The better bake wins immunity for their whole team, and judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall send one baker from the losing team home.

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Ultimate Holiday Party
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#4 - Ultimate Holiday Party

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/20/2021

Host Jesse Palmer kicks things off with a swanky Christmas open house for judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall and asks the bakers to create dessert charcuterie boards. Then, the bottom two bakers face off in a sudden elimination challenge of dueling holiday pinata desserts. In the final main heat, the competitors take on holiday party theme cakes and incorporate lights into their designs. The most successful cake maker becomes the Holiday Baking Champion and walks away with $25,000!

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Holidays in All the Ways
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#5 - Holidays in All the Ways

Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/13/2021

Host Jesse Palmer asks the bakers to create sweet potato and spice desserts in honor of Kwanzaa. In the main heat, the competitors make Christmas card cakes that depict a perfect family snapshot for a holiday card to capture the smiles of judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall. In the end, one baker heads for the exit.

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Make New Friends, but Keep the Old
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#6 - Make New Friends, but Keep the Old

Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/6/2021

For the exclusive holiday desserts preheat, the six remaining bakers try to impress judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall by making tasty treats for guests with a dietary restriction. In the main heat, host Jesse Palmer challenges the competitors to update an assigned vintage holiday dessert to create a new Christmas delight.

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Gifts That Keep on Giving
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#7 - Gifts That Keep on Giving

Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/29/2021

In honor of the Hanukkah oil that kept burning, host Jesse Palmer asks the seven remaining bakers to create festive Hanukkah olive oil cakes. In the main heat, it's all about gift exchange desserts as the competitors randomly choose a dreaded holiday dessert and attempt to spin it into holiday happiness to please judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.

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Best Thanksgiving Ever
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#8 - Best Thanksgiving Ever

Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/22/2021

The Abominable Snowman comes out of hiding to startle the gingerbread teams and inspire their challenge theme -- A Monster Christmas. Monsters love an oozy dessert, so the teams must make an oozing caramel dessert to go with their display.

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Attitude of Gratitude
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#9 - Attitude of Gratitude

Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/15/2021

The baking teams are tasked with creating holiday memory snow globe scenes in gingerbread. And because a snow globe is nothing without snow, they must also make a treat using the most common baking ingredient to represent snow -- coconut!

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Yule Be Merry
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#10 - Yule Be Merry

Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/8/2021

The bakers team up to take on boozy desserts and are challenged with five different styles of yule log cakes in 10 different flavor combinations.

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Falling Into Winter
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#11 - Falling Into Winter

Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/1/2021

The twelve bakers embrace the seasonal transition by making fall and winter doughnuts; the competitors combine holiday cheese board staples in creative apple and cheese desserts.

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Feeling Sweet and Thankful
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#12 - Feeling Sweet and Thankful

Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/21/2022

These days, holiday turkeys can be smoked, fried, brined, roasted and bacon-wrapped, so host Jesse Palmer uses the five-way turkey as inspiration for the bakers' Preheat challenge. Then, the competitors divide into teams to create a flight of pies that takes judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall on a flavor progression journey, just like a flight of bourbon. Bottom crusts up, everyone! In the end, one baker goes home.

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A Classic Christmas
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#13 - A Classic Christmas

Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/14/2020

Host Jesse Palmer asks the five bakers to pull out all the stops and create the most-delicious, over-the-top version of a holiday trifle. Then, the classics continue in the main heat when the competitors make the ultimate Charlotte royale for judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall, as well as the king of Christmas -- Santa Claus!

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Topsy-Turvy Holidays
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#14 - Topsy-Turvy Holidays

Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/7/2020

Host Jesse Palmer is turning things on their heads as he challenges the six competitors to work in teams to create jelly doughnut-inspired desserts, a twist on traditional Hanukkah jelly doughnuts. Then, the bakers get creative with the yummiest, gooiest holiday decorated upside-down cakes to satisfy judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.

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It's the Inside That Counts
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#15 - It's the Inside That Counts

Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/30/2020

Host Jesse Palmer gives the seven bakers advent calendars filled with different types of chocolate to inspire them to make desserts with a surprise inside. Then, for the main heat, the competitors must bake one delicious cheesecake with three different flavors for judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall.

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Holiday Style
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#16 - Holiday Style

Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/2/2020

The competition kicks off for 12 bakers with holiday decorated quick bread wreaths. In the main heat, the competitors must make a winter hat cake to charm the judges.

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Hosting the Holidays
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#17 - Hosting the Holidays

Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/23/2020

Host Jesse Palmer challenges the eight remaining bakers to turn breakfast items, like French toast, into amazing Thanksgiving breakfast desserts. Then, the competitors take common Friendsgiving potluck dishes, such as glazed carrots, and use them in a dessert to impress judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall. Plus, since Friendsgiving is all about community, they're doing it in teams.

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Take Holiday Pies by Surprise
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#18 - Take Holiday Pies by Surprise

Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/16/2020

Host Jesse Palmer loves both cookies and pies, so he asks the nine bakers to make holiday cookie-topped mini pies. Then, Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall judge the pie pandemonium as the competitors celebrate fall with flavor combos such as pumpkin-cider and chestnut-chocolate in double crust, cream pies, slab pies, lattice pies and custard pies.

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Holiday Goodie Games
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#19 - Holiday Goodie Games

Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/9/2020

Host Jesse Palmer asks the 10 bakers to highlight a nut or seed in a holiday dessert. Then, the competitors spin a wheel to determine which fundamental holiday ingredient -- holiday spice, dried fruit or holiday spirits -- they must add to unseasonable desserts, like icebox cakes or fruit tarts. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Carla Hall make the call on which bakers pull it off.

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Christmas Day Delights
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#20 - Christmas Day Delights

Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/23/2019

Nothing beats waking up to the smell of a holiday brunch, so Jesse Palmer challenges the three remaining bakers to make a Christmas morning brunch using the classic holiday flavors of gingerbread, cinnamon and eggnog. In the final round, the bakers must create cakes that are plaid both on the inside and the outside. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale crown one baker the Holiday Baking Champion and award the $25,000 prize.

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Traditions with a Twist
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#21 - Traditions with a Twist

Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/16/2019

Some of the tastiest treats of Hanukkah are gold-covered chocolate coins, and Jesse Palmer challenges the four remaining bakers to give the classic treat a twist by incorporating candied orange, espresso beans, smoked salt or toasted coconut and create a dessert highlighting their chosen flavor. In the second challenge, the competitors bake up delicious cheesecakes with an assigned crust and decorated with an edible shiny ice rink on top. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale get serious about which three bakers move on to the finale.

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North Pole Vaulting
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#22 - North Pole Vaulting

Season 6 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/9/2019

Jesse Palmer challenges the five bakers to create assigned desserts that are inspired by and look like Santa Claus. To secure their place in the final four, the bakers are tasked with creating impressive cakes made to look like another icy North Pole staple: an igloo. Judges Nancy Fuller, Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale decide which bakers move on to the next round and which one goes home.

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Holiday Imagination
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#23 - Holiday Imagination

Season 10 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/4/2023

Love you a latke! Hanukkah is almost here, and Nancy Fuller is teaching Jesse Palmer how to make a traditional latke. For the preheat, the bakers must use their imaginations as they take the latke basics and turn them into latke-inspired desserts. Then, the bakers really let their imaginations run wild in the main heat while creating letterboard holiday bars that feature cute sayings to put judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller in the holiday spirit.

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Gingerbread House Party
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#24 - Gingerbread House Party

Season 11 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/16/2024

In the season finale, host Jesse Palmer is throwing a gingerbread house party with all the trimmings! In the preheat, the bakers create faux candy desserts, traditional candy decorations that are actually desserts on the inside. Then, the competitors must take inspiration from holiday eggnog flavors to create the most impressive eggnog desserts for judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller, and one baker will be eliminated. For the final challenge, the bakers construct gingerbread house cakes in unique architectural styles like modern, Tudor, cozy cottage or castle. In the end, only one baker will be named Holiday Baking Champion and take home $25,000!

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Holiday Pajama Party
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#25 - Holiday Pajama Party

Season 11 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/9/2024

Get cozy for the holiday pajama party! Host Jesse Palmer tasks the bakers with making footie pajama macarons in the preheat. Then, it's time to decorate the tree as the bakers team up to make cream puff garlands. Finally, the competitors must make white elephant desserts consisting of either a Charlotte royale, entremets cake or a dacquoise cake and decorate it with a holiday stuffed cuddle toy. The stakes are high as judges Carla Hall, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller decide who will advance to the finale.

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