It has become custom for The Great British Baking show to release a series of holiday specials, and this year’s editions are out now on Netflix. The two Baking Show holiday specials, one themed around Christmas and one for New Year’s, bring back several fan favorite bakers competing for a one-off prize after enduring three seasonal challenges. The stakes feel low (especially the New year’s episode which features a group of bakers who seem a bit rusty in the tent), but if you love the show, you’ll be satisfied with the ensuing festivities regardless of the lackluster competition.
Opening Shot: In a twist, there’s no cold open for the holiday edition of the Baking Show – the Christmas episode opens with the arrival of the six returning bakers to the tent.
The Gist: It’s the Baking Show, but make it festive! There have been several seasons’ worth of Baking Show holiday specials, and this season follows the same formula of years past: a Christmas themed episode and a New Years’ episode filled with holiday-inspired challenges carried out by returning contestants. In the Christmas episode, former winner Sophie from season 8, Dan from season 9, Amelia from season 10, Linda from season 11, George from season 12, and Carole from season 13 are all on hand to compete again under the tent. They’re tasked with the three challenges typical of a Baking Show episode: a Signature Bake (holiday mince pies), the Technical (cinnamon snowflake bread), and a Showstopper, this one called a redemption cake, in which the contestants are told to redeem themselves with a new version of a bake that stumped them in the tent during their first go around on the show. In this episode, the returning bakers are all game for the challenge and haven’t missed a beat, seems that no one has lost any of their mojo under the tent.
Typically the New Year’s episode features celebrity bakers, but this season’s festive episode features four more past contestants, season 12’s Jurgen and Maggie, plus season 13 contestant Maxy, and season 11’s Mark to compete in three more festive bakes. I wouldn’t go all out and say this episode is disappointing, but the bakers certainly have struggle moments during the first two challenges – the showstoppers are much more creative and successful, though. Through it all, Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond are on hand to root for (and distract) the competitors, while judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith debate the merits of each bake.
Our Take: Watching the holiday episodes of The Great British Baking Show is bizarre experience because, despite the fact that I watch every episode of the series when it comes out, I have almost no memory of the bakers who return for the holiday series. (Am I the only one?) Over the course of the episode, a vague sense of recognition returns, but I wouldn’t say that the return of beloved bakers is the selling point of these specials as much as it’s the general holiday merriment and decor that make these episodes special. (If you’re missing Dylan and Georgie and the gang from the most recent season of the show, be warned, none of them participate here, as these episodes were filmed over a year ago.)
You can practically smell the cinnamon and chestnut and orange wafting out of the TV thanks to the festive, holiday-inspired bakes, while the halls of the tent are decked out with boughs of holly and even more twinkle lights than usual. As one-off episodes, the holiday shows lack the thing that makes the regular Bake-Off series so addicting for many of us, the competitive arc, but they include all the other things we love about the show: the supportive and charming bakers, the silly jokes from Noel and Alison, Paul jamming a thick finger into under-proved dough.
While the Christmas episode actually feels close and competitive, the New Years episode is more underwhelming, as none of the bakers have especially inspired or impressive bakes, but that’s the thing about this show – even an underwhelming episode still delivers.
Parting Shot: A choir sings “Carol of the Bells” as all of the contestants discuss how special it is to have been reunited under the tent.
Performance Worth Watching: Since her arrival to the show, I’ve become convinced that Alison Hammond is the best host this show has seen since Mel and Sue. Even though she wasn’t on the show when most of the competitors on the specials first appeared, her rapport with them and her partnership with Noel Fielding are one of the high points of the show.
Memorable Dialogue: “If it looks like a vagina, you’ve done it right,” contestant Amelia says as she judges the way she’s twisted the dough of her Christmas cinnamon snowflake bread in the holiday technical challenge. Leave it to that Paul Hollywood to select a pornographic bake.
Our Call: If you love The Great British Baking Show, as I do, and enjoy it for its soothing, cozy comforts, these episodes deliver everything you want from the show. While the competition is more lackluster than the regular season, some people might prefer that, as it makes the show less about winning and more about the process anyway. STREAM IT!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.