Bakers create eye-catching and tantalizing new holiday treats for seasonal parties; bakers create a dessert with an unusual candy cane flavor; for the main heat, they use a holiday cocktail as sweet inspiration; one unlucky baker goes home.

The bakers celebrate two classic holiday traditions: Hanukkah jelly doughnuts and ye olde fruitcake. They must create a dozen doughnuts featuring a challenging flavour combo. Then, they try their best to reinvent fruitcake.

Three bakers grab two last-minute holiday gifts and combine them into one dessert before creating a 12 Days of Christmas dessert. The winning baker walks away with 50,000 dollars and the title of Holiday Baking Champion.

In the pre-heat, eight bakers team up to make a dozen hand pies in a festive holiday shape; for the main heat, bakers create a holiday dessert duo inspired by classic holiday flavor combinations.

The five remaining bakers ignite the holiday spirit with a fiery, pre-heat dessert. While in the main heat, they take a traditional holiday cheese board and turn it into an unusual cheesecake.

The six remaining bakers create new takes on traditional holiday baking; inspired by an internet baking meme, for the pre-heat they use yellow cake mix to make anything but cake; in the main heat, bakers must holiday up a non-holiday dessert.

In the pre-heat, seven bakers must create a Thanksgiving dessert using a mystery canned fruit; in the main heat, bakers whip up new Turkey Day sensations by combining two traditional desserts.