Holiday Baking Championship - Season 12

First aired: 11/3/2025 4 episodes

Episodes

1. Welcome to the Holiday Village

Aired: 11/3/2025

Host Jesse Palmer welcomes 12 amazing bakers to the gorgeous holiday village, where the bakers are divided into the Nice Team and the Naughty Team. In each bake, there will be a top dessert from each team, and the best overall dessert wins for their team. In elimination challenges, the winning team is safe from elimination, and the losing team loses a baker. For the first preheat challenge, the Nice Team makes warm and toasty desserts, while the Naughty Team makes chill and frosty treats. Then, Jesse asks each team to create an edible holiday village that includes a dessert from every baker. Judges Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Kardea Brown decide which baker from the losing team will be eliminated.

2. Holiday Cheer

Aired: 11/10/2025

Host Jesse Palmer asks the Naughty Team to make holiday cocktail desserts and the Nice Team to make mocktail desserts using assigned libations like boozy Hot Buttered Rum or non-alcoholic Pumpkin Eggnog for inspiration. Then, the bakers must create meringue-based desserts that obviously appear as either cheerful vs. cheeky to impress judges Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Kardea Brown.

3. Crafting Holiday Magic

Aired: 11/17/2025

Host Jesse Palmer asks the teams to create over-the-top holiday wreath desserts, and they cannot repeat desserts within their team. Also, there's only one challenge this time, and the team who won the previous challenge gets to pick a naughty or nice advantage -- either take away the other team's stand mixers or get an exclusive basket of decorating items. In the end, judges Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Kardea Brown decide which baker goes home.

4. Pies and Shine

Aired: 11/24/2025

Host Jesse Palmer challenges the nine remaining bakers to make seasonal holiday pies with no repeated flavors among their own team. In a surprise bit of strategy, each team must select only their best two pies for tasting by judges Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Kardea Brown. To make the decision, the bakers taste their team's pies on their own. Feathers might get a little ruffled, but it's for the team! In the end, a baker from the losing team is eliminated.