Plot Synopsis

Each season of HOLIDAY WARS features teams of cake masters and sugar artists, who compete in elimination challenges. Each episode has two rounds, where teams create mind-blowing holiday displays as they try to impress the judges:

HOLIDAY WARS first debuted as a one-hour special on Sunday, November 25, 2018 at 8pm ET/PT on Food Network, where three teams competed for a $10,000 grand prize. Hosted by Jonathan Bennett, with Shinmin Li and Jason Smith as judges. First up is the Snowball Fight challenge, where the artists must use cake and sugar to create an edible holiday design in just 45 minutes. One winning team gets a vital advantage going into the second round. In the Winter Blizzard challenge, the teams are tasked with developing an eye-popping, masterful Christmas display made up entirely of cake and sugar. One team is sent packing at the end of each episode, and the last team left standing jingles all the way home with a $25,000 cash prize at the end of the season.

One year later -- on Sunday, December 1, 2019 at 9pm -- HOLIDAY WARS returned for its official series premiere. In the series opener, "Stealing the Naughty List," five teams of cake and sugar artists face off in the first festive night of challenges. Jonathan asks each team to give their most jolly depiction of a heist involving the world's naughtiest kids stealing Santa's famous "Naughty List." After all, if there's no list, then everyone gets presents! Judges Shinmin Li and Jason Smith decide which team goes home.

Season 2 of HOLIDAY WARS premiered on Sunday, November 1, 2020 at 8pm ET/PT on Food Network, with new host Raven-Symone, returning judge Shinmin Li, and a new judge: cake artist Erin McGinn. This season, five teams of cake masters and sugar artists face-off to create mind-blowing holiday displays that are as festive as they are delicious. The teams must compete to create eye-popping edible Christmas displays. In each episode the teams are tested in two rounds, and the top four teams will move on to round two for the chance to win a fabulous gift from Santa Claus. The team that jingles all the way to the grand finale will take home Santa's biggest prize: $25,000. In the season opener, "Surprise Holiday Parade," Santa makes a spur-of-the-moment decision to kick off the season by throwing the biggest, craziest holiday parade ever! Raven-Symone hosts as five teams of cake and sugar artists compete to impress judges Shinmin Li and Erin Acevedo, showing what might go wrong (or right!) when Santa's crew launches the parade to jump-start the holiday season.

The third season of HOLIDAY WARS premiered on Sunday, November 7, 2021 from 9-11pm ET/PT, with back-to-back episodes on Food Network. Nine teams of masterful cake and sugar artists battle it out over eight one-hour episodes to create eye-popping and edible seasonal displays. Whether it is dreaming up the wildest Thanksgiving imaginable, creating the perfect snowball fight, or bringing the story of an iconic caroling song to life in the most delicious way imaginable, these confectionary stars must lay it all on the line to impress host Maneet Chauhan and judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira.

On Sunday, December 26, 2021 at 9pm ET/PT, Food Network premiered "Champion Cake Off," a HOLIDAY WARS special. For the first time ever, the reigning champions of HALLOWEEN WARS and HOLIDAY WARS face off against each other! Just in time to ring in the New Year, host Maneet Chauhan challenges these two teams of champion cake and sugar artists to create their own team mascot and show how they'll ring in the New Year with a champagne-inspired cake flavor. At the end of the challenge, only one team of champs will come out on top, and judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira will award an all-expenses-paid trip for two to New York City for the biggest New Year's party in the world.

Season 4 of HOLIDAY WARS debuted on Sunday, November 6, 2022 from 9-11pm ET/PT on Food Network, with host Jeff Mauro and judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira challenging elite bakers to create over-the-top cakes inspired by whimsical holiday tales. Nine teams of talented cake and sugar artists compete for sweet victory in the eight-episode new season. In the end, only one team walks away with the Holiday Wars championship title and the grand prize: an all-expenses paid trip to see Iceland's Northern Lights - and perhaps a glimpse of Santa Claus. In the season opener, "Elf's Downhill Derby," Jeff welcomes three teams to the first of three qualifying rounds, where the talented cake and sugar artists must create a derby car fit for a race between Santa's elves. Judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira decide which two teams move on to the main round of competition and which team heads home for the holidays.

HOLIDAY WARS returned for its fifth season with back-to-back episodes on Sunday, November 5, 2023 from 9-11pm ET/PT on Food Network. Teams of elite cake, candy and cookie artists battling it out over eight episodes in over-the-top confectionery challenges inspired by holiday tales. Host Jeff Mauro and judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira lead all of this season's action. In the end, only one team is named champion and awarded the grand prize: an all-expenses paid trip to see Iceland's Northern lights.
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The sixth season of HOLIDAY WARS debuted on Sunday, November 3, 2024 at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network. Host Jeff Mauro leads the merry eight-episode competition along with judges Kardea Brown and Shinmin Li. In the end, only one team is named Holiday Wars champion and awarded the $25,000 grand prize. In the season opener, "Santa's Buddy Movie," Jeff welcomes the first three teams of talented cake, sugar and cookie artists. Each team must create a scene depicting what it would look like if Santa was starring in his very own buddy adventure movie. The stakes are even higher as the teams must have at least two characters on their display, and their tasting element must be seamlessly integrated into their display. Judges Shinmin Li and Kardea Brown decide which two teams move on and which team heads home for the holidays.