From watching Hallmark Christmas movies to looking at the Kardashian/Jenner holiday cards, there are always ways to mark the holiday season. It's easy to get into the spirit when the temperature drops and snow starts falling.
And thankfully, there are many great TV shows that will help, too. One of them is Holiday Wars, which airs on the Food Network. What can fans expect from this show? Keep reading (and get inspired to bake some cookies).
A Sweet Show
There are many popular series on the Food Network and Holiday Wars should definitely be included on that list as it sounds and looks like a lot of fun.
Learning more about Holiday Wars, it definitely sounds like watching the show will make it easy to get into the Christmas spirit. The cast members wear holiday-themed outfits and there are five teams on the show. According to Bleeding Cool, the teams are called Candy Stripers, sugar Sleihers, Peppermint Posse, Bah Hum Bakers, and Ginger Snappers.
The premise of the show is that the teams are trying to be crowned the winner, and the winners are given $25,000. That's a very sweet prize (no pun intended).
Episode one has two rounds that the teams have to complete. The second one is called "Winter Blizzard" and involves making some holiday decor that also has dessert.
A Familiar Host
Holiday Wars is also really fun because the host is familiar... especially to fans of the classic movie Mean Girls.
Yes, the host is none other than Jonathan Bennett, who is known for playing Aaron Samuels, Cady Heron's object of affection. The characters love the way that his hair looks pushed back and Cady competes with Regina George for his love and attention.
As part of the show's promotion, Bennett appeared on People.com and asked some holiday-themed trivia questions. Some of the questions were "In the early 1800s, the first gingerbread houses were reportedly inspired by what famous fairy tale?" (the answer: Hansel and Gretel) and "One of Santa's reindeers shares a name with a famous Roman god" (answer: Cupid).
According to Bennett's bio on the Food Network website, Bennett is no stranger to reality TV. He was a contestant on Dancing With The Stars and he has also hosted some Food Network shows such as Christmas Cookie Challenge, Cake Wars: Christmas, and Cake Wars.
When interviewed by Tell Tale TV back in 2015, Bennett has some nice things to say about hosting a holiday show on the Food Network. He said, “Cake Wars: Christmas is so much fun. And who doesn’t wanna, you know, snuggle up on the couch and watch people make amazing designs with cakes and sugar around the holidays? It’s just so festive. And I get to just walk around like a big kid under a Christmas tree on Christmas morning.”
The Contestants
The cool part about Holiday Wars is that some of the contestants are accomplished in the field of baking. Chron.com says that Bethany Davis, whose bakery is called Betnie Bakes, was on the show as well, and she talked about one of the challenges. The team made a giant cake that resembled a mountain that had snow on it, along with elves on sleds and reindeer. Santa Claus was there, too. Davis told the publication, "We used 70 layers of cake. That was definitely the hardest challenge, but I think we killed it."
According to Wpkyonline.com, Cathy Lewis has a business called Cathy's Confections and she joined the team the Ginger Snappers. While on the show, she made Kentucky bourbon sugar cookies.
Lewis also spoke to Timesleader.net about being on Holiday Wars. She said that Sugar Delicious does the casting for Food Network and they contacted her because of her bakery and wanted to see if she would try to be on the series. She said that her team had one artist focusing on sugar and three cake artists.
She explained, "I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to cake and you have to let that go when you're under a time crunch so it was definitely a unique experience." She continued, "I basically make all my cakes by myself and I was working with a team on the show. It's a whole different feel when you're used to being in charge of all the cakes you do and having to share that with two other people and have various opinions made for a different experience for sure."
Who doesn't want to get cozy on the couch and watch teams compete to make the most delicious and beautiful holiday treats? Holiday Wars sounds like the perfect show to binge this holiday season.