'The Great British Baking Show: Holidays' is a Festive Return to the Tent

The problem with a weekly series with a hardcore fanbase is that in time, every season ends. How does one convert these viewers into staying the course and tuning in every week even after the show is over? There's no easy answer for those who air the once-a-year The Great British Baking Show. Channel 4 is trying The Great Australian Baking Show to see how the popular down under spinoff edition flies in the U.K. For Netflix, it's better to let us down easy, with a double-entry arrival of The Great British Baking Show: Holidays.

As always, this two-episode special edition is 11 months old, comprised of the Christmas and New Year's specials from December 2020. (Since Netflix wants its holiday specials to stream before the holiday itself, this is how it has to work.) But though these episodes are merely "new to us" (and do not match what the official Twitter feed is advertising as the specials for 2021), that doesn't make them any less delightful. Think of it as Netflix's version of Masterpiece tacking on the Christmas specials for Downton Abbey or All Creatures Great And Small to function as a season finale.

Last year, there was a vast difference between the Holiday editions and the regular season, as one was post-pandemic and the other from the before times. This season also has differences, especially The Great Christmas Baking Show, which Noel Fielding sat out due to paternity leave. In his stead, host Tom Allen joined the tent from GBBO: An Extra Slice, which Netflix does not carry. (If this is the first you are hearing of Extra Slice, please seek it out, it's delightful.) But perhaps the most significant difference from Holiday specials past is that, due to the Bakeoff Bubble, the Christmas episode was filmed directly after Series 11 (Collection 8), making it a very summer-looking holiday special.