Holiday Wars - General Discussion

[Rammchick]

3 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

I think the team that made the honey badger was sent home. I can’t remember their names either!

Thank you! And yes, whatever their name is, they did have the worst piece.

[SemiCharmedLife]

Hopefully this hasn't been discussed before:

I'm assuming the teams get the theme and special ingredients before filming.  Why do they get together and "decide" what to make?  Judging from the things they bring with them, structures, lighting, etc, the plans have already been made.  I do think the twist might be a surprise, since the results haven't been stellar, in most cases.  

[Spunkygal]

Pretty good episode! It was evident early on that the Victorian Santa would win. It was a gorgeous creation. They could have served sawdust cake and won.

Stone Age Santa was really good. I didn’t agree with the criticism of the “elephantine “ hand. He’s a Neanderthal for goodness sake! His hand hadn’t evolved yet! 🙄 Loved the writing on the rock. 

Medieval Santa was also really amazing. It looked like the dragon was truly flying over the castle. Since it was a foregone conclusion that Victorian Santa would win, they had to nit pick about the sword being hidden. Eh, it could have been placed better, but the rest of the piece made up for that ding, IMO. And Jeff going on and on about the “caboose” — shut up Jeff. 

I liked where the 60s Santa theme was going. Too bad that the beetle looked so rough. And I didn’t mind that Santa had on an orange shirt and blue jeans. Debbie Downer (Aarti) said they should have used the traditional red/green colors on him. WTH? Couldn’t she have said that about all the other teams? What was the point of creating a Santa evocative of the assigned timeframe if they have to use traditional colors? She works my last nerve. What has she ever done? Yes, compared to the other teams, they should be sent home but they had good ideas and elements. That guitar was gorgeous. 

[mojoween]

60’s Santa should have been the easiest, but all three of them acted like they had never seen anything from the 60’s before.

When they first showed the Middle Ages drawing I thought it was a triceratops and could not figure out where they were going with it.  They were going for nice, but a red dragon would have been so cool.

[Guest]

Not sure what the purpose was of that little bit at the beginning where Christine from Yule-igans (Stone Age) was talking about how she worked with Erin from Rebels Without a Clause (Victorian) and that Erin was a great mentor. I thought it might be setting up them being in the bottom two or both in the running for this episode's winner, but that didn't come to pass. Was it just foreshadowing Erin's team's win this episode? A future showdown between those two teams in the finale? It was such a random thing to throw in there.

[libgirl2]

6 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

Pretty good episode! It was evident early on that the Victorian Santa would win. It was a gorgeous creation. They could have served sawdust cake and won.

Stone Age Santa was really good. I didn’t agree with the criticism of the “elephantine “ hand. He’s a Neanderthal for goodness sake! His hand hadn’t evolved yet! 🙄 Loved the writing on the rock. 

Medieval Santa was also really amazing. It looked like the dragon was truly flying over the castle. Since it was a foregone conclusion that Victorian Santa would win, they had to nit pick about the sword being hidden. Eh, it could have been placed better, but the rest of the piece made up for that ding, IMO. And Jeff going on and on about the “caboose” — shut up Jeff. 

I liked where the 60s Santa theme was going. Too bad that the beetle looked so rough. And I didn’t mind that Santa had on an orange shirt and blue jeans. Debbie Downer (Aarti) said they should have used the traditional red/green colors on him. WTH? Couldn’t she have said that about all the other teams? What was the point of creating a Santa evocative of the assigned timeframe if they have to use traditional colors? She works my last nerve. What has she ever done? Yes, compared to the other teams, they should be sent home but they had good ideas and elements. That guitar was gorgeous. 

Yea, I really didn't want to hear about a dragon's "caboose". 

[RoxiP]

Erin on The Lost Kitchen uses rutabaga in a lot of dishes and it seems to go over well but I'm not sure I've ever seen her use it in a cake.

[Rammchick]

I loved the dragon's movement, but sorry, how can you say that depicted the Middle Ages?  Since when have dragons been real?

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, Rammchick said:

I loved the dragon's movement, but sorry, how can you say that depicted the Middle Ages?  Since when have dragons been real?

Because when the average person thinks of the Middle Ages, they think of fairy tales, Robin Hood, and Monty Python. The actual historical nature of the Middle Ages (which is not some homogenous monolith but at least 9 centuries of evolving history) is not something a lot of people think about or are even familiar with.

So Middle Ages = knights = dragons. Boom, we're done!

[SemiCharmedLife]

These teams are finding their stride.  I thought they all did amazing things this episode.  Sometimes the cakes can be clunky, messy or falling apart, but these teams are very talented and have mastered the challenge of the time limit.  I agree that the VW was not finessed, and that team was the least successful (though the color scheme was evocative of the 60's, so no fault there.)

I thought the Victorian Santa was stunning and am happy for their win.  They are very artistic with their sculpting and colors.  I also loved the other two cakes- the judges were knit-picking, in my opinion, because the designs were so good.

[Spunkygal]

I’m watching a rerun of HW from 2019. Jonathan Bennett is host ❤️ and Shinmin and Jason Smith are judges. I had forgotten about Jason! He used to be a judge on all the FN baking competitions after his successful Holiday Baking Championship appearance. In the Spunky household, he was affectionately referred to as Cornpone but it wasn’t meant in a mean way. Heck honey, we’re southern too! I wish they’d bring him back and forget Aarti. 

[MerBearHou]

31 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

I’m watching a rerun of HW from 2019. Jonathan Bennett is host ❤️ and Shinmin and Jason Smith are judges. I had forgotten about Jason! He used to be a judge on all the FN baking competitions after his successful Holiday Baking Championship appearance. In the Spunky household, he was affectionately referred to as Cornpone but it wasn’t meant in a mean way. Heck honey, we’re southern too! I wish they’d bring him back and forget Aarti. 

Wonder where Jason is??  We haven’t seen him on FN in awhile.  I like him, even if he is a bit heightened at times with his country-fied persona.  But with him, it seems pretty close to genuine.  

[RoxiP]

13 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

Wonder where Jason is??  We haven’t seen him on FN in awhile.  I like him, even if he is a bit heightened at times with his country-fied persona.  But with him, it seems pretty close to genuine.  

Found this on a Google search regarding Jason (Smith):

What happened to Jason from Holiday Baking Championship?

A self-taught chef and baker who previously competed on and won Food Network's Holiday Baking Championship, Jason shows viewers you don't have to be a professional chef to cook delicious food. He's currently a judge on Best Baker in America and Worst Bakers in America.

He and Adam are two of my favorite past champions.

[Guest]

It seems like a match-up between these two teams in the finale has been inevitable for awhile. Yule-igans are so stinkin' cute I hope they win.

Can we officially retire the "I don't like it....I love it!" fakeout?

[mlp]

The right team went home.  I can't imagine why they had the poor judgment to decide to make a "tree" that required 52 of anything let alone 52 rice cereal bones covered in fondant.  They knew how much time they would have to get everything done.  Their final display didn't even make sense.

I wish they'd replace Aarti next year.  I usually like her but she's just not a good fit for this show.  It often sounds to me like Shinmin doesn't agree with her and is trying to smooth over the negativity.  

[Spunkygal]

The right team won by a mile but I loved all three cakes. I guess I thought the dog bone cake was cuter than the judges thought. Heck, extra credit to sugar guy for doing all those beautiful lights! And I was practically raised on corn chips so loved the sound of the flavor combo. But wow, Charlie decorating the baseball bat tree was perfection! Those baseballs were perfection. I disagreed that the pumpkin cake wasn’t holiday-ish enough. They had plenty of decorations to evoke a holiday feel. It was obvious weeks ago that they were setting up an Erin vs. protege (forgot her name) showdown. 

I mute every time a judge comes up to interrupt and waste the contestants’ time. It really annoys me. I also mute every time the three judges are off to the side discussing the creations. Is next Sunday really the final? Seems like this is concluding a week too soon. 

[mojoween]

I am shocked - SHOCKED - that the finale is coming down to that girl vs. her mentor.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

I disagreed that the pumpkin cake wasn’t holiday-ish enough. They had plenty of decorations to evoke a holiday feel.

Yeah, that was kind of irritating and smacked of the usual "we need to find negative things to say for everyone to create suspense, even if there isn't really anything wrong with it." If it was some other theme and they randomly used a bunch of jack o'lanterns, I could see some skepticism. But this was Linus, devotee of the Great Pumpkin, for crying out loud. It was totally in character and fit the "Peanuts characters decorating something other than a tree" theme perfectly.

And after the judges had praised all the sugar work for that team (the star, the pumpkin vines), then Jeff is all "but I wanted to see MORE sugar work! The lights should have been sugar, too...and LIT UP! Then it REALLY would have been Christmas!" Ugh.

Let's see...I should say something nice to balance my criticism and create some suspense...I thought Aarti looked nice this week.

[Spunkygal]

Aarti did look nice this week and I STILL miss the fruit carvers! 

[Grizzly]

On 12/5/2022 at 9:38 AM, Spunkygal said:

Aarti did look nice this week 

Maybe it's in the contract that one of the women must look awful. I hated Shinmin's outfit. Made her look slutty. The cakes were all good and sounded delicious (I do have childish tastebuds). I thought they would have a hard time deciding which of the 2 to send home. Snoopy proportion was wrong, made him fall up. I liked Hunter but he showed his immaturity in this ep.

[Rammchick]

On 12/5/2022 at 6:22 AM, tracyscott76 said:

Yeah, that was kind of irritating and smacked of the usual "we need to find negative things to say for everyone to create suspense, even if there isn't really anything wrong with it." If it was some other theme and they randomly used a bunch of jack o'lanterns, I could see some skepticism. But this was Linus, devotee of the Great Pumpkin, for crying out loud. It was totally in character and fit the "Peanuts characters decorating something other than a tree" theme perfectly.

I loved the movement they got in Linus' blanket.  It really looked like he was snapping it.

[HyeChaps]

All of the faces were cute and accurate. 
i remember on a Buddy vs. Duff episode how neither got the faces right. 

[Guest]

Not the final result I was hoping for, but I can't really dispute the outcome. The Mrs. Claus tightrope display was pretty darn good. I liked the snowman, too, but I see why Mrs. Claus won. What I don't see was what Aarti was going on about with the snowman display, saying something was missing like a palm tree or sand. The snowman wasn't supposed to actually be in the tropics, he was just trying to bring some of the tropics to the North Pole. That was silly.

Abby the sugar artist from Yule-igans is a sweetheart 🥰

[mlp]

The snowman display looked really good from a distance but I could see the problems with the fondant close up.  The winning team had the best body of work over the whole competition so I was happy that they won despite the negative space.

[mojoween]

Yeah the comments during judging took away any suspense as to who the winner was going to be.  But I swear last night was the first time I saw the blonde lady on Rebels Without a Clause in my life.

If they keep this terrible format, I hope they ditch the over-acted shock when the twist noise goes off.

[Guest]

59 minutes ago, mojoween said:

But I swear last night was the first time I saw the blonde lady on Rebels Without a Clause in my life.

I noticed her...

[Rammchick]

It's the finale, and I finally knew what the two teams' names were 😏 They just didn't register throughout the competition.

Do you think Yule-igans, or however it was spelled, intended to make Olaf from Frozen, even if no one mentioned it?

[RoxiP]

1 hour ago, Rammchick said:

It's the finale, and I finally knew what the two teams' names were 😏 They just didn't register throughout the competition.

Do you think Yule-igans, or however it was spelled, intended to make Olaf from Frozen, even if no one mentioned it?

I wondered the same thing - that was a dead ringer for Olaf.  Maybe all snowmen look alike?

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, RoxiP said:

1 hour ago, Rammchick said:

It's the finale, and I finally knew what the two teams' names were 😏 They just didn't register throughout the competition.

Do you think Yule-igans, or however it was spelled, intended to make Olaf from Frozen, even if no one mentioned it?

I wondered the same thing - that was a dead ringer for Olaf.  Maybe all snowmen look alike?

I'm guessing it was either unintentional on the team's part but their subconscious made it look like Olaf, or it was a "chocolate sandwich cookie/rice cereal treat" brand name thing, i.e. they meant it to be Olaf but the Disney Overlords wouldn't let his name be used without someone's firstborn in exchange.

[Rammchick]

4 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

I'm guessing it was either unintentional on the team's part but their subconscious made it look like Olaf, or it was a "chocolate sandwich cookie/rice cereal treat" brand name thing, i.e. they meant it to be Olaf but the Disney Overlords wouldn't let his name be used without someone's firstborn in exchange.

That's what I wondered.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I'm watching the 2021 contest, and it's amazing how many of the competitors are from other shows.   

[RoxiP]

I think the snowman piece could have been refined if she had made it overall look more textured...she event commented that snowmen have texture so that's how she justified the rough texture on part of the snowman, but if she had "textured" the rest of the snowman then the results might have been better for them.

[SemiCharmedLife]

I had this episode set to record and watched it last night.  The recording cut off right before the winner was announced!  I came here to get the results, so thank you!  😊

Both pieces were outstanding, but I think Rebels edged out Yule-igans with their perfect finishing touches and more complex main character.  Also, they had a wonderful track record, so I'm glad they took home the prize.  

I personally prefer this version over Halloween Wars because HW has really focused on the scary/horror aspects lately.  I know that is the main theme of Halloween, but I enjoy the "cute" aspects, as well.

[Spunkygal]

Please, FN, we are loving have Jonathan back as host of Halloween Wars. I hope you do the right thing and have him back on Holiday Wars! 

[RealityCheck]

A new season of HOLIDAY WARS premieres Sunday, November 5th at 9pm ET/PT with host Jeff Mauro and judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira.

[Spunkygal]

9 hours ago, RealityCheck said:

A new season of HOLIDAY WARS premieres Sunday, November 5th at 9pm ET/PT with host Jeff Mauro and judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira.

I’ll watch but I can’t stand Jeff. Guess FN didn’t read my post above. 🙁🙁

[Grizzly]

The displays are smaller than for Halloween Wars. And they got a baking assistant. So why were the finished pieces so uninspiring? The bakery scene was clearly the best.

Second hour, second time they showed teams having conflict. Hope that's not the theme for the season. I liked both the bull and the scuba diving. The sugar work on the backdrop for scuba was absolutely beautiful! Wish they hadn't covered it up so much.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Grizzly

[libgirl2]

As I was watching repeats of Holiday Baking Championship, I noticed Aaron is on one of these teams. 

[mojoween]

Anna escaped a WAR ZONE and somehow her teammate made it all about her.

Was hoping Pege who hates bugs and figs and vinegar was going to go home, so of course they had the best display.

The first competition was so much more Christmasy.  Abominable Snowman?  Really?  And in that challenge the host said they were an hour and a half in, but the clock onscreen showed a half hour.  Odd.

Was Bonnie who made the bull on Halloween Wars once?  She looked familiar.

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Anna escaped a WAR ZONE and somehow her teammate made it all about her.

Yeah, that was unfortunate.

55 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Was Bonnie who made the bull on Halloween Wars once?  She looked familiar.

She looked familiar to me, too. She's Bonne Bedingfield and was on Halloween Wars 2 years ago (the first Zak season). Not sure if she made a bull, but in googling her I did see a photo of a wendigo her team made - also a large, horned creature.

(Lol I reread your comment and realize now that you weren't asking if Bonne also made a bull on Halloween Wars, just if she had been on Halloween Wars - so my statement about the wendigo doesn't make much sense 😆)

Edited November 6, 2023 by tracyscott76
Read twice, post once

[mlp]

The characters displayed by the team that lost in the first hour were the worst I can remember seeing since this show began.  I was surprised the judges weren't more critical.  Maybe they felt that sending them home was criticism enough.

I'm not sure what an abominable snowman riding a bull has to do with the holidays but it did turn out a lot better than I expected it would.  There seemed to be friction on all the teams in the second hour.  I hope that stops.

[Snarkastikate]

Was hoping Jonathan would be hosting, that was a little disappointing . it was so good to see him back on Halloween Wars. (But I do miss the laughing evil jack-o'-lantern at the start of the show). 

Geez the quality of the displays still seems a tad lacking - it's not like it was back in the pre-covid days.  I'm not a big Aarti fan, there's just something about her that rubs me the wrong way. Not everyone likes everyone, so whatever.   She just did a stint on Halloween Wars, can't they let someone else take a turn?  The show loves to manufacture unnecessary drama. Teamwork friction & by Aarti & Shinmin's over the top reactions to everything.  Comes across as fake.  

[Spunkygal]

This season is going to be a slog for me. Jeff as host? No thanks. Aarti yet again? No thanks. Below par teams? No thanks. Stupid themes? No thanks. And yet, here I am again. Looking for a needle in a haystack, hoping for at least one enjoyable hour. This is one of the worst starts I can recall. Other than that….happy holidays!! 🤣🤣

[Maverick]

 I always watch the later showing of Food Network shows.  Lately they've been starting the Sunday second showing at 1 am instead of midnight, instead showing a rerun of something from last year at midnight.  I have no  idea why they made such a stupid decision.   It's bad enough starting at 1 on a regular week but it's ridiculous on a 2 hour week. 

 Since I missed the second episode, I'm not sure how they framed it for the challenge, but the Abominable Snowman was part of the Island of Misfit Toys Rudolph Christmas special.  Guess y'all are too young to know about that.  Now get off my snow covered lawn!

 Why are there assistant here but not on Halloween?   Whoever is setting up the format of these isn't taking their meds regularly.

 I'm so over Aarti.  I love Shinmen but I'd even welcome a different pair of judges altogether.   It's just a long run of them and their critiques / styles, especially with them being the only judges.  At least with Carla going from Halloween to Christmas there are two different judges as well as a different host. 

[Spunkygal]

@Maverick No! I won’t get off your snow covered lawn! /stomps feet/ The first airing of Rudolph was in 1964 and I was front and center for it then and have watched it every single year since. Yes, I am that old. 🤣🤣🤣  I know every word, every movement of those adorable claymation figures and my sister and I still get together every year to watch it. We sing every song together and bask in the happy memories that the show brings. I miss the Norelco commercial that they used to show with it every year. An electric shaver sliding down a snowy hill on its own! Who wouldn’t want that for Christmas?

I didn’t mind the abominable snowman theme but didn’t care for the different country aspect. It would have been cool if someone had incorporated a misfit toy in their creation to tie it back to the Rudolph special. It was all underwhelming. 

[libgirl2]

14 hours ago, mlp said:

The characters displayed by the team that lost in the first hour were the worst I can remember seeing since this show began.  I was surprised the judges weren't more critical.  Maybe they felt that sending them home was criticism enough.

I'm not sure what an abominable snowman riding a bull has to do with the holidays but it did turn out a lot better than I expected it would.  There seemed to be friction on all the teams in the second hour.  I hope that stops.

There were awful. Santa had no hand, Mrs. Claus's hair looked like a pancake on her head. 

At least in the second hour, every team did pretty well. I did agree with the one guy that the background needed to be darker. Which is just what the judges said! 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

At least in the second hour, every team did pretty well. I did agree with the one guy that the background needed to be darker. Which is just what the judges said! 

It's almost as if the judges were given a heads-up about things that happened in the course of the challenge so they could comment on it and look more perceptive! But of course that would never happen.

I've clung to my general like of Shinmin and Aarti for as long as I can...but launching into this right after Halloween Wars, I just can't with this duo anymore and tune them out. The plus side is that I'm also tuning out Jeff so I have no idea if he's being annoying or not. I literally could not tell you one thing he said the whole 2 hours.

[mlp]

8 hours ago, Spunkygal said:

I didn’t mind the abominable snowman theme but didn’t care for the different country aspect.

I think that was my problem with it.  I'm certainly familiar with the Rudolph/Christmas connection.  In fact, my older daughter (who is now 57 y/o) has collected abominable snowmen for years.  A few years ago, I bought one for her that winds up and walks around on the floor singing.  Her dog is afraid of it.  LOL  Anyhow, I didn't like them in settings where they didn't belong.

[Spunkygal]

41 minutes ago, mlp said:

I think that was my problem with it.  I'm certainly familiar with the Rudolph/Christmas connection.  In fact, my older daughter (who is now 57 y/o) has collected abominable snowmen for years.  A few years ago, I bought one for her that winds up and walks around on the floor singing.  Her dog is afraid of it.  LOL  Anyhow, I didn't like them in settings where they didn't belong.

Forgot to mention that many years ago…many…..when I was in my 20s or 30s, my sister got me a collection of many of the figures from the Rudolph special. I got a roll of that fake snow stuff at a craft store and cut it to the size I wanted and got a few miniature Evergreen trees (about 5” or 6” tall) and placed the characters strategically. I also got a small round mirror that I put down for a pond and have Rudolph and Clarice cozied up there. It’s so cute! 

[Guest]

Were they doing that slow-motion effect last week? If they were, I didn't notice it.

The judges were really trying to sell a "oh they were fighting but now they're all getting along and working together" narrative for the team that ultimately got eliminated, but I wasn't buying it. That was an awkward situation all the way through to the end. Part of it was no doubt spokesperson Parker's relative youth and inexperience causing her to freak out a bit, but it didn't help when the one lady ran to the other like a middle-schooler, all "omg did you see how she tried to micromanage you??" Ick.