Gifts are great. Spending time with family is fun. But the holidays just wouldn’t be the holidays without fresh-baked treats.

You can go about your hectic holiday routine and leave all that baking to the talented professionals in your neighborhood. Every year, NEPA’s bake shops churn out thousands of Christmas cookie trays, pumpkin pies, cupcakes, paczkis, kolache and poppy rolls. And that list only scratches the surface.

If you’re looking for something specific, there’s a bakery out there that can make it. You only have to plan ahead. Don’t show up on Christmas Eve looking for last-minute chocolate chip cookies or cannolis, because it’s likely you’ll end up with a fruitcake.

You can walk into any of our fantastic bakeries and find that perfect pastry or pie, but if you’re looking for true local specialties, you’ll have to do a little digging.

No holiday spread is complete without cookies.

You probably remember helping mom with the Christmas cookies. There was flour everywhere, and just about every bowl, spice and spoon in the kitchen was pulled out. From classic cut-outs to elegantly decorated masterpieces, the reward for all that hard work was a couple of cookie trays that disappeared faster than they cooled.

Keep those cookie supply lines replenished with the help of these local bakeries.

Every Christmas dessert table has its cookies, pies and pastries, but without decadent cakes and cupcakes, is it really even a dessert table? Local sweet shops have taken the national cupcake craze and run with it. Whether you’re looking for classic creations like red velvet or off-the-wall flavors like eggnog, these cake and cupcake experts have it all.

Every Christmas, we’re exposed to almost too much great food. We go from turkey, ham and kielbasa to plate after plate of delicious sweets. We often pay little mind to every meal’s unsung hero: the bread. Not the squishy, bagged stuff from the grocery store – real, fresh-baked bread. And as for those bagels, I’ll see you in line at Bakery Delite in Wilkes-Barre.