From Europe’s bakeries to the world: the journey of classic holiday desserts and pastries
December 08, 2025
Every holiday season, pastry shops across Europe begin preparing for a surge that’s as predictable as it is intense. Seasonal desserts, chocolate creations and decorated pastries start taking shape weeks—sometimes months—before they ever appear in a store case. What most consumers never see is the intense planning, strict temperature control and tightly timed logistics required to move those delicate products from bakery kitchens in Europe to holiday tables around the world.
For many of those shipments, Lineage plays a behind-the-scenes role, holding product at the right temperature, preparing it for transport and helping keep everything moving ahead of the festivities.
Download the full Journey of Holiday Desserts
Crafted in Europe by pastry masters
The journey begins in some of Europe’s most recognizable pastry regions—France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and beyond—where seasonal baking traditions run deep. In the weeks leading up to the holidays, these bakeries move at a breakneck pace. Their days are spent shaping croissants, tempering chocolate, filling tarts and finishing pastries one by one.
They still perform much of the work by hand. Dough is folded slowly, glazes are applied carefully and decorations are precisely placed. These products aren’t made for everyday demand; they’re created for a narrow seasonal window when presentation, texture and flavor matter just as much as volume for these traditional treats.
Preserving freshness in deep-freeze cold storage
Once production is complete, preservation becomes the next variable. Many holiday desserts are produced well in advance of peak demand, which makes stable cold storage a requirement.
Finished products move into deep-freeze cold storage at Lineage facilities in Rotterdam, Vejle and Harnes, where temperatures are held at a consistent -18°C. At that range, these delicacies can be preserved for extended periods of time without sacrificing texture, structure or flavor.
This step protects everything that comes before it—the layered creams, the fruit fillings, the delicate pastry work—while giving producers room to scale for peak season without rushing product straight into market.
Inside these facilities, you’ll find everything from pavlova bases and layered cakes to pallets of boxed pastries staged and waiting for release.
Packing and palletizing desserts for holiday delivery
As customer orders begin to flow in, warehouse teams transition from storage to staging. Products are picked, checked and packed according to shipment requirements; sometimes for short regional moves, sometimes for international distribution.
The delicate nature of these holiday products becomes a logistical factor at this stage of the cold chain. Pastries can’t absorb impact the way many frozen foods can. Packaging must protect against vibration, shifting pallets and long transit times without damaging the pastries or sacrificing temperature control.
After the packing’s done, the team lifts the boxes onto pallets so the desserts can be staged for their upcoming shipment.
Integrated transportation and smooth customs clearance
The holidays don’t leave much room for error. Orders stack up, trucks fill fast and delivery windows tighten as the season gets closer. That means transportation plans have to hit their marks while still leaving space to react when something shifts. Whether it’s a delay at a port, a surge in demand or a weather issue popping up along the route, the team has to be able to adapt quickly to keep everything on schedule.
Lineage’s integrated solutions team works through those moving parts, choosing the best way to move each shipment based on how quickly it needs to travel and where it’s headed. And when products have to cross borders, our freight forwarding and customs specialists step in to sort out the paperwork and clearances that keep freight from getting held up.
During the holiday rush, those behind-the-scenes steps matter more than anyone realizes. They’re often what decide whether a shipment hits the shelf in time for the season or misses the window completely.
Final destination: shops, bakeries and distribution centers
Once the shipments are on the move, they make their way to the places where holiday buying really happens: from distribution centers and supermarket back rooms to local bakeries and specialty shops, getting ready for the December rush.
Lineage’s foodservice teams support customers who supply cafes, restaurants and in-store bakery programs, making sure those outlets receive the right mix of products throughout the season. Some desserts go straight out to the floor. Others are thawed or finished on-site, depending on what the brand prefers. Panettones, yule logs and Swiss roll cakes start popping up in displays, reminding shoppers that the holidays are closing in.
What looks effortless on the shelf is the result of the months of planning, preparation and coordination behind the scenes.
Keeping festive flavors fresh through the season
The journey may look simple on the shelf, and it’s easy for consumers to take the long journeys for granted, but a lot happens before a holiday dessert reaches a shopper’s hands. Bakers bring the craft and tradition and logistics teams keep everything moving at the right temperature and at the right time.
Lineage’s part sits quietly in the middle, protecting the products, keeping schedules intact and making sure those seasonal favorites show up when people expect them.
