Clinton native crowned champion of Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge
By Taylor McKay Hathorn
Over three years ago, Clinton High School grad Beth Hennington convinced her husband to don a Santa costume and guest-star in her video pitch to the Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge. Hennington’s husband cautioned the judges that they’d go on the naughty list for failing to select his wife to compete in the championship, and they heeded his warning, selecting Hennington to appear on their hour-long special, hosted by “Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond.
Her journey to the studio began much earlier, however, as Hennington fondly remembers baking with her mother as a child. Eventually, her hobby became a profession, when she relocated from Birmingham, Alabama, back to the metro area.
“My daughter Jessica owns a 3D-printed cookie cutter shop in Tuscaloosa,” Hennington says. “She got me started on cookies, and I told her I needed a cool name.”
Eventually, she settled on “The Vanillan,” and she called on her time growing up in Clinton when she began decorating her baked goods.
“I took a class at MC from Wyatt Waters when I was a teenager,” she remembers. “That was before Wyatt was ‘Wyatt.’” The watercolorist’s lessons stuck with her, and Hennington began adorning her cookies. “Art has always been my life, and the cookies fit,” the baker acknowledges.
Food Network took notice of her artistic creations, and she received a call-back late last year to appear on the Christmas Cookie Challenge, after undergoing what she called a “very rigorous interview process” during which over 10,000 American bakers were whittled down to just forty, to appear across eight filmed episodes. Hennington’s episode was filmed in March, which the baker says did not dampen her Christmas spirit at all.
“I love it,” she enthuses about her holiday-themed baking. “I could do it year-round.”
Although getting in the Christmas spirit was easy, Hennington says that the competition itself was tough.
“It was the worst-best thing I’ve ever done,” she laughs. “I feel like I’m good under pressure, but it was stressful. But I’m a fast decorator, because I’ve been doing it for so long, and it was a great experience.”
Hennington’s stress paid off, though, as she survived multiple elimination rounds to eventually be crowned champion and take home the ten-thousand-dollar cash prize.
But then a new stressor began: keeping the secret.
“I’m not a good secret-keeper, and neither is my mother,” Hennington jokes. “I don’t know how I kept the secret – well, yes, I do. I know exactly how: I was under contract.”
Her silence was finally broken when her episode aired in late November, for which Hennington hosted a watch party with roughly seventy attendees at the home of Paul and Sherry Snow.
“You could not hear,” Hennington says of her guests’ reaction to her being crowned champion. “It was so loud. The whole show had been an interactive experience.”
Her win became a little sweeter when she got a phone call from one of her fellow contestants, congratulating her on her win – along with his entire watch party.
“That was so cool,” Hennington says.
Now that her secret is out, Hennington plans to donate some of her winnings to the Salvation Army and to the Central Mississippi Down Syndrome Society, where she’s long decorated cookies with kids, even doing so via Zoom during the pandemic.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers interested in creating some of Beth Hennington’s award-winning bakes themselves can find her recipes online at www.TheVanillan.com, and social media users can follow her on Instagram @thevanillan. The episode featuring Hennington is called “Crafty Christmas” and can be viewed on Food Network on December 24 at 9 p.m. and December 25 at midnight, as well as on demand on Discovery+.
