The "Louvre" Bûche de Noël at Payard.   (Photo: Courtesy of Payard)

Panettone
Grandaisy Bakery, 73 Sullivan St., nr. Spring St.; 212-334-9435
• Small, $15; large, $25
You can buy imported boxes of the Italian sweet bread, but Grandaisy has already started making their version with raisins, citron, and honey, available through January.

Bûche de Noël
Payard Patisserie & Bistro, 1032 Lexington Ave., nr. 73rd St.; 212-717-5252
• For four people, $26; for six, $39; for eight, $52; for ten, $65
François Payard offers four flavor mélanges for the log-shaped French Christmas cake: Montmartre (mascarpone, strawberry, and almond); Louvre (chocolate and hazelnut); Piémont (hazelnut, milk chocolate, and salted caramel), and the Bagatelle (chestnuts and mandarin orange).

Pan de Cádiz
Despaña, 408 Broome St., nr. Cleveland Pl.; 212-219-5050
• $23
These marzipan holiday cakes traditionally come shaped like little animals, and this highbrow Spanish grocer sells a piglet made with Marcona almonds, cinnamon, and glazed chunks of sweet potato and watermelon.

Stollen
Café Sabarsky, 1048 Fifth Ave., nr. 86th St.; 212-288-0665
• $17
Kurt Gutenbrunner ate this traditional German dried-fruit-studded bread flavored with dark spices every Christmas when he was a child in Austria and will carry it at all three of his restaurants—Sabarsky, Wallsé, and Blaue Gans—for the holidays.

Related:

• Archive: “Food Features”
• Articles by Alexandra Vallis